Water balance analyzis using Palmer Drought Severeity Index for drought-prone region of Marathwada, India

ABSTRACT

Sustainable water resource management is the immediate priority as the rapid depletion of water resources is aggravating drought conditions in many regions worldwide. One of the possible approaches to recover from such a condition is through water resource balancing. The water balance studies require knowledge of water availability for various sectors’ present and future requirements to balance the water resource. The present study uses the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) for water balancing. It evaluates the soil moisture deficit or surplus with spatial and temporal changes for the Marathwada region consisting of eight districts for 1957–2017. The analyzis shows water surplus from July to September and water deficit from November to May. The study observes that the Marathwada is drought-free during the Kharif season and water deficit in Rabi season. This study analyzes the need for crop-shift to avoid crop damage during drought. Based on the analyzis, all the urban system sectors need to augment short-term and long-term policies to overcome the water crisis for a balanced water resource. The Self-Calibrated PDSI (ScPDSI) is calculated based on PDSI, which gives more freedom in analyzing the drought period.

Highlights

• Water balancing approach can effectively help in modelling the rapid depletion of water resources.

• This work expands the use of drought indicators for water balancing by evaluating the soil moisture deficit or surplus with spatial and temporal changes for the Marathwada region for 1957–2017.

• Urban system sectors may augment short-term and long-term policies based on the framework to overcome the water crisis for a balanced water resource.

KEYWORDS:

• Water balance
• soil moisture deficit
• water surplus
• drought
• PDSI

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge the IMD, GSDA, Water Resource Department and Agricultural Department of Maharashtra for availing the Meteorological and Hydrological data for conducting the research. All the authors have analyzed and interpreted the data for the manuscript. Drafting and revising the article for intellectual content was thoroughly checked by all contributing authors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All the data required for the study was taken from Government official websites – Department of Agriculture (http://mahaagri.gov.in), Indian Meteorological Department, Pune (http://dsp.imdpune.gov.in/) and Ground Water Surveys and Development Agency, Pune (Data collected during a primary survey).

Notes

1 All the equations are directly taken from Palmer's (1965a) paper.