Volume 6, Issue 6, June – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology

ISSN No:-2456-2165

Reservoir Axis Modeling along the Arghastan

River by GIS
Abdul Wali Hejran 1, Ahmad Shad Dawari2, Mohammad Sadiq Busty3

1.2, Assistant professor Water resource and environmental department, Engineering faculty, Helmand University, Helmand
Afghanistan.

3, Assistant Professor civil department, Engineering faculty, Helmand University, Helmand Afghanistan

Abstract:- Most of the countries around the world are different spatial and temporal scales, GIS and its related tools
facing water scarcity, and many of the problems that are (a group of remote sensing technology) can provide a huge
caused by bloodshed between countries, nations and amount of valuable data in spatial and temporal resolutions
people in the world due to water. Arghastan district is for areas where ground data are not easily accessible. Remote
located in the southeast of Kandahar city. The Arghastan Sensing technique gives us directly the water spread area of
River, which originates in the northeast of Gardez city, the reservoir at a particular elevation on the date of pass of
passes through this district, so the river is called the satellite Narasayya, K. 2013.Schumann. Moreover, A. H.,
Arghastan River. Water flows in the river during winter & Geyer, J. (1997) used GIS and remote sensing method for
and spring seasons, thus due to lack of environmental designing flood reservoir and it was indicated that the
flow during the dry period leads to losing of various planning of flood reservoirs within a river basin can be
animals specifies lives. The main objective of the study is improved significantly by the application of GIS. Remote
proper dam site location selection on Arghastan River sensing techniques and more detailed climatologically and
using Remote-sensing and GIS. Contour map of the basin process models are available to provide new possibilities for
was created by using 5-meter resolution DEM. Based on detailed modeling of small reservoirs in order to capture their
various technical criteria’s for dam site selection the most surface areas for estimating their storage capacities to have a
suitable site for the dam is proposed at GPS coordinates clear picture of available water resources Sawunyama, et al.
of 66°48'34.468"E 31°35'4.512"N, with a maximum 2005. For evaluation sub-surface dam construction within
possible height up to 170 m and a storage capacity of 1700 Isayi watershed, Kurdistan region GIS used by Ali, S. et al.
million cubic meter. While the hydrological modeling of 2014 for selecting site location. GIS and remote sensing
the basin indicates an average monthly discharge of 38.6 through satellite images and DEM interpretation and analysis
m3/s which can irrigate up to 35,000 hectares agriculture have facilitated the investigation with more accuracy.
area with a good power potential capacity of 38 MW,
sufficient for lighting of around 38 houses of the region. Problem Statement
In recent years, water scarcity is a big problem
Keywords:- Dam Site, Reservoir Volume, Power Potential, throughout the country which has very badly affected
Spillway. agricultural products. This river basin covers about 34000
km2 area with no storage structures built up along the river to
I. INTRODUCTION store and regulate the natural flow regime of the river. Main
of Arghastan Water Resources related problems can be
The flow rate of a river or natural stream may vary summarized as follows:
considerably during different seasons of a year. It may carry a) Due to lack of regulatory measures, an integral part of the
little or no water during some periods of a year and may carry surface water of this river basin is flowing out of the basin
huge amount of water after heavy rain causes a raging torrent with no or very limited use along the river.
and a hazard all along its banks. During extremely low flows b) During the rainy seasons, people lose their properties due
it impossible to meet the demands of the consumers, because to flood flows and during dry seasons, there is no water
water is drawn directly from a river. Hence, it is essential to even for livelihood.
create a reservoir or an artificial lake by constructing a dam c) Ground water table is continuously drawing down, which
across the river which can store excess water during high is warring the residents that there will be no sufficient
floods for use during low flow seasons and droughts. water for drinking in the near future.
According to their type of function, reservoirs are classified
as; flood control, irrigation, power generation, navigation, Research Objectives
recreation, water supply (domestic and industrial uses), The main objective of this research is Reservoir axis
development of fish and wild life, soil conservation and other modeling along the Arghastan River, and recognition of the
miscellaneous purposes. Recently, remote sensing techniques hydrological system along the valley in order to provide
has provided valuable datasets to examine hydrological reliable instruction to managing water resources in a
variables and morphological changes over large regions at sustained method to support the managerial process about the

