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U-M NRE 701 - Workplan - GIS Evaluation of the Ganges River - 2003

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Project Group:Shaw N. LacyTable of Contents:ParameterBudget:Budgeting of university groups will be done independently of each other. This section summarizes budgeting requirements for the group at the University of Michigan (Shaw Lacy).Title:Determining the Effects of Human Populations on the Ganges River: A GISEvaluationProject Group:Shaw N. LacyUniversity of Michigan, School of Natural Resources & EnvironmentM.S. Student (Resource Policy & Behavior)Page 1 of 9Table of Contents:Introduction 3Problem Statement 4Background 4Description of Proposed Research 5Methodology 5Objective 1. General GIS map 6Objective 2. Environmental analysis 6Objective 3. Impacts of pollution 7Overall Goal 7Timeline 7Personnel 8Budget 8Literature Survey 9Resume of Shaw Lacy AppendixPage 2 of 9Abstract:I will conduct an environmental survey of one branch of the Ganga (Ganges) River basin, as wellas investigate issues relating to differential population impacts upon the river reach, and researchdomestic and international policy implications for different river management possibilities. Theresearch will use various GIS techniques developed in the Great Lakes region to analyze datagathered in India. The outcome of the project will be a prototype methodology of watershedevaluation using GIS analysis. This prototype will serve as the basis for further project fundingin India through the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) and Indian Department ofScience and Technology (DST)Introduction:This project is a serious investigation of the Ganga River basin using GIS analysis. The productof this process will be a working prototype methodology that can be used to investigateenvironmental inventories and impacts of other Indian watersheds. The goal of this project is tocreate a working GIS-based prototype methodology of river analysis. The ultimate goal of thisGIS analysis methodology is to facilitate policymakers assessing the feasibility of various watermanagement policies available to the Indian government to remedy the problems found in theGanga River.The Ganga River holds a central part in Indian culture and the Hindu religion. Located in thenorthern part of the country, the Ganga River is the main stem of the entire watershed, which isroughly one million square kilometers in size. The watershed has the highest population densityand growth rates in all of India. This creates the potential of future population pressure problemsincluding equity of use, pollution control, and water infrastructure construction costs.Additionally, the Ganga River flows into Bangladesh, which only will compound the problemsof water use by giving it an international scope.In November 2002, the Indian Supreme Court ordered the Central Government of India toproceed on a decades old plan to link all of the major rivers of India with the goal of distributingexcess flood waters from the water-rich Ganga-Barmaputra system to water-hungry basins in thesouth. Already individual Indian states are raising alarms over water transfers across theirborders, and many environmentalists worry that the already stressed Ganga River ecosystem maybe threatened by the continents’ thirst. A contentious age of water shortage in the face ofgrowing demand now seems clearly perched on everyone’s horizon.The Ganga River basin in India, and the St. Lawrence (Great Lakes) basin in North Americashare more than just the distinction of being water-rich rivers on a generally drier continentallandscape. They are similar in size (Table 1); and despite dramatically different climates havesurprisingly similar annual discharge, water yield, and fluvial hydrology (average annualdischarge is 450 and 447 km3 yr-1, for the Ganga and St. Lawrence respectively). Both have muchof their river channel system developed on extensive alluvial deposits and geomorphic historiesstrongly tied to glacial activity. Both basins are experiencing rapid urbanization, and large areasof their watersheds have been extensively developed for agricultural production (Table 1).Finally, both basins have developed a distinctive cultural affinity for plentiful water that goesmuch deeper than mere economics. Albeit that one culture is perhaps the most ancient water-Page 3 of 9centric culture on the planet, and the other is perhaps the most recent. The people in both riverbasins see their rivers and associated ecosytems (lakes and wetlands), indeed their own access toplentiful water, as an integral part of their cultural heritage, and as central to the identity andeconomic well-being of their regions.The scientific goal of this project is to develop technical tools (data and models) which can beused in an integrated (wholistic: ecological-political-social) risk assessments of proposed waterresource management strategies in the Ganga. In particular I am interested in evaluating theecological implications of population growth, landscape alteration, and


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U-M NRE 701 - Workplan - GIS Evaluation of the Ganges River - 2003

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