Identification of Surface Water Harvesting Sites for Water Stressed Area Using GIS: A Case Study of Ausgram Block, Burdwan District, West Bengal, India - Management of Natural Resources in a Changing Environment - page 81

Drainage density map of Ausgram blocks I and II have been prepared and
analyzed through 1 km 2 grid. The study area is located in relatively drier part of the
district Burdwan. The region falls in the water stressed part and it is expected that
the region is having very low drainage development.
Again, the region is located in moderately higher relief zone and many first
order streams are there. As a result, some parts of the block may have higher drain-
age density, but in reality it may have no significant contribution towards the avail-
ability of water resources. Using isolines of drainage density have divided the
whole study area in four categories i.e. <1, 1-2, 2-3 and >3 km length of stream
km/km 2 . The data reveals that the region is poorly drained and 47 % of the total
land has drainage density <1 km/km 2 . The other, highest drainage density i.e.
>3 km/km 2 covers negligible percentage of land of the study region. Highest drain-
age density, 3.63 km/km 2 is observed in the central part of the study area (Fig. 4 ).
The central part of the study area is characterized by high land and resulted in the
origin of some ephemeral drainage lines. This has resulted in maximum drainage
density in this part of the region. But the ground reality shows that the highest
drainage density does not add significantly to the availability of water in the region.

DRAINAGE DENSITY
Ausgram Block I & II Burdwan District

N

23 35'N

Length of River (km)/Sq.km

> 3

23 30'N

2 - 3
1 - 2

< 1

47.86

50

41.41

40
30
20
10
0

23 25'N

10.26

Drainage
Density
<1

Area in
Sq.Km

Area in %

0.47

235.93 47.86

41.41
10.26
00.47

< 1 1 - - 2 > 3

2 - - 3

1 - 2 204.20

050.56
002.31

Drainage Density

2 - 3

0 4 8Km

>3

87 35'E 87 40'E 87 45'E

Fig. 4 Drainage density map ( Source : 73 M/10, 11, 14 & 15)