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Volume 6, Issue 6, June – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
future development of the water resources in this river basin. management to control loses of about two-thirds of its water
This will tune up a series of development of agricultural, that flowing to Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.
water supply and electricity sectors. Therefore, the objectives Afghanistan has specific seasons; summers are hot and
of the present study are: winters can be bitterly cold. In summers the temperatures as
A. To locate and model the reservoir axis along the high as 49 °C have been documented in the south-western
Arghastan river parts of the country while midwinter temperatures as low as -
B. To estimate water volume that can be stored in this 15 °C are common nearby the Hindu Kush.
reservoir and the land that is supposed to submerge at
different elevations of the dam once the reservoir is As just mentioned, there are generally fife river basins
formed. over the country, out of them Shamal is a national River
C. To identify the area the can be watered from this reservoir. Basin that flows and ends inside the northwestern and
D. To estimate power potential of the dam at various water- northern territories of the country. Helmand although is a
heads. transboundary river, is very important as per the irrigation
point of view since it covers about 47.2% of the country. This
Site Description river basin having numerous tributaries, originates from the
Afghanistan, a mountainous landlocked country within central Hindu Kush (Western Parts of Koh e Baba) is located
in Central Asia, has generally five water regions or river in the southern part of the country. Arghandab River is the
basin i.e. Helmand River basin, Kabul River basin, North main tributary of Helmand River that covers about 75000
River ba-sin, Amo River basin and Harirod River basin. Due km2, which is formed of three sub-tributaries such as,
to no strategic planning for the water sector, Afghanistan still Tarnak, Durai, and Arghastan. As per the agriculture point of
has not found a chance to efficiently utilize its water view, Arghandab is a very important valley. Its geographical
potential. Every year most of its national water flows into coordinates are 31.33 to 33.57 N and 66.46 to 69.34 E as
bordering countries. There is still need for time and illustrated in the Fig.1.

Figure 1: Arghandab River basin

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Volume 6, Issue 6, June – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
Arghastan River, the longest in Arghandab river basin, DEM is a general term for the digital cartographic
originates in about 34 km from the northeast of Gardiz city representation of the elevation of the land at regularly spaced
and runs about 715 km to southwest direction before joining intervals in x, y and z directions. All forms of DEM data are
the Durai River in the south-west of Kandahar city. useable to model and analysis the earth’s topography in three-
Arghastan River flows through four provinces such as dimensions. For identifying of the site of reservoir and for
Paktika, Ghazni, Zabul and Kandahar. Arghastan River is an estimation of its storage volume, DEM images with 5m
intermittent river, which means most of the times, water resolution collected from the Ministry of Energy and Water
flows only in winter and spring season or after a storm. currently emerged to National Water Affairs Regulatory
Overall, Arghastan river basin has a catchment area of about Authority (NWARA) were used.
34,050 sq. kilometer. The major crops types that are
cultivated in this river basin are wheat, cotton, maize, fruits As shown in figure 2, contour map of the Valley was
(grapes, figs and apple) and nuts. created (with 10m contour interval) using the create contour
option and then by zooming and eye judgment a suitable
II. MATERIAL AND METHODOLOGY location was selected for the dam and its proposed reservoir.
In 3D analysis tool, surface volume option was used to
In this study, remote sensing and Arc-GIS has been estimate the capacity of the reservoir and water spread area at
used to identify site location of the reservoir on Arghastan different elevations of the dam. Having the above mentioned
River and its maximum capacity. To achieve a result with data, it is possible to calculate the projected area, surfaced
high accuracy, an attempt was made to collect and use more area, and hence, create a Level-Volume-Area (LVA)
accurate data that, are available with different governmental relationship dataset.
agencies i.e. the directorate of Agriculture, Rural
Rehabilitation and Helmand River Basin’s Agency.

