Baseflow index assessment for agriculture-industry led Ramganga river basin

Abstract

The baseflow index is a crucial parameter in basin-scale water balance studies. However, it has frequently been neglected for various reasons, viz. near-impossible direct measurement, simplification of the model, and non-existence of the hydro-meteorological data. Hence, baseflow is computed for the Ramganga river basin in the present study, for which a scientific assessment had not been done previously. The classified-archived-observed river discharge data are obtained from Central Water Commission (CWC) and are applied in an analytical filter to assess the baseflow index (BFI) at all exiting CWC hydro-meteorological sites in the Ramganga river basin. The average values of BFIs for the CWC sites vary between 27% and 38%. The results are found to be consistent and showed significance with the hydrological characteristics of the basin. The results have also been discussed to account for various possible anthropogenic effects, which are assessed as having no significant impact.

Keywords:

• Baseflow index
• river baseflow
• Ramganga river
• digital filter method
• conductivity mass balance method
• runoff conductivity

Acknowledgements

The data and financial support for this study were received through the Centre for Ganga River Basin Management andStudies (cGanga) led by IIT Kanpur and supported by NationalMission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India.

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from CWC, Ministry of Water Resources, Govt. of India and categorized as classified government data (Ministry of Water Resources (GoI) 2013).

Notes

1 CWC is a Govt. of India organization mainly responsible to collect, compile, publish and analyze the hydro-meteorological data relating to major rivers in India (reference: http://cwc.gov.in/ (visited site on 14 Jan 2020).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ankit Modi

Ankit Modi is a Civil Engineer, obtained his Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Environmental Engineering from IIT Kanpur.

Vinod Tare

Dr Vinod Tare is an Emeritus Fellow in Environmental Engineering and Management at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. He is a Civil Engineer, obtained his Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Environmental Engineering from IIT Kanpur. He is the founding head of Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (cGanga) led by IIT Kanpur supported by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India.