Development of Location Specific Decision Support System (DSS) for Adopting the Best Water Management Strategies to Maximize the Production for Nagarjuna Sagar Right Canal Command Area

Abstract

Nagarjuna Sagar Project is built across river Krishna at Nandikonda village of Nalgonda District. The Project is having right main canal namely Jawahar canal having Guntur, Zulakallu, Bellamkonda, Peddanandipadu, Addanki, Eddanapudi, Darsi, Pamidipadu and Ongole branch canals. Conjunctive use is the technique which envisages the use of Groundwater in conjunction with canal water in the Command Area. The productivity is reduced due to irregular operation and maintenance of canals. The decision support system was designed and developed in visual basic 2010. The decision support system was designed and developed for computing crop water demand and domestic water requirement and conjunctive use of water. The DSS analyse data and computed values represented in graphical form. It will display whether the conjunctive quantity of water is sufficient for the cropping pattern chosen or not. If not sufficient, planners can change the cropping pattern so that water requirement is minimised. The maximum surface volume was observed in the year 2008-09 as 6051 MCM, minimum at 2015-16 as 490 MCM and the average surface water volume as 3628 MCM. The average groundwater volume as noticed as 2269.89 MCM and maximum in the year 2008-09 as 3062.21 MCM and minimum in the year 2015-16 as 1825.55 MCM. The crop water requirement for all the seasons was calculated as 4455.32 MCM, Domestic water demand as 155.9 MCM, net surface water availability as 2,229.41 MCM, net groundwater availability as 1384.63 MCM and conjunctive use water as 3,614.04 MCM.  It is concluded that the developed DSS will help the policy makers and planners of water resources for cropping pattern to be followed to save the water in satisfying crop water requirement. The results obtained from the study can be used as a guide for the farmers for selecting the crops and water releases for the main crop.