Monitoring Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme Using High-Resolution Satellite Data

Monitoring Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme Using HighResolution Satellite Data

Overview

The Government of India launched the Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP) in the year 1996-97 to provide Central Assistance to States for the major/medium irrigation projects in the country, and to accelerate the implementation of advanced-stage irrigation projects held up due to financial constraints.

Since the launch of AIBP in 1995-96, a total of 297 major and medium irrigation projects have been taken up for financial assistance under it, including the 99 prioritized projects (and 7 phases) taken up in mission mode under PMKSY-AIBP in 2016-17. Out of these, 10 medium and major irrigation projects are from Rajasthan.

Monitoring of projects covered under the AIBP is periodically done by the Central Water Commission with the help of its regional offices situated all over the country. Conventional monitoring is done through discussions with field authorities and random field checks which often is inadequate in bringing out the factual status. This is where the advanced capabilities of Geospatial technologies were sought to bring accuracy to the inventory of canal networks and other irrigation infrastructure, facilitating objective assessment of physical status concerning a given time frame (as on the date of satellite data acquisition).

Vision: To enable monitoring of the progress of various AIBP irrigation projects under construction and eliminate gaps and manual errors in the identification of critical areas, verification of site activity, and reporting of actual progress.

Objectives

y To prepare an inventory of irrigation infrastructure consisting of the canal network and other related irrigation structures y To assess the physical progress of irrigation infrastructure and identify gaps in the irrigation network y To assess the creation of irrigation potential through infrastructure inventory

Stakeholders Involved

Central Water Commission (CWC), Ministry of Jal Shakti. Solution and Implementation Plan

Under Phase 1 of the project implementation, about 53 AIBP irrigation projects with a target irrigation potential of 5.45 million hectares spread across 18 states in the country were taken up for research by the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), ISRO. This was followed by Phase 2, with another 50 AIBP projects spread across 14 states in the country taken up by NRSC in collaboration with partner institutes. Overall, NRSC assessed the physical progress of irrigation infrastructure & potential creation in 103 irrigation projects across the country covering 6.19 million hectares of targeted irrigation potential. Phase-3 involved the CWC carrying out online monitoring for 14 AIBP projects through ISRO’s Bhuvan web geo-portal with hand holding by NRSC.

Use of Geospatial Technologies

High-resolution satellite data from Cartosat-1/2 was used to inventory the constructed irrigation infrastructure. The irrigation potential generated by AIBP projects was assessed and compared with planned infrastructure to generate compliance reports. This information assisted CWC in the monitoring physical progress of irrigation infrastructure creation and in identifying the critical gaps for early completion of the AIBP-funded irrigation projects. Further NRSC developed the Bhuvan-AIBP portal with customized tools for online monitoring of irrigation project creation progress, thus simplifying the satellite data access & usage.

Key Outputs

y NRSC, ISRO has successfully demonstrated the assessment of irrigation potential created through the inventory of irrigation infrastructure derived from satellite data. y Initially, 103 projects (Phase I-53 and Phase II-50) were carried out by NRSC/ISRO. Based on the utility of such studies, Central Water Commission (CWC) decided to use the satellite data and web services through ISRO-Bhuvan for online monitoring of 150 ongoing projects biannually (pre-monsoon & post-monsoon) from the year 2013 y Compliance reports with details of constructed irrigation canal network against planned, irrigation potential created y Identification of critical gaps in irrigation canal network and prioritisation