There is no denying the fact that all international rivers like the Nile, the Rhyne, the Mekong the Ganges and the like are the heritage of mankind. But the Ganges which flows through upper riparian Nepal, India and lower ripparian Bangladesh, has its peculiarity that its monsoon flow (June-November) is sufficient to meet the needs of India and Bangladesh, but its dry season flow (January-May) is insufficient Recently India and Bangladesh have undertaken their own development plans for which the countries need to share the amount of available dry season flow. This has obviously resulted in a conflict of national interest. And the dispute has been aggravated due to construction of a structure called Farakka Barrage to divert the Ganges dry sea-son flow into the Bhagirthi-Hoogly river to improve the navigability of the Calcutta Port of West Bengal, India. The Ganges dispute had its genesis in the partition of India in 1947. The division split the river system both in the western and eastern sectors. As the two independent states (India and Pakistan) began to formulate their own plans for the development of waters of the rivers lying within their territories, dispute over these water surfaced both east and west. The entire period of negotiations over the Ganges water may be divided into six phases viz. (a) 1951 to 1971 i.e. the Pakistan phase. (b) 1972 to 75 i.e. early Bangladesh phase (c) 1975-1981 (d) 1982 to 1988 (e) 1988 to 1995 and (f) 1995 to 1996 i.e., the final phase of 30 years agreement. The Pakistan phase was marked by a feeling of hostility and distrust. Early Bangladesh phase had discussion on equitable allocation of Ganges water before commissioning of the Farakka Barrage. The phase 1975 to 81 is the break through in the form of 5 year Agreement in government level on April 18, 1977. Phase 1982 to 1988 was the extension of 5 year Agreement through a temporary Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Phase 1988 to 1995 was the period without any agreement. Finally a 30 year water agreement was signed on December 12, 1996 between the two governments. It is ex-pected that Bangladesh will receive its due share of water as per the terms of reference of this new 30 year agreement. This new 30-year agreement is mainly based on the availability of the Ganges water at Farakka point. Since the average water flow at Farakka depends on natural factors as well as the withdrawal of water in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states of India. so there is always a chance phenomenon that Bangladesh may not get its due share if less flow reaches at Farakka point as there is no guarantee clause for assured water quantum in this new 30-year Agreement.

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A canopy model is presented for estimating the diurnal or seasonal variations of heat balance component, surface tempera-ture, and soil water content. This model is composed of one canopy layer and two soil layers. The meteorological data required for the simulation are the daily amount of precipitation, the daily maximum and minimum air temperatures, the sunshine dura-tion, the daily-mean wind speed, the daily-mean vapor pressure, and the daily-mean air temperature. The results of model cal-culation agree well with observed values over a tanukimame field. Assuming that the observed value of soil water content is unknown, a method is proposed to estimate the leaf bulk coefficient for latent heat flux and soil water content using the vegetation vigor index that is determined by remote sensing.

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Characteristicso f spectral reflectanceh ave been studied for snow and vegetation, w hich are important elements for heatand water budget at ground surfaces.U sing this characteristicsw, e have investigated methods to estimate the vegetation density and to distinguish the snow existence. The spectral reflectance was measured under various conditions of the vegetation density and snow cover with movable potted seedlings, a ssuming high latitudalf orests with snow cover. We found that multiple scatteringi n the forest must be considered to simulate the spectralr eflectance, a fter the investigationw ith simple models. Next, we proposed vegetation indices to know the status of the vegetation and snow indices to decide the snow existence using remote sensing.P revious representativev egetation indicesa re using one visiblea nd one near infrared wavelength band, and they can estimate the activityo f the vegetation.H owever, the value of these indices is variable for the same vegetation if the forest floort ype changes, especiallys now cover. We found that the proposed vegetation indices could show the vegetation density (LAI<3) using three wavelength bands (one visiblea nd two near infrared bands), because they depended not on surface elements (soil type and snow) but on only LAI. Moreover, the snow indices can distinguish the snow existence on the forest floor when LAI<3.

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A runoff simulation system for large river basins is presented. A watershed basin is subdivided into grid boxes which corre-spond to the ones of numerical atmospheric models. The inputs to the system are hydrologic variables for grid boxes, which are assumed to be computed by numerical atmospheric models. Runoff from each grid box is calculated and routed along channel networks. The system is applied to the Chao Phraya River Basin. River discharges at many hydrological stations are simulated and model performances are evaluated.

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