COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE MONITORING OF RAINFED WATERSHEDS APPLYING GIS AND RS TECHNIQUES * ARUN W. DHAWALE (Corresponding Author) Assistant Prof. in Civil Engineering AISSMS’S IOIT, KENNEDY ROAD, PUNE - 411001 (INDIA) email: awdhawale2009@gmail.com DR. P. B. ULLAGADDI Prof. in Civil Water Management SGGSIT&T NANDED (INDIA) email: prabhu1267@gmail.com ABSTRACT Under the watershed development project of the Ministry of Rural Development, many micro watersheds have been identified for development and management. However Government is handicapped in obtaining data on the performance of these programmes due to the absence of watershed performance studies. Rainfed agriculture is clearly critical to agricultural performance in India. Nonetheless, it is difficult to precisely quantify the overall importance of the sector. The widely quoted statistic is that 70% of cultivated area is rainfed, implying that rainfed agriculture is more important than irrigated agriculture. In the present study two rainfed micro-watersheds namely Kolvan valley and Darewadi is taken as case study for performance monitoring using GIS and RS Techniques. An attempt has been made to highlight the role of GIS and RS in estimation of runoff from both the watersheds by SCS curve number method. The methodology developed for the research show that the knowledge extracted from proposed approach can remove the problem of performance monitoring of micro watersheds to great extent. Comparative performance of both micro watersheds having extreme rainfall conditions shows that in Darewadi micro watershed overall success rate is more than Kolvan valley. KEYWORDS: Rainfed, Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), Monitoring, Comparative Performance. 1. 0 INTRODUCTION India is well endowed with rainfall and is one of the wettest countries in the world with annual precipitation estimated at around 400 millions hectare-meters; however a vast area of the country is drought prone. The arid and semi arid regions of India covering 53.9% of the geographical area are drought areas. To evaluate the impact of watershed development activities, there is no common scale to assess the natural resources that influence the end result. Rainfed agriculture is clearly critical to agricultural performance in India. Nonetheless, it is difficult to precisely quantify the overall importance of the sector. The widely quoted statistic is that 70% of cultivated area is rainfed, implying that rainfed agriculture is more important than irrigated agriculture. For un-gauged watersheds accurate prediction of the quantity of runoff from land surface into rivers and streams requires much effort and time. In this study SCS CN modified for Indian condition has been used for generation of runoff of the watershed. But this information is essential in dealing with watershed development and management problems. Remote sensing technology can augment the conventional method to a great extent in rainfall-runoff studies. To carry out resource monitoring and assessment of area of interest, Arun W. Dhawale et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST) ISSN : 0975-5462 Vol. 4 No.03 March 2012 1132