Identifying Water Stressed Regions - A GIS Based District Level Analysis

摘要

Water resources have been under tremendous pressure since the very beginning of civilization. India is considered to be one of the wettest countries in the world which receives an average annual rainfall of about 4000 billion cubic meters (MoWR, 2003). However this enormous rainfall is not uniformly distributed across different parts of the country with most of the rainfall being confined to the monsoon period from June to September (CWC, 1998). As a result both droughts and floods are virtually annval features in several parts of the country. India being the second most populous country faces extreme pressure on its water resources in terms of demand and utilization. Over the years the per capita water availability has been declining in India making vulnerable to the water scarce conditions.