SWAT and River-2D Modelling of Pinder River for Analysing Snow Trout Habitat under Different Flow Abstraction Scenarios

Abstract:

Pinder River, one of major headstreams of River Ganga, originates in Pindari Glaciers of Kumaon Himalayas and after passing through rugged gorges meets Alaknanda at Karanprayag forming one of the five celestial confluences of Upper Ganga region. While other sub-basins of Upper Ganga are facing severe ecological losses, Pinder basin is still in its virginal state and is well known for its beautiful valleys besides being host to unique and rare biodiversity.

A proposed 252 MW run-of-river hydroelectric project at Devsari on this river has been a major concern on account of its perceived potential for egregious environmental and social impacts. In this context, the study presented tries to analyse the expected changes in aquatic habitat conditions after this project is operational (with different operation policies). SWAT hydrological modelling platform has been used to derive stream flow simulations under various scenarios ranging from the present to the likely future conditions. To analyse the habitat conditions, a two dimensional hydraulic-habitat model 'River-2D', a module of iRIC software, is used. Snow trout has been identified as the target keystone species and its habitat preferences, in the form of flow depths, flow velocity and substrate condition, are obtained from diverse sources of related literature and are provided as Habitat Suitability Indices to River-2D.

Bed morphology constitutes an important River-2D input and has been obtained, for the designated 1 km long study reach of Pinder upto Karanprayag, from a combination of actual field observations and supplemented by SRTM 1 Arc-Second Global digital elevation data.

Monthly Weighted Usable Area for three different life stages (Spawning, Juvenile and Adult) of Snow Trout are obtained corresponding to seven different flow discharges ranging from 10 cumec to 1000 cumec. Comparing the present and proposed future river flow conditions obtained from SWAT modelling, losses in Weighted Usable Area, for the aforementioned three life stages, are estimated for a range of possible operating policies at the proposed Devsari project. While the study suggests a limited loss of habitat for spawning and juveniles, however, results suggest that adults face the potential of up to 70% loss of their habitat.