Watershed Management of Joda-Barbil Mining Area, Odisha, India: A Geospatial Approach

Geological Information System plays vital protagonist in watershed management particularly in mining areas in hilly terrain .Though GIS cannot be a resource for analytical resources but can be efficiently used for mapping and related engineering activities within the watershed. Present study is based on watershed management Geospatial Technology with spatial reference to mining area in order to suggest the best possible management strategies to protect crop field, degraded forest cover and maintain the energy balance. The software employed are Arc GIS 10.1 and ERDAS Imagine 9.2 for the analysis. The slope, flow direction, flow accumulation and the contour maps have been constructed to search for the ground water potential zone and analyzed for searching lacking hydraulic structures beyond the existing one. Proposal for adequate numbers of new check dams, percolating boulder bundhs, vegetative barriers and gulley bundhs are found out as ameliorative measures to develop backward tribal mining areas of Odisha.