Insights into Riverscape Dynamics with the Hydrological, Ecological and Social Dimensions for Water Sustenance

Spatio-temporal patterns of four neighbouring river-scapes in the central Western Ghats, India through land-use analyses using temporal remote sensing data (1973, 2018), reveal a decline in evergreen forests (41%) and fragmentation of intact or contiguous forests (60%). Hydro-ecological footprint illustrates that catchment integrity plays a decisive role in sustaining water for societal and ecological needs. This is evident from the occurrence of perennial streams in the catchment dominated by native flora with forest cover greater than 60%, highlighting the riverscape dynamics with hydrological, ecological, social and environmental dimension linkages and water sustainability. This helps in evolving strategies to adopt integrated watershed management to sustain anthropogenic and environmental water demand.