karnataka watershed development project

THE WORLD BANK IN INDIA

KarnataKa Watershed development projectUsing Satellite Imagery to Develop Land and Water Resources

2

2011 ISSUE 2

INNOVATIONS IN DEVELOPMENT

2 THE WORLD BANK IN INDIA2

Overview

Using Satellite Imagery to Develop Land and Water Resources

A watershed, or catchment area, is the area

of land where all the water that drains off it

or flows beneath it drains into a single point

or body of water. Watersheds can vary in size

from a few hectares of land to thousands of

square kilometers. Watershed management is

the integrated use of land, vegetation, and water

resources that harmonizes actions between

upstream and downstream areas to raise

agricultural productivity, increase rural incomes,

and rejuvenate the natural resource base.

Between 2001 and 2009, the Karnataka

Watershed Development Project, known locally

as Sujala, used cutting-edge technology to plan,

prioritize, monitor and assess interventions

over half a million hectares of land in seven

predominantly rain-fed districts in Karnataka.

The project was implemented by the Karnataka

Government’s Watershed Development

Department (WDD) in partnership with several

non-governmental organizations and the World

Bank. Satellite images taken at regular intervals

from a height of 900 kms provided accurate

thematic data - such as land use and land cover,

groundwater prospects, soil characteristics etc. -

for large catchments as well as micro-watersheds.

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) fused

this spatial data with nonspatial data such as

rainfall, literacy etc. to help technical experts and

communities to prioritize works and together

develop comprehensive action plans for each

micro-watershed. While the Integrated Mission

for Sustainable Development, initiated by the

Department of Space in 1992, had pioneered

the use of satellite remote sensing and GIS

mapping to develop locale-specific action plans

for watershed development in 175 districts

of the country, Sujala was the first project to

deploy this technology effectively over a large

area. It also expanded its use to map resources,

prioritize areas for treatment, carry out on-going

monitoring and evaluation, and assess impacts.

This was also the first time that high-resolution

satellite images were placed before grassroots

communities to help them plan interventions.

In a key innovation, Antrix Corporation, part of

the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO),

developed a unique approach for monitoring

and evaluation that fused remote sensing, GIS

mapping and Management Information System

3THE WORLD BANK IN INDIA 3

KARNATAKA WATERSHED PROJECT

(MIS) with conventional ground-based monitoring

techniques to provide state of the art information

to track progress and assess impacts. This

rigorous method of monitoring performance on

an ongoing basis enabled planners to maintain

transparency, enforce accountability, and apply

mid-course corrections where necessary, leading

to the project’s ultimate success in achieving the

desired impact on the ground.

With some 600,000 villages in India, there is huge

potential to scale up these innovations across

the country. Many of the project’s approaches

have already been incorporated into India’s

new national watershed policy guidelines. The

Sujala project has won seven prestigious awards:

National Productivity Awards 2007 and 2009;

National Water Award 2007; Earth Care Award

2008; National E-Governance Award 2009; as well

as the Global Sustainability Research Award at

Stockholm, Sweden, and the Geospatial Excellence

Award at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The project has

also attracted significant international attention.



Challenges

More than 70 percent of Karnataka’s major agricultural area falls within the semi-arid zone, with average precipitation ranging

from 400 mm to 750 mm a year. These lands are subject to periodic droughts, severe soil erosion, erratic rainfall, and depleting groundwater, eroding the natural resource base and significantly hindering agricultural productivity.

Faced with an acute scarcity of water, most farmers on these rainfed lands grow only one crop a year, with little opportunity to increase cropping intensity or diversify into more valuable cash crops. Average yields for ten of the most common crops in these regions are an estimated 2-5 times less than optimal. More efficient and sustainable use of natural resources, especially of soil, water and vegetation is therefore a basic need for the economic and agricultural development of these areas.

To tackle these challenges, the Karnataka Watershed Development Project (KWDP), known locally as ‘Sujala’, was initiated in late 2001 as a community driven, participatory and holistic watershed development project to improve the productive potential of selected watersheds in seven predominantly rainfed districts in eastern and northern Karnataka. Implementing a complex, community-based project like Sujala raised a number of challenges:

Gathering accurate data over a large areaAssessing the problems and prospects for the development of nearly half a million hectares of land in a scientific manner within a short time and in a cost-effective manner was undoubtedly a challenge. Equally challenging was understanding the complex relationship between soil and water management on a vast scale, as well as the impact of interventions on communities.

Assessing the problems and prospects for the development of nearly half a million hectares of land in a scientific manner within a short time and in a cost-effective manner was undoubtedly a challenge



Tracking ongoing performance Earlier, watershed programs often limited monitoring to measuring inputs (such as money spent) and physical outputs (such as the extent of the area treated, the number of trees planted, etc.) This approach did not however provide sufficient means to track the project’s ongoing performance and its broader impacts on the community. A challenge in Sujala was to adopt a more comprehensive M&E approach, incorporating new technologies that could track progress at regular intervals, guiding management on an ongoing basis and enabling them to adjust operations as and when problems were identified.

