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Sustainable water resources management and community engagement are essential for water security. Referring to the above context, this study proposed to carry out an assessment of community engagement for irrigation water management in the Nam Haad Left Irrigation Project (NHLIP). The household and community level practices and the farmers’ levels of participation in irrigation water management of the NHLIP were carefully considered. From respondents’ responses, the results revealed that a husband-wife partnership plays a remarkable role in irrigation water management of the NHLIP for rice farming. The results also proved that most of the respondents engage with a high participation level in managing irrigation water of the NHLIP project as illustrated by a high score of 3.80 on the five-point Likert scale. To determine the significance of each activity on farmers’ levels of participation in irrigation water management of the NHLIP, a stepwise multiple regression analysis was employed and the standardized regression equation for determining overall participation levels can be presented as: Y = 0.538x1 + 0.831x8 + 0.534x14 + 0.607x18 + 7.572. Finally, the outcomes of this study indicated the willingness of participation in cooperating and supporting the activities related to the improvement and management of the NHLIP project.

This work assessed the effects of joint operation on the performance of multipurpose, multireservoir systems vis-à-vis standalone operation. The analysis used the multipurpose Pong and Bhakra reservoirs in northern India. Zone-based rule curves with or without hedging optimized using genetic algorithms were used for operating the reservoirs. The results showed that standalone configurations without hedging produced irrigation water reliability exceeding 90%, but the vulnerability indices (40% for Pong and 58% for Bhakra) were also high. Hedging tempered the standalone vulnerability; however, integrated operation also caused the vulnerability to reduce without hedging. Flood control was also enhanced during the flood season, with flood freeboard increasing by 12 and 3 m, respectively, at Bhakra and Pong reservoirs, relative to nonoptimized operation. Hydropower generation was lower than installed capacity at both reservoirs for both standalone and joint operations. The main conclusion of the study is that although hedging will moderate the vulnerability of standalone systems, the same outcome can be achieved without the deliberate water rationing of hedging if reservoirs are operated jointly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shifts in socio-economic development and climate conditions currently become the challenge for water resources system security in the Himalayan region. The aforesaid concern was found pertinent to the main objective of this study, which is to evaluate the combined impacts of climate and socioeconomic changes on likely future water security in the Himalayan basin, India. The future climate was projected by Multi-model Ensembles under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 scenario. Land use projection under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) 1 scenario was performed using Markov Chain, whose transition probabilities were derived using multi-layer perceptron neural networks. The results showed that future annual precipitation and temperature at the downstream part will increase from baseline by 5% - 10% and 1.0oC - 1.55oC, respectively. The land use projections showed that irrigated areas will decrease for Punjab by 10% - 30% and Haryana by 5% - 10% due to the increase in urbanisation, whereas it will be increased in Rajasthan by 12% - 18%. Consequently, the annual irrigation water demand was found to be decreased by 10% for Punjab and 5% for Haryana, while it will be increased by 13% for Rajasthan. Eventually, the obtained findings will be beneficial for planning strategies to ensure water security in the Himalayan region, in particular the Beas-Sutlej basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the impacts of climate and socio-economic changes on water resources in the Beas-Sutlej river basin, Himalaya. Multiple-model ensembles of five climate models forced with the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 scenario and the Shared Socio-economic Pathway SSP 1 were used. A validated Water Evaluation And Planning (WEAP) model of the basin was used for assessing the resulting sectoral water allocations. The results showed increasing runoff during the pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons, principally as the respective consequences of increased glaciers melting and higher rainfall. The finding also indicates that ensemble mean annual irrigation water demand will decrease by between 8 and 13% in Punjab due to the conversion of agricultural land to urban centres but will increase in Rajasthan by about 14%. These outcomes will be useful for the Bhakra and Beas Management Board in developing adaptation strategies to cope with any future water shortages that may occur in the basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change in the Indian Himalayan region is being manifested in the loss of glaciers and altered patterns of monsoon rainfall. Simultaneously, rapid population growth together with economic development are increasing sectoral water demands and changing land use patterns. This study investigated the impact of this complex interplay on water resources in the Beas-Sutlej water resources system. The GFDL-CM3 model was used to describe RCP8.5 future meteorological conditions throughout the 21st century. Population and land use changes were projected under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway-1 (SSP1). The water evaluation and planning (WEAP) system was applied for assessing sectoral water demands. The results showed increasing runoff during the premonsoon and monsoon seasons due to increased glaciers melting and more rainfall, respectively. It also emerged that irrigation water demand decreased moderately in Punjab (8%–13%) and Haryana (1%–9%); however, the situation was reversed in Rajasthan where it increased by 14%. Adaptation strategies were proposed including increased water allocation to Rajasthan and converting lands to cultivating more staple crops in Punjab and Haryana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reservoir planning without the explicit accommodation of evaporation loss leads to errors in capacity estimates. However, whenever evaporation loss is considered, its quantification uses linear approximations of the intrinsically nonlinear height–area–storage (H–A–S) relationship to estimate the reservoir area, leading to bias in capacity estimates. In this work, biases resulting from using various H–A–S models are evaluated. These models include linear and nonlinear functions, either specifically developed for the case-study sites or available in the Global Reservoir and Dam (GRanD) database. All empirically derived approximations used data for two dams in India: the Bhakra on Sutlej River and the Pong on the Beas River, both tributaries of the Indus River. The results showed that linear H–A–S models underestimate the exposed surface area of the Pong reservoir by up to 11.19%; the bias at Bhakra was much less. The GRanD H–A–S model performed very poorly at both reservoirs, producing overprediction in exposed reservoir area of up to 100% and 415% at the Pong and Bhakra reservoirs, respectively. Analyses also showed that up to 29% increase in reservoir capacity is required to compensate for the effect of net evaporation loss at low demand levels. As demand increases, the required evaporation-correction capacity decreases in proportional terms and is indistinguishable for all H–A–S models. Finally, recommendations are made on using the results for evaporation adjustment at nongauged sites in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]