Rainwater Harvesting as a Mean for Water Conservation in Ovche Pole Region, Macedonia

Abstract

Ovche Pole is an area in Macedonia located in the central part of the country. The region is the second largest grain producing area and agriculture is the main economic activity for most of the people there. From an agro-ecological perspective, larger part of the region is part of the sub-humid agricultural zone; however, there is an area that is identified as semiarid agricultural zone, too. In both agro-ecological zones, main problem and constraint for agricultural production are the dryness and low precipitation in the growing period. This problem is especially emphasized on the agricultural land without irrigation system. Therefore, this study analyzes rainwater harvesting approach as a mean for water conservation and improvement of agriculture productivity in the research area. The first objective of this study is to determine the runoff potential in the research area and the second is to identify suitable areas and measures for water harvesting. Remote sensing and geographic information system techniques were used to obtain, prepare and analyze input data. Because of simplicity and lack of hydrological data in the research area, SCS-Curve Number method was used for rainfall- runoff modelling. Hydrologic Soil Group (HSG) map was build using data obtained from the Macedonian Soil Information System (MASIS). Land use/land cover was prepared by combining supervised classification of Sentinel-2 satellite image and visual interpretation and editing to improve the classification. Slope map was generated from a 20-meter resolution DEM data obtained from the Agency for Real Estate Cadaster. Data of the annual average precipitation for the period between 1981 and 2010 was obtained from the National Hydrometeorological Service. Set of rainwater harvesting measures were selected as appropriate for the context of the research area. The site suitability for each rainwater harvesting intervention was determined by considering different varying parameters like runoff potential, slope, soil texture, land use, stream order of proximity to users. The results indicate that rainwater harvesting can be considered as a strategy for water conservation in the research area.