ASRB NET — Farm Machinery & Power / Land & Water Management Engineering / Agricultural Structures & Process Engineering · India · Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board (ICAR)
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersManaging water at the scale of reservoirs, canals and river basins, including floods and farmer participation.
In the exams: ICAR AICE subject 40 Units 7–8; ICAR AIEEA-PG Unit VII; electives in the ICAR 6th Deans' Committee B.Tech
ASRB NET — Land & Water Management Engineering
PG-level concepts: reservoir yield and operation, sediment management, IWRM, basin planning, participatory management and water quality.
How our questions for ASRB NET spread across the units of Water Resources Management, Floods & Canal Systems. Difficulty: 11 easy, 31 medium, 15 hard.
| Water resources of a country | 11 | |
| Water quality management | 10 | |
| Reservoirs | 8 | |
| Flood control measures | 7 | |
| Water users' associations and participatory irrigation management | 7 | |
| Canal operation | 4 | |
| Flood estimation | 4 | |
| Minor irrigation | 4 | |
| Diversion works | 2 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Which allocation doctrine gives the holder of the oldest water right first call on supply during a shortage?
C. Prior appropriation
Under prior appropriation ('first in time, first in right'), senior rights are met first in shortage, as in the western USA. Riparian doctrine ties rights to land bordering water; proportional sharing cuts everyone by the same fraction; equitable utilisation is the international-law principle for shared rivers.
Further reading: Loucks and van Beek, Water Resource Systems Planning and Management
What does an environmental flow assessment for a river basin plan specify?
C. The quantity, timing and quality of flow needed to sustain the river ecosystem and people relying on it
Environmental flows describe the flow regime, not only a minimum, needed for ecosystems and the livelihoods depending on them. Bankfull capacity, turbine operation and transferable surplus are engineering quantities that a basin plan computes separately.
Further reading: Loucks and van Beek, Water Resource Systems Planning and Management
A catchment of 800 km² yields 1,200 t/km² of sediment a year to a reservoir with 95% trap efficiency. The deposit's dry bulk density is 1.2 t/m³. What volume of sediment is deposited each year?
B. 0.76 Mm³
Mass trapped = 800 × 1,200 × 0.95 = 912,000 t; volume = 912,000 ÷ 1.2 = 760,000 m³. 0.80 omits trap efficiency; 0.91 forgets to divide by bulk density; 1.09 multiplies by 1.2 instead of dividing.
Further reading: Morris and Fan, Reservoir Sedimentation Handbook
What is a hedging rule in reservoir operation?
D. Deliberately releasing less than full demand early in a drought to avoid a larger shortage later
Hedging accepts small early shortages to avoid a deep later one. Releasing full demand whenever possible is the standard operating policy; releasing ahead of a forecast flood is pre-release for flood control.
Further reading: Loucks and van Beek, Water Resource Systems Planning and Management
In a multipurpose reservoir, what is the central operating conflict during the flood season?
A. Flood control wants the pool kept low for a cushion, while conservation wants it high to secure refill
The flood cushion must be empty when floods come, but conservation purposes need the reservoir full by the end of the season. Hydropower wants a high pool for head, not a low one; flushing needs a drawn-down pool, not a full one.
Further reading: Loucks and van Beek, Water Resource Systems Planning and Management
Which problem is commonly caused by long flood embankments along an aggrading alluvial river?
D. The river bed rises between the embankments, increasing the consequence of a breach
Confined sediment deposits between embankments, raising the bed and flood levels, so breaches become more damaging; embankments also cause drainage congestion behind them. They store little volume, so they do not reduce downstream floods.
Further reading: WMO/GWP Integrated Flood Management
Why must tanks in a South Indian or Sri Lankan cascade be rehabilitated as a group rather than one at a time?
D. Each tank's surplus and drainage feed the next tank down the valley, so upstream changes alter supply downstream
Cascades are hydrologically linked: raising one bund or desilting one tank changes what the next receives and the flood passing down. Each tank has its own sluice and catchment.
Further reading: FAO / IWMI studies of tank cascades
What distinguishes irrigation management transfer from participatory irrigation management?
B. Transfer hands management of part or all of a system to users; participation involves them alongside the agency
PIM involves users in planning, operation, maintenance and finance; IMT shifts responsibility (sometimes ownership) to user organisations, usually below a stated level. Neither is defined by fee level or water source.
Further reading: FAO / IWMI reviews of irrigation management transfer
Which is one of Elinor Ostrom's design principles for long-lived common-pool resource institutions such as irrigation systems?
C. Graduated sanctions for members who break the rules
Ostrom's principles include clear boundaries, rules suited to local conditions with benefits proportional to contributions, collective choice, monitoring, graduated sanctions, conflict resolution, recognition of rights to organise, and nesting. Equal shares regardless of contribution and uniform national rules contradict them.
Further reading: Ostrom, Governing the Commons, 1990
Which country transferred the management of its irrigation districts to water user associations on a large scale from about 1989?
D. Mexico
Mexico's transfer programme, from about 1989, handed irrigation districts to user associations and is widely studied. Japan has long-established land improvement districts; Egypt and Australia followed different paths.
Further reading: FAO / IWMI reviews of irrigation management transfer
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