Handbook of Water Harvesting and Conservation

9Application of RS and GIS for Locating Rainwater Harvesting Structure Systems

Dhruvesh Patel¹, Dipak R. Samal², Cristina Prieto³, and Saeid Eslamian⁴

¹Department of Civil Engineering, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India, 382007

²Faculty of Technology, CEPT University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, 380009

³Environmental Hydraulics Institute, IH Cantabria, University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain

Department of Water Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran

9.1 Introduction

Water is an essential natural resource for sustaining life and the environment (Shinde and Gaikwad 2016). Water plays a vital role not only in fulfilling the basic human need for life and health, but also plays a vital role in socioeconomic development. As rainfall is the primary source of water, it becomes necessary for us to harvest it effectively so we can maximize the storage and minimize the wastage of rainwater (Prasad et al. 2014). Therefore, the natural resources like land and water are planned and managed within a naturally defined region called the watershed. In a watershed-based approach, soil and water conservation measures are considered to be effective when the excess rainfall or runoff is drained to a common outlet and controlled by various morphological parameters related to size, shape, and relief of the watershed (Saptarshi and Raghavendra 2009). The size of the watershed varies from few hectares to several square kilometers. According to the ...