SURVEY OF INDIA
Survey of India (SOI) finalised the bid bidding process for‘Acquisition, processing and delivery of DEM and digital Orthophoto data’ and issued letter of Acceptance to the successful firms. Through these contracts Survey of India would be delivering high resolution Digital Terrain Model for around 58000 sd. Km flood prone area in Ganga Basin. The vertical accuracy of the DTM would be better than 0.5 m.
Survey of India has also finalised the bidding process for ‘Providing Services for Generation of GIS ready database for river basins/deltas covering area of approximately 835742 sq. km’and would shortly issue letter of acceptance to the successful bidder. Through this endeavour, SOI would provide geodata base and mediumresolution DEM/DTM with vertical accuracy of 3-5 m flood prone area of about 8.27 lakh sq km.
GROUND WATER DEPARTMENT, GOVT OF TELANGANA
Visit by TAMC WQ expert: The TAMC Water Quality expert Dr.SrikanthRaghavacharry, visited the water quality laboratories at Hyderabad and Karimnagar on 15th & 16th April 2019. These laboratories can analyse up to 71 parameters. During his visit, the Director Dr.PandithMadhnure explained about the type of instruments available, different parameters that are tested and the process of analytical report generation. The expert verified the frequency of data sampling, the number of parameters analysed, reporting & data dissemination methods, maintenance of Lab documents, Historical Data and registers, Infrastructure, Space availability and Working conditions of the equipment in the laboratories. The TAMC Expert has expressed satisfaction for prevailing conditions in the laboratories and suggested for procurement of advanced laboratory equipment and supporting requirements. He also explained to the laboratories staffs about preparation of advanced scientific reports on groundwater quality trends, organization of training programmes on advanced methods on Microbiology analysis, quality control & documentation under NHP.
Visit by TAMC WQ expert: The TAMC Water Quality expert Dr.SrikanthRaghavacharry, visited the water quality laboratories at Hyderabad and Karimnagar on 15th & 16th April 2019. These laboratories can analyse up to 71 parameters. During his visit, the Director Dr.PandithMadhnure explained about the type of instruments available, different parameters that are tested and the process of analytical report generation. The expert verified the frequency of data sampling, the number of parameters analysed, reporting & data dissemination methods, maintenance of Lab documents, Historical Data and registers, Infrastructure, Space availability and Working conditions of the equipment in the laboratories. The TAMC Expert has expressed satisfaction for prevailing conditions in the laboratories and suggested for procurement of advanced laboratory equipment and supporting requirements. He also explained to the laboratories staffs about preparation of advanced scientific reports on groundwater quality trends, organization of training programmes on advanced methods on Microbiology analysis, quality control & documentation under NHP.
ANDHRA PRADESH, GROUND WATER
A study tour under National Hydrology Project has been organised for a 13 member team from Ground Water Surveys and Development Agency, Government of Maharashtra. They have visited Andhra Pradesh from 29th April to 3rd May-2019. In past 4-5 years, the Ground Water and Water Audit Department of Andhra Pradesh has adopted several best practices with an overarching objective to promote conjunctive use of surface and groundwater in the state. Establishment of Real-Time Groundwater Monitoring Network System with 1254 Piezometers fitted with Digital Water Level Recorders and Telemetry, collecting and disseminating the groundwater status along with rainfall on a real-time basis, geo-tagging of all the 15.03 lakh agriculture bore wells in the state by collecting the spatial information of the bore wells along with certain attributes, using historical data to identify feasible sites for the construction of 1.24 lakh bore wells with solar power under a programme ‘NTR Jalasiri’, development of a single stop solution for all water-related data at “Andhra Pradesh Water Resources Information and Management System” (APWRIMS) with Geoport, development of web-based Groundwater Resource Estimation software, AP GRACE, Water conservation activity in a big way under a flagship programme “Neeru- Chettu (Water and Tree) to name a few. The Maharashtra GSDA team visited Andhra Pradesh to study these best practices, interact with the department and explore the scope of implement in Maharashtra. The Team visited Real-Time Governance Centre, Piezometer sites and Data centre to study the data flow from piezometer to the central server to data dissemination system (CM Core Dashboard, APWRIMS etc). They also visited Polavaram Multipurpose Irrigation project (National Project) and Pavithra Sangamam where River Godavari joins with River Krishna under Interlinking of Rivers initiative. The visiting team also explored Drilling site and Automated Weather Station site too.
KERALA , WATER RESOURCES DEPARTMENT
A World Bank funded Capacity Building Program on Applied Hydrology was organized from 25th April to 9th May 2019 at Trivandrum, for the officials of the Irrigation Department, the Kerala State Electricity Board and the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management, Government of Kerala. This has been a tailor made programme primarily focussing on the requirements of Water Resources professionals of Kerala. Since the contents of this training programmeare relevant to a no. of other IAs of NHP, in order to replicate such programme, experts from NWA Pune and NIH, Roorkee also participated in the event. Two water resources professionals from Odisha were also participants of this programme.
Overall 38 middle level and junior level Engineers participated in this program. It was planned to mix lecture & theory methodology followed by interactive labs for thoughts and memory development. The training module included exposure to Google Earth Engine, Introduction to Python Notebooks, DSS Vue, HEC-HMS, Geo-HMS, Reach & Reservoir Routing, etc. The training was imparted by Mr. Jonathan A Quebbeman, Ms. Diane Buzzard, Mr.Lalit Mohan, and Dr. J Pandit from RTI International.