Estimation of surface runoff using SCS–CN and GIS approach in the Karpara watershed, Maharashtra, India

Water and land are the most crucial natural resources on Earth and require scientific management for sustainable development, particularly in the agricultural sector. In arid and semi-arid regions, the competition for shared land and water resources among sectors such as agriculture, industry, and domestic use underscores their importance. Water scarcity is already a pressing issue, and climate change projections indicate that it will become even more critical in the future. Therefore, there is an urgent need for sustainable water management, and the application of emerging tools and technologies is crucial for achieving this in watersheds everywhere. Maharashtra is one of the major states in the country in terms of natural resources like rainfall, soil but it may soon become state facing increasing water crisis with perennial water shortage. The Karpara watershed was divided in to 19 sub watersheds. The SRTM DEM and satellite imagery downloaded from USGS Earth Explorer was the basic input used to delineate the watershed, slope map and drainage map of the study area in Q GIS environment. The runoff of the Karpara area was determined by using SCS-Curve number method along with GIS. The curve number obtained by overlaying the land use/ land cover and soil map of the study area from which runoff was calculated. The runoff was found as maximum in 2005 which was 24% and minimum in 2015 about 15% of the average rainfall. The calculated sub watershed wise runoff was found highest in sub watershed 19.