WATERSHED PLANNING

AND MANAGEMENT
DEFINITIONS/PURPOSE/USE
What is a watershed?

 The word ‘watershed’ is used as a synonym for ‘catchment’ or ‘basin’

 Generally, a watershed is described as an area within a hydrographic or river
basin which consists of interconnected water sources and drainages, bounded
by topographic highs or water divides.
 A watershed is a basin-like land area that captures rainfall and conveys the
overland flow and subsurface drainage water to an outlet in the main flow
channel. The boundary of a watershed follows the highest ridgeline around
the within stream channels and meets at the bottom of the land where water
flows out of the watershed
 A watershed is all the land and water area which contributes runoff to a
common point.
 All lands on earth are a part of one watershed or another.
TYPES OF WATERSHED

Watersheds is classified depending upon the size, drainage, shape and land use
pattern.
 Mini watershed (1-100 Hect)
 Micro watershed (100 to 1000 Hect)
 Milli-watershed (1000 to10000 Hect)
 Sub-watershed (10,000 to 50,000 Hect)
 Macro watershed (> 50,000 Hect)
OBJECTIVES OF WATERSHED PLANNING
AND MANAGEMENT
 Protecting, conserving and improving the land resources for efficient and
sustained production.
 Protecting and enhancing water resources, moderating floods, reducing
silting up of tanks/reserviors, increasing irrigation and conserving rainwater
for crops and thus mitigating droughts
 Utilizing the natural local resources for improving agriculture and allied
occupation of industries so as to improve socio-economic conditions of local
residents.
Watershed Planning

 A watershed plan is a strategy and a work plan for achieving water resource
goals that provides assessment and management information for a
geographically defined watershed. It includes the analyses, actions,
participants, and resources related to development and implementation of
the plan. The watershed planning process uses a series of cooperative,
iterative steps to characterize existing conditions, identify and prioritize
problems, define management objectives, and develop and implement
protection or remediation strategies as necessary.
Steps in planning a watershed

 Build Partnerships
 Characterize Your Watershed
 Finalize Goals and Identify Solutions
 Implement the Watershed Plan
 Measure Progress and Make Adjustments
Watershed Management

 Once a watershed has been planned and developed, it has to be managed.

 Keeping the local community educated about the watershed will make
management simpler.
 Keeping pollution and degradation to a minimum.