“ Water ” is one of the most important resources of a country. The country like India being agricultural based, depends mainly upon the availability of existing water resources potential. The Power generation, crop pattern, land use/ land cover changes, irrigation, forest resources, urban development etc, are dependent on the water resources potential. This includes both the surface and ground water. The economic growth of the country again depends on this. The distribution of rainfall is uneven and the infiltration is very less when compared to the over draft. Due to the increase in the population growth, the availability of water is becoming scarce. Hence there is an urgent need for the optimum utilisation of water resources through proper planning, conservation, operation, development and management.

The satellite remote sensing due to its repetitive coverage and synoptic view leads to the identification of water resources potential along with the field data. It not only analyses the surface water potential but also the ground water. Recent high-resolution images provide valuable database for solving the issues related to water resources. This technology plays a major role in hydrological studies, watershed planning, water quality, drought and other inter-related fields.

Large amount of database has to be analysed for proper planning and decision-making for water resources. In this context GIS technology is being used for large database management, to explore, analyse and manipulate data. The GIS plays a vital role in various issues and challenges, like identification of potential sites for construction of new reservoirs and suitable sites for new bore wells through integrated thematic analysis. Also GIS can answer the questions related to location, condition, trends and patterns. It helps in modelling the water resources potential and to develop a geospatial data model of the water resource features of the landscape. Many of the parameters required to model runoff and non-point source water pollution potential are geographic in character and are obtained from geographic sources like soil maps, topographic maps, land use maps, and aerial photographs. In modelling these spatial data need to be incorporated with non-spatially organised model, which can be done through GIS.

Keeping this in view there is a special session dedicated on “Water Resources “ in the Map India 2003 conference to pave a platform for the Scientist, Technocrats and professionals to discuss the issues and challenges in water resources. The main themes of the sessions are applications of GIS, GPS and remote sensing on

• Surface water studies
• Ground water studies
• Water quality analysis
• Water budgeting
• Water management
• Rainfall and Run off estimation.

Programme Schedule