Land resources evaluation and drainage network analysis of watershed for site specific crop planning using GIS

Abstract

To meet the demand of food, fodder, fuel and fibre for the ever-increasing population of the world, achieving higher land and water productivity of a parcel of land is a major challenge. For this, site-specific cropping system plan and land-use system based on basic soil and terrain information are a prerequisite. With the advent of remote sensing and geospatial technique, collection of point data and their spatial interpolation on watershed basis is possible in quick time, which can be used for site-specific cropping system planning. In this study, site-specific cropping system and profitable land-use plan were prepared for a watershed of eastern India (Darpanarayanpur, Nayagarh district, Odisha) using geospatial technique. Drainage analysis revealed that prominent drainage pattern was dendritic with low drainage density which indicates that the watershed region has subsoil with high permeability and low relief and, accordingly, rainwater harvesting structures have been suggested in the watershed.