Author(s): A. Suneel Kumar Joshi; B. Sneha Gautam
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Keywords: Groundwater depletion; Recharge; Abstraction; Over-exploitation; Indi
Abstract: Investigating the spatio-temporal pattern of groundwater level changes using historical groundwater level data is important to understand the hydrological significance of an aquifer system. Here, we have compiled historical groundwater level data along with recharge, abstraction, and stages of groundwater development from different sources. Further, we have prepared spatial and temporal plots of depth to water levels for the pre-monsoon season of 2012 and 2016. We found marked spatial variability in depth to water level maps. We also observed a rapid fall in groundwater levels in northwest and north India because of the over-exploitation of groundwater resources for agricultural purposes. In southern India, particularly in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka indicate low groundwater availability due to the inherent aquifer properties of crystalline aquifers. We have also found an increasing trend in rainfall recharge from 248 to 251 billion cubic meters (bcm) from 2004 to 2017 during the monsoon season. We have observed spatial variation in recharge. The average recharge is about 68.9±1.9 bcm (during monsoon) 73.3±2.3 (during non-monsoon) between 2004 and 2017. In addition, we have found decreasing trend from 29% to 23% in canal irrigated area and from 4.5% to 2.5% in surface water irrigated area between 2000-01 to 2014-15. We have observed an increasing trend in the groundwater development stage from 58% to 63% from 2004 to 2017. We offered a multi-disciplinary study of the groundwater system is required on a large scale to understand the recharge processes.
Year: 2021