Promoting community participationPrior to Sujala, most watershed programs in India largely focused on engineering and civil works and were implemented by public agencies with minimal community participation. Since the early 1990s, Watershed Management Programs (WSM) programs introduced a more participatory planning approach

that balances the community’s interests with larger resource-conservation objectives. However, this approach requires extensive capacity and institution building both within communities as well as within the implementing agency.

Generating incomes for the landlessTypically, watershed management operations focused on landed farmers, often to the exclusion of landless segments of the rural poor, who benefited only tangentially from WSM works, such as through construction jobs. To broaden the benefits to reach wider sections of the local community, the project supported income generation activities for women, the landless and other vulnerable groups. This required a complex delivery mechanism with support from qualified field NGOs.

Watershed Management Programs balanced the community’s interests with the larger objectives of resource conservation


Sujala used cutting-edge technologies to plan and prioritize interventions, monitor progress and assess impacts. An independent team from

Antrix Corporation provided ongoing technical and monitoring and evaluation services to the project. With continued support from the Watershed Development Department and the World Bank team, Antrix was able to push the frontiers in applying these technologies far beyond what was envisioned during project preparation

Planning

Remote sensing and GIS mappingSatellite images, with spatial resolutions of 23 metres, 6 metres, and 1 metre, generated a series of thematic resource maps for each micro-watershed. These maps depicted land use and land cover showing the area under agricultural land (single or double cropping, fallow land, horticulture); forests (evergreen, deciduous, degraded, thick canopy, scrub); wasteland (salt-affected, waterlogged, gullied, ravinous, barren,

A variety of thematic resource maps were used to prioritize areas to be treated and develop comprehensive integrated sustainable action plans for each micro-watershed

Innovations



rocky); and the location of settlements. Other maps depicted soils showing depth, texture, and color of soils, as well as levels of erosion; the prospects for groundwater, indicating sites for recharging groundwater and locating water-harvesting structures; the location of water bodies (rivers, streams, canals, lakes); the gradient of slopes; the network of roads etc. GIS mapping integrated these large volumes of satellite data with nonspatial data such as rainfall, demography, literacy, class / caste information etc. to help prioritize areas to be treated and develop comprehensive integrated sustainable action plans for each micro-watershed.

Participatory planning As part of the process, communities would take this mapping information and construct a small model of the watershed on the ground to help them see the bigger picture, understand the environmental problems and future potential, and mark areas for treatment. Priority was accorded to places that had a larger proportion of wasteland, a greater uncertainty of rainfall, drinking water shortages in summer, large out-migration, a

predominance of vulnerable communities such as scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, and a large proportion of small and marginal farmers.

The thematic resource maps helped communities, NGOs and technical specialists (experts in agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry and forestry) to reach agreement on the priorities for soil and water conservation and the locations for treatments, resulting in sustainable action plans. Decisions were jointly taken regarding where to construct terraces or field bunds to reduce soil erosion from farm fields, locate a farm pond or small check dam to store excess surface water, or plant trees to stabilize steep hillsides. A database was prepared showing individual beneficiaries, as well as the size, type, and location of every activity planned, in addition to specifying whether the activity was to be undertaken on private or common lands. This approach significantly reduced the time taken for participatory planning from 13 to 9 months, without sacrificing quality. It also improved transparency, thereby reducing local conflicts over upstream and downstream interventions.

Communities, together with NGOs and technical specialists, take the mapping information and construct a small model of the watershed on the ground to help them understand the environmental problems and future potential of the micro-watershed and mark areas for treatment



Mapping nutrient deficiencies in the soil and establishing rainfall patterns GIS technology also helped map nutrient deficiencies in the soil. To increase crop yields, research by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the state Department of Agriculture, and the University of Agricultural Sciences had identified micro-nutrient deficiencies in local soils. Once GIS mapping helped pinpoint the locations of these deficiencies, all farmers were provided with soil health cards. The farmers, together with community organizations (usually women’s groups), were then trained to procure and mix the correct micro-nutrients for their individual farms, rather than purchasing the more generic nitrogen/phosphorus/potassium mixes that were not as effective. General rainfall patterns at the sub-district level were also generated from historic records. This enabled farmers to plant crops at the right time, reducing their risk of crop failure.

Monitoring and Evaluation

Antrix Corporation developed a unique approach which fused the top-to-bottom satellite imagery with the bottom-up participatory approach to develop a robust monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system.

A customized, computer-based MIS package, with special software for field NGOs, created a systematic database that integrated large volumes of data, providing a flow of reliable and timely information that helped monitor the project’s physical and financial progress at all levels.

Progress was tracked on expenditures (activity and sector wise, on common lands or private lands); achievements (soil and water conservation treatments such as the building of field bunds and the construction of farm ponds, horticulture, forestry, livestock); community mobilisation, capacity building etc. Information was generated at state, district, taluk, sub-watershed, and even micro-watershed levels on a weekly and monthly basis. This allowed users (NGOs, WDD officials) to query and analyze field data and prepare reports, charts, trend lines, statistics, etc.

