Analysis of surface runoff from Yerala River Basin using SCS-CN and GIS

Watershed Management plays vital role in water resources engineering. It is necessary to plan and conserve the available resources. Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques can be effectively used to manage spatial and non spatial database that represent the hydrologic characteristics of the watershed. The present study area is of Yerala River Basin, located in upper Krishna basin, Western Maharashtra, India. The daily rainfall data of 10 rain gauge stations (1998 – 2011) was collected and used to predict the daily runoff from the watershed using Soil Conservation Service – Curve Number (SCS – CN) and GIS. For the duration 1998–2011, minimum and maximum of (a) the yearly average rainfall are 232.55 mm and 759.87 mm respectively and (b) the yearly average runoff are 39.40 mm³ and 153.63 mm³ respectively. The developed rainfall–runoff model has been used to understand the characteristics of the watershed and its runoff.