Hydrological Challenges in Riverfronts: A Case Study of Dravayawati Riverfront Project in Jaipur, Rajasthan Kedar Sharma and Priyanka Gupta Abstract A critical review about the challenges of riverfront projects in arid or semi- arid regions is present in the present study. Dravayawati Riverfront of Jaipur city is taken as a case study. Riverfronts are the new landscapes in the urban areas to utilize the undeveloped banks of the river reaches. Recently, Dravyavati, Gomti, Patna, Sabarmati and Yamuna riverfronts are some of the landscape projects developed in the various cities. As most of the rivers are either ephemeral (water is available only during monsoon period) or tapped for canal systems, the availability of freshwater is the major challenge. A 47 km long riverfront project was planned in Jaipur city on the banks of Dravayawati River. As Jaipur is located in the semi-arid part of the Rajasthan, the water is available for limited duration during the monsoon period. In this project, treated sewage water is the prime source of water. A concrete channel is constructed in the middle of river section and parks or some developments on both the banks. This ultimately reduces the possibility of groundwater recharge in a dark zone city. There are few more hydrologic challenges in the execution of the projects and discussed in the present study. The results of the present study may be useful for the policy makers, when such projects are planned in the arid and semi-arid part of the country. Keywords Riverfront · Urban development · Dravayawati riverfront 1 Introduction Riverfronts projects are the new landscape projects on the banks of rivers. Riverbanks, shoreline, riparian buffer and river habitats should be considered during the planning of a riverfront [1]. Ancient Ghats on holy rivers in India is also a type of riverfront. K. Sharma (B ) Department of Civil Engineering, JK Lakshmipat University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India e-mail: kedarsharma@jklu.edu.in P. Gupta Department of Civil Engineering, Swami Keshvanand Institute of Technology, Management & Gramothan, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 Y. A. Mehta et al. (eds.), Advances in Water Resources and Transportation Engineering, Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering 149, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1303-6_17 215