Indian Journal of Soil Conservation
Year : 2008, Volume : 36, Issue : 1
First page : ( 11) Last page : ( 15)
Print ISSN : 0970-3349.

Drought identification and characterisation of semi-arid districts of North Karnataka

Durbude Dilip G.

Hard Rock Regional Centre, National Institute of Hydrology, Belgaum, Karnataka.

Received:  March,  2007; Revised:  January,  2008; Revised:  April,  2008; Accepted:  April,  2008.

Abstract

The present study was carried out to identify drought and its characteristics in the northern part of Kamataka. The results showed negative trends, in the entire area in the annual and seasonal rainfall departure from its normal for most of years indicating a deficit in rainfall. The area was observed to be experiencing a drought of moderate intensity with a recurrence interval of 4 to 5 years. The spatial distribution of various drought affected zones within the study area based on probabilistic approach have been carried out and mapped in a GIS environment. It revealed that the entire study area falls under moderate drought affected zone except a small part of lamkhandi taluka in Bagalkot district and Gangavati taluka in Koppal district. With an average of two dry spells with a length of 22 days, the effective monsoon in the area commences from the last week of lune. Hence, for formulating a drought mitigation strategy in this area, it is recommended that soil and water conservation measures be implemented and water harvesting measures be carried under watershed development programmes like contour bunding, nala plugging and constructing gabions structures etc., to conserve available water resources for subsequent life saving irrigation to crops during periods of dry spell.

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Keywords

Drought, Dry spell, Effective monsoon, Probability, Rainfall.

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