Pampady in Kottayam has become the first block panchayat in the State to complete digital mapping of all its water courses.
An official statement said 174.3 km-long water courses including streams and canals across eight grama panchayats within the block panchayat had been mapped with active public participation. Initiated by the Kerala State Information Technology (IT) Mission, these maps have been created using satellite images and have a resolution of up to two meters.
Alongside the maps, a study on the feasibility of various water conservation projects such as check dams, bunds and regeneration of water bodies too has been carried out .
According to officials, the maps will help people learn about even the smallest features of the water bodies there, besides playing a key role in the water conservation programmes of the various local bodies. The public, meanwhile, will be able to understand the status of streams and creeks in their neigbourhood during flood situations.
The water resources on the field were identified using an application called OMS tracker, which were then converted into a map using Open Street Map and QGOIS – an open source geographic information system application
The mapping of water courses in Kerala was conducted for the first time in 2020 under the leadership of Haritha Keralam Mission and IT Mission. As part of it, resource persons from Kottayam were imparted training in the project and the project was successfully implemented in some locations of the district.
It was in this context that Pampady had been selected for mapping the entire watershed under the second phase of the Nava Keralam Action Plan II . Buoyed by the project’s success, a 13 member team from Kottayam is now conducting training programmes for the resource persons in Wayanad district.
