Watershed Vulnerabilities

Abstract

Watersheds are important because their status control quantity and quality of water resources. There are different types of watersheds which are classified by shape and size, function, etc. There are many examples of indicators which detect vulnerability of watersheds but none of them are objective, cognitive and consider both time and space scale. The indicators also select the parameters based on their need that is why nearly all the indicators are case-sensitive and cannot be used universally. The present study aims to develop an indicator which does not have these lacunae. The watershed is defined as the area which denotes the farthest place from which water can reach the water body such as rivers or wetlands. The amount of water that can reach the water body depends along with rainfall, on the geophysical properties, land use and depressions available in the watershed. The shape, size and slope of the watershed also contributes. Broadly watersheds can be classified based on shape, size and area as depicted in Fig. 3.1 and explained in the next section. 3.1 Types of Watersheds The watersheds can be divided into micro, small and large based on size; micro, small, mini, sub, macro and river basin by area and square, rectangular, triangular, oval, leaf shaped, polygonal and circular with respect to shape. 3.2 Functions of Watersheds Watersheds have two major functions, viz., hydrological and ecological as described in the Fig. 3.2.