Ponds and Their Potential for Agricultural Sustainability in Punjab; Insights from a Century of Surface Water Change in the Granary of India

Ponds are one of the most basic landscape features that humans can use to manage water, and were important landscape features common especially in periods before people began extracting groundwater using fossil-fuels. In this article we use historical cartography and geospatial methods to analyse a century of change in pond distribution in the Indian state of Punjab, part of a larger area colloquially known as the ‘Granary’ of India. We ask how the changing spatial distribution of ponds over the last century reflects shifts in water management over a period that also includes the Green Revolution (1968 onwards), when agriculture intensified and groundwater levels declined. We find that ponds were prevalent in the past, suggesting they contributed to more adaptive forms of water use. Pond numbers and area have declined over the last century, which leads us to suggest that pond restoration may provide a pathway to sustainable water governance in the region today.