Assessment of Silt Deposition Rate in the Reservoirs in Maharashtra State

Sedimentation is a natural process. In this process the rain drop hits the ground in the catchment and dislocates the soil particles. Then these particles join the stream flow and accumulate in the reservoir. Later this process goes on. This phenomena of sedimentation is complex and is governed by number of parameters. Due to growing deforestation, indiscriminate grazing the plant cover on the land in catchment area is reducing at alarming rate, which increase the rate of silt load in the reservoir. Water from the reservoir is being used for irrigation, drinking purpose, industrial purpose, and hydropower generation etc. Due to growing population, burden is coming on precious storage of reservoirs. Growing sedimentation rate reduces the life of dams, hence to increase the life of dams due attention is needed for catchment area treatment or other effective methods. Assessment of sedimentation rate is also a complex process. Now a days using technique like remote ’sensilllg or D.G.P.S. etc., the quantum of sedimentation in the reservoir is assessed. The paper throws some light on the rate of sedimentation based on the studies done up till now. From thos study it reveals that still there is lot of gray area is remained to be studied and lot of data base is required so that from this data realistic correlation can be generated.