Remote Sensing and GIS for Performance Assessment of the Western Yamuna Canal System for Sustainability

A huge investment in irrigation sector has been made in the country and the irrigation potential created was about 113.5 million hectares with the actual utilization of 87.9 Mha by the end of the XI Plan. This irrigation development has changed foodgrain production scenario to self-sufficiency for feeding the burgeoning population in the country. This spectacular achievement has accompanied by bumper agricultural performance and severe environmental degradation in several canal irrigation projects affecting the sustainability of irrigated agriculture. Therefore, major and medium canal irrigation projects in the country have come under criticisms for performance far below the expectations. This underlines a need for assessing the performance evaluation of canal projects using modern tools and techniques for water delivery, agricultural performance and environment degradation for project sustainability. In the study, satellite remote sensing and GIS was applied to the Western Yamuna Canal (WYC) System (Haryana) for assessing the irrigation projects on water delivery, agricultural productivity and environmental degradation. It was found that canal water delivery has met nearly half of crop water demand; agricultural productivity is excellent with wheat yield ranging from 3.51 to 4.75 t ha−1; and soil salinity is wide spread with the low productivity area in 7.24% of the WYC command. This information will help in devising improved irrigation management strategies for enhancing water delivery services and crop productivity and controlling waterlogging and salinity on long term basis.