Figure 2: contour map of the study area

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION above, in this study, GIS was used to identify suitable site
for a dam, its reservoir, storage volume and water spread
Arghastan is the longest in the tributaries of area at different elevations.
Arghandab River that flows around 715km to the
Southwestern direction although carries several hundred Dam Site:
million cubic meters of water on yearly basis, no hydraulic As mentioned early, 5-meter resolution digital
structure to store and regulate its flow regime has been built elevation model image was used to construct contour map of
on it to date. Studying the dam-site location, can be the valley and hence to find a suitable location of the dam
considered as a step picked up towards the management axis. Several points along the river to construct small dams
regulation of the flow regime along the river. As mentioned but the most strategic location that was selected in this

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Volume 6, Issue 6, June – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
research is the point with coordinates 66°48'34.468"E and side of the dam, after the formation of the reservoir which
31°35'4.512"N, as shown in figure 3.The red contour line also adds to the suitability of the construction of the dam.
indicates the bed elevation of the river at that point (having
zero elevation) and the block line having 170m height from Whatever the type of the dam that should be, it
the stream bed at that point indicates the maximum reservoir necessarily requires a passage with enough capacity to
level. It shows that if the foundation material is good (Rocky safely pass flood-flows to the downstream. Therefore,
Foundation), it is possible to construct a dam 170 high from spillway is an important part of the dam complex and is
the stream bed. located either as a part of the main dam body or as a
separate channel at a suitable place near the dam.
For the dam to be cost-effective and have well Henceforth, selecting a location and type of the spillway is
stability, its length should be as small as possible. The an important aspect in dam design and construction
selected site is the narrowest one along the river with the practices. Selecting a proper type and location for the
required height. In this site, the width of the stream at the spillway, makes the dam project very cost-effective. In this
bed level is about 95m, while it should become wide up to study, the dam-site has a proper place for a spillway
485m at the elevation of 170 m from the stream bed. construction on the left bank of the reach, as illustrate in the
Moreover, there are very least amount of land and other figure 3, &4.
property of the residents that will submerged in upstream

Figure 3: Location of Dam & Spillway

Reservoir volume: bed of the river were used to find out the water spread area a.
Storage volume estimation is a crucial element of the The storage volume and water spread area at different
study which influence the result of the research. In this study, elevations are determined and plotted against elevations to
3D analysis tools in GIS were used to estimate the reservoir obtain storage-elevation and area-elevation curve as shown in
volume at different elevations and then the area-volume Figure 5. It shows that the reservoir has the capacity to store
relationship was determined. From the contour plan of the up to 1467 and 1744 Million cubic meters of water for dam
site, the water spread area of the reservoir at any elevation is heights 160 and 170m respectively that is sufficient to
also determined by measuring the area enclosed by the regularly and manage water of this river for agriculture land
contour corresponding to that elevation. As illustrated in downstream of the dam during the dry seasons.
table 1, about 18 different elevation starting from zero at a
specific location of the dam up to 170 meter height from the

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Volume 6, Issue 6, June – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165

Figure 4: Location of Reservoir

Table 1: Arghastan Dam Area-Volume

Arghastan dam area-volume
Elevation of the dam-
Elevation of the dam-crest Reservoir water spread area Reservoir volume in million
NO crest from mean sea
from river bed in m km2 cubic meter
level in m
1 0 1450 0.00 0.00
2 10 1460 0.12 0.46
3 20 1470 0.55 3.53
4 30 1480 1.24 12.19
5 40 1490 2.15 28.68
6 50 1500 3.19 55.26
7 60 1510 4.72 94.06
8 70 1520 6.16 148.25
9 80 1530 7.64 217.32
10 90 1540 9.20 301.43
11 100 1550 10.81 401.22
12 110 1560 12.68 518.54
13 120 1570 14.95 656.28
14 130 1580 17.39 817.73
15 140 1590 20.10 1005.06
16 150 1600 23.12 1221.05
17 160 1610 26.19 1467.73
18 170 1620 28.81 1744.43

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Volume 6, Issue 6, June – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165

