26-Jul-2021: Water Resources Atlas for India

The ‘River Basin Atlas of India’ is an outcome of joint project ‘Generation of Database and implementation of Web Enabled Water Resources Information System (India-WRIS) in the country’, was published in 2012 by the Central Water Commission (CWC) and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). This is a comprehensive publication which gives detailed information of major water resources projects along with the location of all hydrological observation sites including major dams, barrages etc. in all the river basins of India.

‘Watershed Atlas of India’, published in 2014 is one of the outcomes under India-WRIS project using large scale drainage network, Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and other ancillary data. It depicts distribution of water-sheds in basins and sub-basins of the country along with its major water resource assets, hydrological observatories, terrain characteristics, rainfall variability and land use / land cover. These atlases are available at website: https://indiawris.gov.in/wris/#/atlas.

CWC with support from National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Hyderabad, has carried out the study namely ‘Reassessment of Water Availability in India Using Space Inputs’ in 2019 utilizing the latest space based inputs like Land Use Land Cover maps from NRSC and Precipitation & Temperature datasets from Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).

Further, National Water Informatics Centre (NWIC) was set up by the Government in March, 2018 to be the central repository of water resources data of the country. In-line with its mandate, NWIC is maintaining spatial, non-spatial, time-series and static hydro-meteorological data like rainfall, river water levels & discharge, ground water level, water quality, soil moisture, climatic, geological and other geomorphological data.

Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has taken up the National Aquifer Mapping and Management (NAQUIM) Programme for studying and mapping of aquifers and preparation of management plans. A National Inter-departmental Steering Committee (NISC) has been constituted for providing guidance in implementation of NAQUIM programme. In addition, a Central Level Expert Group (CLEG), chaired by Chairman, CGWB and having Joint Secretary Level Officers from relevant Ministries/Departments of Central Government, Secretaries from State Governments/UTs, as well as academicians/ professionals from IITs and other expert organizations involved in ground water sector  has been constituted by Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation for overall coordination of the assessment of ground water resources of the country by the CGWB jointly with the State/UT Departments.

6-Aug-2020: Ministry of Jal Shakti launches new version of India Water Resources Information System

The Ministry of Jal Shakti has launched a new version of the India Water Resources Information System (India-WRIS) with new functionalities and features. Open to the public, and accessible through the web portal www.indiawris.gov.in, this portal contains information related to Water Resources through dashboards for rainfall, water levels & discharge of rivers, water bodies, ground water levels, reservoir storages, evapotranspiration and soil moisture, as well as modules on water resources projects, water bodies, hydro-met data availability and tools for GIS layer editing.

Water is key to life and development. Judicious use of water resources assumes utmost importance, particularly when increasing population, urbanization and related development creates additional pressure on available resources. Good planning of any resource requires a strong data base and a reliable information system. To address this need, the Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS), under the National Hydrology Project, launched the first version of India Water Resources Information System (India-WRIS) in July, 2019. Since then, a number of new functionalities and features have been added into the system.

India WRIS is, at present, receiving data from many central and state agencies like CWC, CGWB, IMD, NRSC, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat etc. on regular basis. Data from other agencies is also being integrated into the system, so that it becomes a comprehensive platform for any data related to water and land resources. The MoJS has established a dedicated organization, National Water Informatics Centre (NWIC) to maintain and update India WRIS.

The basis for all hydro-met observation data is the Water Information Management System (WIMS). Through a secured login, Central and State Water Agencies can enter, analyse, validate and manage data for water level (Both Surface Water & Ground Water), flow, water quality, sediment and many climate parameters. The system includes time series data obtained through manual readings as well as telemetry data received by means of GPRS or satellite.

Through this portal, any stakeholder can visualize the information in a user friendly manner, as well download the information in the form of excel reports and graphs. The key features of the system are Water information easily made available to users and general public, for decision makers, water managers, farmers & experts, Direct access to hydro-met information from Central and State agencies, Real-time data available with one click, Variety of modules for different needs, Latest technologies, continuous development and improvement.

