Keywords

1 Introduction

Rivers are freshwater, and they contain nearly 1% salt. The total volume of river water on the earth’s surface is 0.49%. Land and water resources are the focus of watershed management, which is applied to a portion of land that drains to a specific spot along a stream or river. It is a vital natural resource that plays a big part in every country’s economy. Subsurface water has long been used by people worldwide to suit a variety of purposes, including drinking, washing, and other needs (Gleick and White 1993). Because of the rising demand brought on by population growth, groundwater is being used more and more. Groundwater plays a major role in irrigation and the food sector, and overuse of it eventually becomes unsustainable (Balek 1988). Almost 70% of surface and subsurface water used for irrigation is used worldwide. India uses an estimated 250 km3 of groundwater annually, more than any other country. China and the USA are the next two biggest users of groundwater worldwide. Groundwater is being used more quickly by emerging nations. For instance, in India, groundwater contributes 62% to the agricultural sector, 85% to the provision of water in rural areas, and 45% to the use of water in cities. Groundwater is being used for industrial growth globally, which has caused previously unheard-of alterations in the level of groundwater. More groundwater is being extracted than can be refilled by subsurface recharge. Many issues arise from the input-to-output imbalance in groundwater extraction. When it comes to purposeful water storage in non-perennial rivers, check dams are the preferred method of managed aquifer recharge (Parimalarenganayaki and Elango 2015). Although it is a worldwide issue, the groundwater situation is one that may be resolved locally. For the purpose of ensuring the sustainable use of groundwater resources and reversing the depletion of reserved groundwater, the worldwide issue of groundwater management must be addressed. The survival of all living things may soon be in jeopardy if this priceless resource is not appropriately maintained. Even in developed nations, the laws pertaining to groundwater rights have not altered in response to the mounting strain that population growth and economic development are placing on water resources. Furthermore, over-reliance on groundwater can result from pollution and improper management of surface waters in areas with abundant annual rainfall, extending the effects of groundwater depletion beyond dry climates. The primary factor influencing the creation of human settlement is the availability of plentiful, high-quality water. Rainfall–runoff, whether good or poor, can be characterized using the SCS–CN and GIS approaches (Satheeshkumar et al. 2017), and as civilization developed, this need grew significantly. According to Taylor et al. (2013), this causes people to compete with one another for speedier growth, which eventually increases water demand and causes scarcity. Although water pollution was not as significant, the earlier settlers were nonetheless subject to additional monsoonal aberrations and climatic change. Groundwater extraction was initiated as a solution to the water scarcity issue in order to end this disaster. Along with a sharp rise in regulating water needs, there is also a deficit of groundwater storage, a decline in the water table, and a decrease in the rate of recharge. In addition to increasing groundwater storage, rainwater recharge capacity, and water usage efficiency, humans urgently need to learn adaptive methods and reduce water consumption. Systematic planning and management of contemporary technologies and procedures is therefore necessary for the best possible use and protection of this treasure. With the development of powerful and fast personal computers, effective methods for managing water resources have emerged. Among these are geostatistical techniques, remote sensing (RS), geographic information system (GIS), and global positioning system (GPS) of great importance for the greater good (Selvam et al. 2015; Arulbalaji et al. 2019; Bekele et al. 2023).

2 Key Aims of the Book

Watershed management is essential nowadays for a sustainable, healthy life. It is a basement for many sectors, such as agricultural and potable drinking water, and catchment watersheds receive high precipitation when compared to associated watersheds, which useful planning supplies sources of drinking water in rural as well as urban areas. River runoff processes in watersheds have to be controlled within limits. High rate of sprawling population as well as the food necessary in the future. It will be critical, hence the need for watershed management and sustainable management of water resources along river sites. High pollution has reduced the potable standard, which mostly occurs at solid waste disposal. Nearly two decades ago, water consumption increased due to population sprawl and development. The contribution of surface water is immense to making our world better in terms of food safety, agriculture, and drinking purposes. Watershed management protects depleting water tables and water quality and further improves its quality in a comprehensive manner. The problem of water shortages can be resolved by part of borewell installation for the sustainable and equitable management of watershed communities for sustainable water resource management, and further non-functional borewells can be utilized as recharge structures for quick improvement of groundwater storage in areas of interest. The main intention in our editing of this book is to offer a novel approach to the modern science aspect of rivers and its applications for watershed management through remote sensing, GIS, artificial intelligence, and other many aspects to the scientific community in an accurate and understandable way to attain comprehensive understanding in the field of water science and predict and influence the aspect of river management that involves people that was previously discussed by Shit et al. (2021). It will help those researchers and community developers who have an interest in this field of river water science understand several ideas and the significance of each for practical implementation. This has been done to increase the edited book’s adaptability and pique readers’ interest in the subjects. All of these encouraged us to develop new geospatial technologies and their applications in hydrogeological aspects of watershed resource management. This book deals with advances in scientific understanding of river system science, watershed management for sustainable groundwater usage, surface utilization, and the application of GIS and geospatial techniques in this field of water resource management. In the recent decade, environmental impacts on river systems that affect water chemistry and its surroundings can be identified by hydrochemical modeling for watershed management. Geospatial techniques, which play a big role in water science, are the most up-to-date techniques in watershed tools, and as they relate to groundwater yield increases, they are one of the most important for sustainable water resource utilization. Therefore, this book will help the readers find the watershed management by river science studies through may remote application and essentials of river system management, river profile mapping for sediment transport mitigation, managing riverine ecosystems and economic valuation in a single volume.