The high-quality data and reports helped the project team to identify bottlenecks early on, undertake timely corrections, and shift the project’s direction a number of times. For example, when it was found that a high proportion of project funds were flowing to large farmers for soil and water works, the small and marginal farmers had their beneficiaries’ contributions reduced leading to improved equity

Remote sensing and GIS mapping help monitor forest growth on common lands. In 2003, the area highlighted in the box shows bare and degraded land (in light green). In 2006, the same area shows growing tree seedlings (in light red)



between the groups. When M&E data showed that landless and other vulnerable groups were not receiving a fair share of project benefits, the livelihoods component was expanded to include a revolving fund for Self Help Groups, leading to improved access to credit by group members and the development of small businesses. Ultimately, this rigorous ongoing monitoring and evaluation led to the project’s success in achieving the desired impacts on the ground. Capacity Building

Satellite communications technology (Satcom), with one-way video and two-way audio, enabled WDD officials at a centre in Mysore to reach out to large numbers of beneficiaries and field-based NGOs in all the districts simultaneously, conduct a dialogue and receive feedback. Various training programmes were also imparted through this mechanism to community-based organizations such as Self- Help Groups to build their capacity.

Assessing Impacts

The project’s net contribution to poverty alleviation, the development of capacity and institutions, and the restoration of ecosystems was evaluated at different times using a combination of qualitative and quantitative indicators. This was done before treatment (baseline), during treatment (mid-term), and at the end of the project (final) to observe the changes and asses the impact on the land and water resources. It was also done after the project’s withdrawal to look at sustainability.

Results from remote sensing were judiciously combined with more conventional field-based methods such as household surveys, focus group discussions, participatory observations, thematic studies, and case studies to monitor and assess impacts more comprehensively. Observations were also compared between sites within project areas and control sites outside the project area. With large numbers of NGOs working with communities to implement the project’s interventions over a vast area, the satellite images gave planners the true picture on the ground in an accurate, unbiased and transparent manner, enabling them to enforce accountability.Satellite images show a silted tank without water in 2003, during

the desilting process in 2006, and the desilted tank with water after treatment was complete in 2007



By the end of the project, crop yields and cropping intensity in these rainfed areas increased significantly. This were also

accompanied by a shift towards higher-value annual and permanent crops (especially horticultural crops such as mangoes). Crop yields increased by about 25 percent, on average, across different crops relative to control groups. Runoff and soil erosion were reduced up to 21 cubic meters per hectare.The percentage of irrigated area increased between 6 percent and 14 percent across project sites, average milk yields rose by around 20 percent, and ground water was available for longer periods. Household incomes increased by about 40 percent for small and marginal farmers (less than 2 ha), more than 50 percent for landless, and

close to 80 percent for larger farmers (more than 2 ha), compared to control groups. Overall, the project improved the lives of 230,000 direct beneficiaries, contributing to a reduction of out-migration by about 70 percent.

AwardsThe project has won five prestigious national awards – for boosting agricultural productivity, water management, conserving biodiversity, the innovative use of technology and e-governance – and two international awards.

The World Bank has recognized the project’s monitoring, evaluation and learning system as global best practice.

Impacts

Crop yields increased, higher value crops were grown, soil erosion reduced, and ground water was available for longer periods



Spreading the InnovationWith some 600,000 villages across India, there is huge potential to scale up the successful use of technology for the improvement of watershed lands and degraded ecosystems. Many of the project’s approaches have already been incorporated into India’s new national watershed policy guidelines. The project is also being replicated in other districts of Karnataka under the Prime Minister’s relief program for distressed districts, as well as in Rajasthan and Karnataka under the Integrated Watershed Development Program. Many of Sujala’s methods have also been adopted by forestry


projects in Andhra Pradesh and Assam, as well as in livelihood projects in Tamil Nadu, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. ICRISAT’s research on soil nutrient mapping has been expanded across Karnataka under the Bhoo Chetana program.

The model has also attracted significant international attention. Teams from both India and abroad have visited the project to learn about the innovative approaches and incorporate the lessons learned. Attempts are being made to replicate this approach in Malawi and Senegal in Africa.

Huge potential exists to scale up the use of satellite imagery to improve degraded lands across India


Contributions

Watershed Development DepartmentGovernment of Karnataka

Grant MilneWorld Bank

B.K. RanganathAntrix / Indian Space Research Organization

Useful References

Antrix Corporation 2009. Monitoring, evaluation and learning – Sujala watershed development. Antrix Corporation, Regional Remote Sensing Center, Department of Space, Bangalore.

ICRISAT 2009. Bhoo Chetana – boosting rainfed agriculture in Karnataka. ICRISAT, Patancheru.

Milne, G., 2007. India – Karnataka Watershed Development Project, Innovation in participatory watershed management to improve natural resource productivity and rural livelihoods. South Asia Rural Livelihood Note, Series 1, Note No. 3. December 2007. World Bank, Washington.

Smyle, J., Milne, G., and H. Quaddumi. 2009. Rural watershed management – the power of integration. Water P-Notes, Issue 28, February 2009. World Bank, Washington.

World Bank 2009. Implementation Completion and Results Report, Karnataka Watershed Development Project. World Bank, Washington.

Innovation Series available at www.worldbank.org/in Des

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