Research Projects

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur has developed the National Hydrological Model-India (NHM-I), a large-scale conceptual hydrological model that can describe the entire land phase of the hydrological cycle at a daily time step. The model includes modules for Surface Water, Forest, Snow, Groundwater, Routing, and Reservoir. It also includes a sensitivity analysis tool and an auto-calibration tool. The NHM-I can visualize spatial and temporal variations of hydrological components like evapotranspiration, soil moisture, surface runoff, percolation, and baseflow. It can assess reservoir inflows, outflows, storage levels, and their impact on river basin hydrology. It can also assess the impact of land use land cover (LULC) and climate changes on the basin flow regime. A tool for reservoir inflow forecasting is developed using four advanced machine learning techniques. However, the tool is not yet fully implemented in NHM-I. The proposal focuses on field implementation in a potential river basin to test its efficacy in basin planning, including reservoir operation and management. Additional features include reservoir inflow forecasting, water demand estimation, groundwater extraction, water allocation scheme, and scenario analysis. The field implementation of the NHM-I with added features will help fine-tune model performance based on user feedback and expert perceptions, establishing it as a standard water resources planning and management tool for Indian river basins. The outputs will assist basin authorities and policymakers in robust water resources planning and management, providing a way forward for sustainable development.