Assessment of Surface Water Dynamics of the Jayakwadi Dam (2013–2023) Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques

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.