Various user groups can utilize the information as follow like farmers and farmer Welfare Associations can plan crops and cropping pattern based on the rainfall, water availability in storages and ground water aquifers and with changing times the associations can involve youth for utilizing the data appropriately as real time data is available on this web site. Individuals can use the data as per their requirement, to know the availability of water in their locality, ground water level, Level of water in the nearby river and such many facts. Planners and Administrators can utilize this data of their States, Basins for proper utilization of water and to reduce the impact of Flood and Drought. Decision support System (DSS) can be developed. Researchers can utilize the data for water related studies and Modelling purposes as the data frequency required for such studies is available.

19-Mar-2021: Mechanism for Prediction of Rainfall

Rainfall prediction is given in different time scales, i.e. seasonal forecast (for the whole season), extended range forecast (up to four weeks), short-medium range forecast (up to 7 days) and nowcasts (up to 3 hrs.). These forecasts are generated using state of the art weather prediction models based on mathematical equations and physics of atmosphere and oceans.

An improved suite of prediction models has already been implemented operationally at India Meteorological Department (IMD) for enhanced shortrange weather forecasting through assimilation of all available Indian and global satellite data in real time.

Since December 2016, IMD is using the Global Forecast System (GFS) and Unified model run at National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast (NCMRWF) operationally every day to generate deterministic forecasts at 12 km horizontal resolution in the short to medium range (up to 7 days). The GFS assimilates global conventional atmospheric data as well as the data from satellites and weather radars. There also exists a high resolution meso-scale model with 3 km resolution to provide location specific forecast.

In addition, a high resolution (12 km grid scale) state of the art Global Ensemble Prediction System (GEPS) namely Global Ensemble Forecasting System (GEFS) and Unified model Ensemble Prediction System (UMEPS) was commissioned on 01 June 2018 for generating operational probabilistic weather forecasts for 10 days. The GEPS has enhanced the weather information being provided by the current models by quantifying the uncertainties in the weather forecasts.

Under the National Monsoon Mission, MoES has implemented two state-of-the-art dynamical prediction systems for short range to medium, extended range and seasonal forecasts. All these initiatives have helped to improve the skill of monsoon rainfall forecasts over the country. Since 2017, IMD is using the Monsoon Mission dynamical model to prepare operational seasonal forecast of monsoon rainfall over India.

The above mentioned forecast systems will be improved further for better accuracy with the enhancement in observational systems and advancement in numerical modeling and efforts are on for this purpose. The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has invited proposals from research community for development of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) based tools & techniques for prediction of weather. Scientists at MOES are also involved in developing products based on AI and ML methods.

IMD has a shared mandate with Central Water Commission (CWC) for flood forecasting. River basin floods are dealt by the CWC. Flood Meteorological Offices (FMOs) operated by IMD provide meteorological support to the CWC for issuing flood warnings in respect of the 43 rivers of India covering 153 river basins. CWC issues flood forecasts for about 6 hrs. to 30 hrs. in advance for 176 stations using Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (QPF) received from FMOs of IMD and in-situ hydro-meteorological data.

In order to meet specific requirements of flood forecasting, which is provided by Central Water Commission (CWC), IMD operates Flood Meteorological Offices (FMOs) at thirteen locations viz., Agra, Ahmedabad, Asansol, Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jalpaiguri, Lucknow, New Delhi, Patna, Srinagar, Bengaluru and Chennai. Apart from this, IMD also supports Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) by providing Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (QPF) for Damodar river basin areas for their flood forecasting activities.

CWC is working in close association with IMD and State Governments for timely flood forecast whenever the river water level rises above warning level. In order to cater to the services of hydro-meteorological events occurring in short duration of time, IMD has implemented a Flash Flood Guidance System (FFGS) with the technical help from World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The weather forecasting and early warning systems in the country are comparable to most of the developed countries in the world. Efforts are continuously made to enhance the observational network and the level of efficiency of the forecasting systems based on latest technology including Satellite, Radar and numerical models. During the past few years, IMD has been continuously improving weather prediction services in terms of accuracy, lead time and associated impact.