Hydrological Parameters Estimation Using Remote Sensing and GIS for Indian Region: A Review

Monitoring and assessment of hydrological parameters are the key elements for the sustainable development of water resources of any country. The various components of the hydrological cycle also known as hydrological parameters are highly dynamic in space and time. Quantification of hydrological parameters using traditional methods provides limited, point based, information which is not sufficient for assessing spatio-temporal variations in these parameters. Satellite based remote sensing has proven its usefulness in effective mapping/retrieval and monitoring of hydrological parameters such as precipitation, interception, soil moisture, surface runoff, water level and river flow, evapotranspiration, change in terrestrial water storage, etc. This review paper highlights the major work done in India for estimation of hydrological parameters using remote sensing. The basics of retrieval techniques, their applications in India, their validation and limitations are discussed in this paper. The progress of each technique from conventional optical remote sensing based to advance microwave remote sensing based hydrological parameters estimation has been presented. The integration of remote sensing derived hydrological parameters in water balance and land surface model is also presented.