An Integrated Study on the Status of Surface Water Bodies in GVMC Area Using Geo-Spatial Technologies

Abstract

The Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) area was 120 km2 till January 2006 and now expanded to 540 km2 by adding 32 villages and renamed as Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation. Major activity of the included villages was agriculture and the irrigation is through number of surface water bodies like ponds and tanks. After urbanization these became idle under encroached by public and private organizations for residential and other activities. There is a need for conservation of these water bodies for managing the urban storm water and useful for recharging the aquifers. Change of Land use pattern abruptly from rural to urban environment resulting in more runoff i.e. double to triple than the soil covered area. As per the topographic sheets 1976, the no. of water bodies in GVMC are 401 and the total area of these is 1097.32 ha. Water bodies area range between minimum 0.001618 ha and maximum 128.52 ha. Out of the 401 water bodies, 114 disappeared under major industries like Steel plant, NTPC and other residential areas. The total area of tanks lost due to the encroachment is about 263.96 ha and 84 water bodies are partially occupied or near to occupation in which 50.95 ha occupied by settlements and the remaining 235.65 ha are near to occupation. The remaining water bodies are 203 which are little away from the well developed centers and the area is about 546.72 ha. In future these may also get affected by the intense urbanization. The negative impact of occupancy of water bodies is already well experienced in the major cities like Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad. Keeping in view of the lessons learnt from these cities, water bodies are to be protected which are about to occupation. The main advantages of protecting the water bodies are: (i) to conserve the storm water and avoid inundation in the low lying areas, (ii) to recharge the ground water, (iii) to store the transported water from Godavari flood flows by developing the existing water bodies. Some physical measures are suggested to conserve the water bodies.