Assessing deep pools and water spread dynamics in semi-arid Banas River, India: a geospatial approach for conservation and sustainable management.

The deep pools are considered vital habitats for both aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity in arid and semi-arid rivers. These 'refugia' habitats sustain the aquatic biodiversity of local and regional importance when water flow ceases. Banas is an ecologically unique and non-perennial river in the Ganga Basin originating from the Aravalli Range and flowing through the semi-arid region of Rajasthan, India. This study maps and characterises the deep pools in the water stressed river using Sentinel-2 satellite data (2019-2022). Mapping and analysis were done using geospatial tools and field data. The composite map reported 2.18 km (0.6% of the total area) and 72.42 km (19.0% of the total area) of permanent water spread in the floodplain and reservoirs of Banas River, respectively with seasonal variations. A total of 558 contiguous habitats with varying sizes (50 to 314,422 m) were delineated and most of them were located in the downstream of Bisalpur Dam especially along the river meandering. The composition of the area under different land use land cover classes in the riparian zone varied across the deep pools with medium land use intensity. The high proportion of vegetation and cropland near and far from the riparian buffer indicated existence of the natural and agrarian landscapes, respectively. The indications of various ecosystem services by the deep pools necessitate spatial quantification. Additionally, impact of the various anthropogenic threats on aquatic habitats recommends measures for habitat restoration and conservation planning of Banas River.