A watershed is simply the geographic area through which water flows across the land and drains into a common body of water, whether a stream, river, lake, or ocean.

The different objectives of watershed management programmes are:

1. To control damaging runoff and degradation and thereby conservation of soil and water.

2. To manage and utilize the runoff water for useful purpose.

3. To protect, conserve and improve the land of watershed for more efficient and

sustained production.

1. To protect and enhance the water resource originating in the watershed.

2. To check soil erosion and to reduce the effect of sediment yield on the watershed.

3. To rehabilitate the deteriorating lands.

4. To moderate the floods peaks at downstream areas.

Watershed management is carried out in the following ways :-

1. Strip cropping - Strip cropping is a kind of agronomical practice in which ordinary crops are planted in form of relatively narrow strips across the land slope. The strip crops check the surface runoff of water and force them to infiltrate into the soil.

2. Contour bunding - The creation of multiple levels of flat ground that appear as long steps cut into hillsides. The technique slows the pace of runoff, which reduces soil erosion and retards overall water loss.

3. Terracing - It helps to bring sloping land into different level strips to enable cultivation.

4. Construction of check dams - It is constructed on small streams and long gullies formed by the erosive activity of flood water. It cuts the velocity and reduces the erosive activity.

5. Construction of percolation ponds - To augment the groundwater, shallow depressions are created in a natural or a diverted stream course.

Watershed management is aimed at the sustainable distribution of its resources and the process of creating and implementing plans, programs, and projects to sustain and enhance watershed functions that affect the plant, animal, and human communities within the watershed boundary. Watershed management aims to care for natural resources in a way that supports human needs for water, food, fiber, energy, and habitation, while supporting other agreed attributes linked to recreation, esthetics, and/or ecologic function. Because of these multidisciplinary concerns, the development of watershed-management strategies can involve complex scientific and public policy issues. Each watershed is unique in physiography, ecology, climate, water quality, land use, and human culture. Therefore any generalized approach to watershed management must be customized to each setting when put into practice.
The main function of a watershed is to receive the incoming precipitation and then dispose it off.

Some other objectives of watershed management programs are:

1. To control damaging runoff and degradation and thereby conservation of soil and water.
2. To manage and utilize the runoff water for useful purposes.
3. To protect, conserve and improve the land of a watershed for more efficient and sustained production.
4. To protect and enhance the water resource originating in the watershed.
5. To check soil erosion and to reduce the effect of sediment yield on the watershed.
6. To rehabilitate the deteriorating lands.
7. To moderate the floods peaks at downstream areas.
8. Recharging of groundwater to provide regular water supply for consumption and industry as well as irrigation.

Types of Watershed:

They are classified depending upon the size, drainage, shape and land use pattern. Macro watershed (> 50,000 Ha) Sub-watershed (10,000 to 50,000 Ha) Milli-watershed (1000 to 10,000 Ha) Micro watershed (100 to 1000 Ha) Mini watershed (1-100 Ha)

Watershed management is carried out in four phases:

a. Recognition phase It involves recognizing the problem, analyzing the cause of the problem and its effect, and developing alternate solutions. b. Restoration phase It includes the selection of the best solution to problems identified and then applying the solution. c. Protection phase This phase takes care of the general health of the watershed and ensures normal functioning. The protection is against all factors which may cause determined in watershed conditions. d. Improvement phase This phase deals with an overall improvement in the watershed and all land is covered.