NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Jal Shakti has launched a new version of the India Water Resources Information System (India – WRIS) with new functionalities and features. The portal is open to the public and accessible through the web portal www.indiawris.gov.in. The portal contains information related to water resources through dashboards for rainfall, water levels & discharge of rivers, water bodies, ground water levels, reservoir storages, evapotranspiration and soil moisture, as well as modules on water resources projects, water bodies, hydro-met data availability and tools for GIS layer editing.
The project was first developed in 2019 under the National Hydrology Project, with the aim of ensuring judicious use of water resources, particularly at a time when increasing population, urbanisation and related development creates additional pressure on available resources. Since then, a number of new functionalities and features have been added into the system. Presently the India WRIS is receiving data from many central and state agencies like the Central Water Commission (CWC), Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), among others. Data from other agencies is also being integrated into the system, so that it becomes a comprehensive platform for any data related to water and land resources. The Ministry of Jal Shakti has established a dedicated organization, National Water Informatics Centre (NWIC), to maintain and update India WRIS.
The basis for all hydro-met observation data is the Water Information Management System (WIMS). Through a secured login, Central and State Water Agencies can enter, analyse, validate and manage data for water level (Both Surface Water & Ground Water), flow, water quality, sediment and many climate parameters. The system includes time series data obtained through manual readings as well as telemetry data received by means of GPRS or satellite.
The portal also allows any user to access the information in a user-friendly manner. They can also download the information in the form of excel reports and graphs. Various user groups like farmers and their welfare organisations can access the information, thereby making it easier for them to make various livelihood-related decisions. The data can also be used by researchers to easily perform water-related studies in India and create models for their analysis.