Assessment of Surface Water Dynamics of the Jayakwadi Dam (2013–2023) Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques
Akshay V. Kshirsagar
*
Department of CS & IT, Dr. B.A.M. University, India.
Ratnadeep R Deshmukh
Department of CS & IT, Dr. B.A.M. University, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The Jayakwadi Dam, commissioned in 1976 and located in the Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar district of Maharashtra, India, is a major source of drinking water for Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar city and an essential water supply for Jalna and Beed districts, as well as a key support system for regional agriculture. Effective monitoring of its surface water extent is therefore critical for water-resource planning and drought preparedness. This study estimates the reservoir’s surface-water area from 2013 to 2023 using remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques. Water bodies were delineated using the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), computed from Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) bands—Green (Band 3) and Near-Infrared (Band 5)—with a threshold of NDWI > 0 to extract water pixels. Seasonal variations were assessed using imagery from May (summer) and November (post-monsoon) for each year. The analysis reveals substantial inter annual and seasonal fluctuations, with surface-water area ranging from minimum: 91.41 km² during peak summer to maximum: 350km² in the post-monsoon period. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of NDWI-based monitoring for detecting hydrological variability and provide valuable inputs for reservoir operation, water-resource management, and drought-risk assessment in semi-arid regions.
Keywords: Remote sensing, surface water, NDWI, GIS, Jayakwadi Dam