REMOTE SENSING BASED STUDIES ON CLIMATE CHANGE IMPLICATIONS OF AGRICULTURAL WATERSHEDS IN KRISHNA BASIN OF INDIA

Water management is facing major challenges due to increasing uncertainties caused by climate and global change because of fast changing socio-economic boundary conditions. For a system to be able to adapt to change or to be prepared for uncertain future change the following two aspects are key requirements:- 1. New information must be available to the system and the system must be able to process the information.2. The system must have the ability to change based on processing new information. Satellite remote sensing comes very useful in such situations. In this paper we are discussing the use of SRS maps from disparate sources for the common purpose. Global vegetation land use maps and location specific (scaled) land use maps obtained from use of satellite remote sensing data for two periods are compared using water footprint concepts. Water is a public good, so water allocation at the catchments level is principally a governmental issue. The question here is how all demands for water can best be met and where- in case of water shortage- supply should be restricted. Unit requirements of water resources for crops, live stock (grazing systems) sustenance, drinking water supply and clothing needs for three village agricultural watersheds located in different agro-climatic zones will be obtained. The concepts of water stress, water strain, will be studied akin to engineering mechanics of materials. On the lines of water footprint concept used for catchments scale / country scale ( by WWF) the watersheds water scarcity will be obtained as indicator to assess the implications of real and virtual water in management of watersheds in a basin