Author(s): S. V. Vijaya Kumar
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Keywords: Hydroprojects; Water budget; River flows; Upstream developments; Drought
Abstract: Growth of any society is linked to proper resource management of pertinent river basin. A number of hydro projects were taken up in a big way in river basins over years and development is going beyond the limits and some stretches downstream have no fluvial processes for long periods. Thus, adjoining ecosystem is under constant threat of extinction as basin yield is not able to meet the basin demands. Such a basin is termed as ‘negative yield basin’. The water budgeting from time to time as signature to understand the proper accounting of different components of importance is discussed. A case study on Krishna river basin in India where a number of hydro projects were taken up in a big way in it over last 50 years and development is touching the limits is presented in this paper. Live storage capacity in the basin has increased significantly since independence. From just about 3.2 km 3 before 1950, the total live storage capacity of the completed projects has increased to 34.5 km 3. In addition, a substantial storage quantity of would be created on completion of projects under construction. Monthly, seasonal and annual surplus from water budget at the storage structure can be used as a characteristic to understand the basin developments going on upstream of Prakasam Barrage, the ultimate diversion structure before Krishna River joins Bay of Bengal. The results of the study indicated the influence of the upstream structures on the monthly, seasonal and annual surplus flows, which are the net effect of inflows and outflows for a storage structure. The variation of ‘NM factor’over five year or decade intervals derived from non-monsoon seasonal surplus flows is a useful characteristic to understand the impact of upstream developments.
Year: 2004