Figure 5: Capacity-Area Curve

Irrigation capability Power capacity

There is no hydro-meteorological data available for the As mentioned earlier, a dam of up to 170 meters may be
river since no hydrological nor meteorological station is built in this area. And deep water bodies in comparison to
installed on this river, therefore, only modeled data were used shallow water bodies are very significant in losing water due
with no calibration. A 34-year annual-average stream flow to evaporation, since the area chosen for the dam has a hot
was modelled that becomes about 53m3/ (Wali & Singh, climate and very high annual evaporation. Hence, having a
2017). This is an amount that has to be stored in a reservoir dam with 170m height will form a very deep reservoir
and used for irrigation and water supply purposes during dry behind. Moreover, the height of water level (water head H)
seasons. As types of losses from the reservoir, evaporation besides the amount of water in the reservoir, is very essential
and infiltration are the main ones that are dependent mainly to operate the Hydro-Electro-Power-Plant (HEPP). The
on the geology and morphology of the area, spread area of the higher the level of water in the reservoir, the higher it has a
reservoir, relative elevation of the territory, quality of water, capacity to generate Hydro-Power. As just mentioned, the
temperature of the surrounding environment and wind flow average annual runoff of the river was estimated to be about
characteristics; and before to commence, both of these main 53m3/s, and out of that, a 13m3/s was assumed to be lost due
losses have to be measured in each season of a year. As a to evaporation, infiltration and others. Hence, a 40m 3/s is
rough estimation, the amount lost due to these two and non- considered to be used to operate the HEPP and fulfill the
stable rainfalls, was assumed to be 13m3/s, hence, 40m3/s is irrigation and water supply demands simultaneously. For
considered to fulfill the irrigation and water supply demands. every 5-m increase of net head (H), the power generation
As per HAVA (Helmand and Arghandab Valley Authority) capacity of the dam (watt) was estimated as 𝑃𝑤 = 𝜂𝑄𝜌𝐺𝐻
irrigation practices, 1m3/s can irrigate about 1000 ha in an and the result was brought in the following table: Here, 𝜂
irrigation interval (7 days in summers). Hence, can say that represents the efficiency of Hydro-Turbine and Generator
this dam can irrigate at least about 40,000 ha of agriculture i.e.𝜂𝑇 ∗ 𝜂𝐺 , Q represents the flow rate (m3/s), 𝜌 the density of
lands. water (1000kg/m3), G the acceleration of the ground (9.81
m/s2) and H represents net head of water (meter). It concludes
that this dam has the capacity of power potential up to 46
MW that is sufficient for lighting around 40 housed in this
area.

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Volume 6, Issue 6, June – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
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Table 2: Power potential of the dam
POWER GENERATION FOR THE ARGHASTAN PROPOSE DAM
NO Q n p G H PW P, MW
1 40 0.85 1000 9.81 60 21189600 20.0124
2 40 0.85 1000 9.81 65 22955400 21.6801
3 40 0.85 1000 9.81 70 24721200 23.3478
4 40 0.85 1000 9.81 75 26487000 25.0155
5 40 0.85 1000 9.81 80 28252800 26.6832
6 40 0.85 1000 9.81 85 30018600 28.3509
7 40 0.85 1000 9.81 90 31784400 30.0186
8 40 0.85 1000 9.81 95 33550200 31.6863
9 40 0.85 1000 9.81 100 35316000 33.354
10 40 0.85 1000 9.81 105 37081800 35.0217
11 40 0.85 1000 9.81 110 38847600 36.6894
12 40 0.85 1000 9.81 115 40613400 38.3571
13 40 0.85 1000 9.81 120 42379200 40.0248
14 40 0.85 1000 9.81 125 44145000 41.6925
15 40 0.85 1000 9.81 130 45910800 43.3602

IV. CONCLUSION 170m if not restricted due to geological limitations and

with a proposed reservoir of 1700 Mm3 capacity.
A. Water is the most important element of life, management C. Due to evaporation and infiltration losses of water from
of this vialed source is very essential for the residents and the reservoir and non-stability of rainfalls on the
related state. In the present study, it’s tried to work on catchment, only 40m3/s out of 53m3/s of stream flow is
water resource management of the Arghastan River basin considered for irrigation and other demands which is
that cover about 34,050 sq. km, area and located to the sufficient to watered about 40000 hectares of agriculture
south-east of Kandahar city. lands downstream of the dam.
B. Along the Arghastan river, a most important site with D. The study also concludes that this dam has the capacity
coordination 66°48'34.468"E and 31°35'4.512"N was of power potential up to 40 MW that is sufficient for
selected for a dam construction with a height of up to lighting around 40,000 households around the area.
[6]. Larentis, D. G., Collischonn, W., Olivera, F., & Tucci,
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