3 Sections of the Book

The book is organized into four parts: I—Rainfall–runoff and hydrological process in watersheds; II—Watershed management using GIS and remote sensing Applications III—Environmental status on river hydrogeochemistry, and IV—River sustainable management and riverine ecosystems.

3.1 Section I: Rainfall–Runoff and Hydrological Process in Watershed

The first section concerns itself with the runoff process in the watershed and its management of water resources as a component of the water cycle by GIS. Modern geospatial techniques utilized for morphometric characteristics of watersheds have been described in this section and used to address the issue of rainfall–runoff and its processing control conflicts in river hazard mapping. Overall, these basic concepts are captured in nine chapters of the section. These chapters are essential to understanding the spatial process and control of watersheds by rainfall–runoff. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 discuss runoff modeling using the semi-distributed SWAT-CUP model, and their deals with estimation of rainfall–runoff analysis of watersheds using remote sensing and the GIS approach have been highlighted in this chapter.

Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 document the identification of the status of drainage characteristics. An essential morphometric evaluation for understanding watershed distribution for water resource management and agriculture development by remote sensing and GIS for morphometric analysis has been used for effective management systems to address these river characteristics, and runoff control processes have been discussed. Overall, this section talks about how the morphometry of streams controls runoff in the watershed. This will be useful to address the rate of infiltration at normal surface and river sites and how GIS tools can play a greater role in watershed development.

3.2 Section: II Watershed Management Using GIS and Remote Sensing Application

The second section in this book deals with the application of GIS and RS. This section discusses water chemistry and pollution status, groundwater potential zone identification, microwatersheds for their planning, management, and implementation based on the amount of water available in the aquifer, and artificial intelligence based on water resource management. Here, watershed delineation through remote sensing and GIS techniques have been extensively used for river system management. In this section, we discuss the recharge and services of reservoirs utilized for water resource management for societal, economic, and environmental development. The modern science for effective river management systems has been addressed, and threat control has been discussed. Eleven chapters have been dedicated to this section. Chapters 10 and 11 deal with spatial mapping and the application of GIS and RS in hydrogeology: insights from river basin studies in South India. Chapter 12 discussed the study of microwatersheds for their planning, management, and implementation through the integrated approaches of geospatial and social science. Chapter 13 assessed about detecting the palaeochannels based on optical data and high-resolution radar data for river meander characteristics and flow pattern. In Chap. 14, we provide a quantitative evaluation of the water provisioning services of reservoirs and their functional characteristics. Characteristics have been addressed with climatic impact. Statistical downscaling of precipitation: prediction of future streamflows Chap. 16 deals with the applicability of a GIS-based comparative assessment of erosional status in two tropical river basins, and Chap. 17 discusses a comparative assessment of water chemistry and pollution status of Kabini Interstate River. Chapters 18 and 19 discussed the appraisal of groundwater potential zones and their characterization of aquifers using the geo-electric resistivity method. This section of the final topic is a review on the application of artificial intelligence in watershed management, such as flood susceptibility, runoff prediction, and water quality assessment, and their accuracy is given importance in this chapter.

3.3 Section: III Environmental Status on River Hydrogeochemistry

The use of hydrochemical assessment to address anthropogenic modifications to groundwater conditions is covered in the third section. A thorough examination of the socioeconomic and environmental effects on groundwater quality has been conducted. The problems of deterioration of groundwater quality and quantity and the impact on strategies, such as agro-forestry and watershed management, that can solve them have been discussed, along with the role that remote sensing and GIS can play in supporting these efforts. The importance of stakeholder involvement in solving long-term watershed management-related problems has also been discussed, since it paves the way for the development of workable national, regional, and local systems. There are a total of three chapters to cover these sections. Chapters 21, 22, and 23 discussed the role groundwater quality in impacting environmental attributes using various factors, including the integrated enrichment factor, spatiotemporal and chemical index of alteration. Overall, this section has provided a thorough understanding of the significance of groundwater quality fitness, whether suitable or not, through tools such as GIS, RS, and other cutting-edge methods and instruments for managing water resources sustainably.

3.4 Section: IV River Sustainable Management and Riverine Ecosystems

The fourth section addresses the use of geospatial methods to address sediment transport mechanisms and heavy metal contamination brought about by human activity. A thorough examination of the socioeconomic and environmental effects on groundwater supplies has been conducted. The twin problems of declining groundwater quality and quantity and how various strategies, such as agro-forestry and watershed management, can solve them have been discussed, along with the role that RS and GIS can play in supporting these efforts. There has also been discussion of the importance of stakeholder participation in long-term issue solving connected to groundwater, which can lead to the development of workable national, regional, and local systems. To cover these topics, there are a total of six chapters included in this section. Chapters 24 and 25 discussed the sediment transport mechanism of rivers and its implications for temporal hydrodynamic geochemical studies of sediments and their characteristics. Chapters 26 and 27 deal with heavy metal contamination, geochemical indicators, and statistical techniques. This has been explained by mineral assemblages and FT-IR studies of core sediments in a part of the south Indian river. Chapter 28 deals with the occurrence and transport modeling of chloroquine in riverine environments for understanding the environmental impact on watersheds. Last chapter deals with application of temperature as a tracer to estimate recharge from managed aquifer recharge structures. The findings of the study show compares the recharge estimation in a percolation pond by two methods which are conventional water balance approach and tracer method using temperature. Overall, this section has given a comprehensive idea of the importance of the mechanisms of rivers and other hydrodynamic and geochemical studies on river site pollution management.