Integrated Hydrological Data Book is a compendium of important hydrological information on major basins consolidated at the national level. This present issue of the data book provides updated basin/site-wise data for 12 non-classified basins covering aspects such as location, drainage area, population, temperature, average runoff, seasonal water flow, historical water levels, average sediment load, water quality parameters and land use statistics.

The revised National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) Guidelines issued by Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission, Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation has focus on adequate water supply in quantity and quality, to each rural household on a sustainable basis. Despite the impressive coverage of provision of safe drinking water facilities in the rural areas, there is considerable gap between infrastructure created and service available at the household level.

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) should be organized on the relevant scale of the basins of rivers, lakes and aquifers, especially when they are transboundary. But significant progress should be made to move from theory to practice and take concrete action for transboundary cooperation on water wherever necessary, regarding surface waters and groundwater as well.

Monitoring of water and land objects enters a revolutionary age with the rise of ubiquitous remote sensing and public access. Earth monitoring satellites permit detailed, descriptive, quantitative, holistic, standardized, global evaluation of the state of the Earth skin in a manner that our actual Earthen civilization has never been able to before. The water monitoring topics covered in this book include the remote sensing of open water bodies, wetlands and small lakes, snow depth and underwater seagrass, along with a variety of remote sensing techniques, platforms, and sensors.

The Krishna River Basin has witnessed high rainfall and consequent floods of various intensities during the last few years. These floods have both the positive as well as negative impacts on the population and the resources. Increase in the ground water potential and availability of additional surface water resources are amongst the logically expected positive impacts. Evaluation of the impacts of high rainfall and consequent floods on ground water and surface water resources would pave a way for managing the additional available water for development.

The tiny fraction of freshwater not bound up in ice sheets and glaciers comprises only a very small fraction of total global water volume (about 0.79 %). Global use of that freshwater, however, has been growing at roughly twice the rate of global population for the past century. Even so, this volume of unfrozen freshwater is still more than adequate to meet all human needs. However, this essential resource, which is mostly stored as groundwater, is distributed quite unevenly around the globe.

The report on “Sustainable Groundwater Management” is the outcome of rigorous work carried out by of the Working Group set up by the Planning Commission as a part of the process to prepare the 12th Five Year Plan.

The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP) monitors progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. The JMP publishes a report every two years, which presents an update on the progress made towards reaching the MDG target for drinking water and sanitation. This thematic report on drinking water is designed to complement the main JMP report (WHO/UNICEF, 2010).