Performance Evaluation of a Minor of Upper Ganga Canal System Using Geospatial Technology and Secondary Data

Abstract

Food and fiber demand is increasing due to population growth, which compels us to optimize the irrigation system's performance to get more yield of food and fiber from the available resource. The high yielding varieties of crop requires a timely and adequate supply of water. A well-performing, well-managed irrigation system is a prerequisite to ensure a timely and proper water supply. The development of technology makes us ease in assessing the performance of the irrigation system. The availability of geospatial data in conjunction with the other ground data helps assess the performance minutely in spatial and temporal approaches. Performance evaluation of a canal irrigation system can be carried out by evaluating its actual water dynamics, water use, and productivity. Gadarjudda and Lakhnauta minor canal systems of the Upper Ganga Canal (UGC) are old systems and still performing in the right way with general maintenance works. The minor systems are decade old, and ungauged water management is carried out effectively. The physical condition of systems is not good; however, the canal carries the designed discharge. The results show that depleted fraction of Gadarjudda and Lakhnauta minor is nearly 1 to 1.30 kg/m³ for paddy productivity (actual water consumed), followed by Wheat and Sugarcane productivity by 1.61 kg/m³ and 6.08 kg/m³, respectively. The spatial maps of the indicator generated in the GIS environment give the information of the irrigation system's performance over command areas and help for evaluation. Thus, the study reveals the excellent performance of the UGC system.