GEO-SPATIAL TECHNIQUES IN SELECTION OF POTENTIAL DAMSITE

Khyber agency; an important administrative unit of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), has limited land and water resources. Most of these resources are located within Bara river basin, which is the largest one of the agency. Bara River Canals Scheme (BRCS); a major irrigation development scheme was constructed on Bara river in 1980 by the Irrigation Department NWFP to improve the socio-economic conditions of the local tribes. The scheme was designed to irrigate 49,312 acres of land through diverting the perennial river flows. Unfortunately, the system did not function long to its optimum due to extreme water shortages and maintenance/ operational deficiencies. For effective Formulation, Evaluation, Selection, Monitoring and Management of water supply schemes, the existing conventional system needs to be modify by the help of Geospatial Techniques i.e. Geographical Information System (GIS). Geospatial techniques were applied to select the optimum dam site (which is Dam site #2) for the proposed Bara Dam by analyzing different parameters such as elevation, topography, slope instability, etc.