Application of GIS for assessment of water resources in Irrawaddy River Basin, Myanmar | |
| Author | Myint Aye |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.WM-04-23 |
| Subject(s) | Water-supply--Myanmar Irrigation water--Myanmar Geographic information systems--Myanmar |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The assessment of water resources in essential for planning agricultural development which is a major concern for most developing tropical countries. This is particularly true for Myanmar which faces water shortages and increasing demand for irrigation to meet the food requirement of the country. In response, this study was conducted to assess the available water resources in a selected watershed in the Irrawaddy River Basin using GIS. In particular, this study was conducted for the Chindwin River Basin, which has an area of 110,000 km2 covering fertile lands suitable for growing variety of crops. The basin is composed of three regions namely, upper, middle and lower regions with different topographic and climatic characteristics. The upper region is mountainous with cold climate and average annual rainfall of 3400 mm, the middle region is also mountainous with average annual rainfall of 1,400 mm, while the lower region is plain with 700 mm annual rainfall. To estimate the available water, the basin was divided into four sub-watersheds based on topography.With GIS application, the SCS Curve Number method was used in estimating runoff from each sub-watershed. Flow routing was applied to determine the discharge at the outlet of the basin. For estimating irrigation water requirement, the basin was divided into two zones based on agro-climatic conditions. The water requirements for paddy and non-paddy crops were estimated using water balance accounting procedure and CropWat program, respectively. Comparison between observed and estimated runoff showed that there was over or under prediction of runoff, but the discrepancies were within acceptable range. This verifies the applicability and usefulness of GIS and simple hydrologic computations in assessing availability of water resources. The computed annual irrigation water requirement for the entire basin was found to be 4,539 MCM, while the estimated discharges from the basin were 120,144 and 137,416 MCM for the years 2001 and 2002, respectively. Hence, there is a huge surplus of water, in both wet and dry seasons in the basin, and this resource can be used for further agricultural development to improve the livelihood of the people. |
| Year | 2005 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Engineering and Technology (SET) |
| Department | Department of Civil and Infrastucture Engineering (DCIE) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Water Engineering and Management (WM) |
| Chairperson(s) | Clemente, Roberto S. |
| Examination Committee(s) | Gupta, Ashim Das;Babel, Mukand S.;Dutta, Dushmanta |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | World Bank (JJ/WBGSP) - Asian Institute of Technology Fellowship |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2005 |