Improving assessment of groundwater-resource sustainability with deterministic modelling: a case study of the semi-arid Musi sub-basin, South India

Since the 1990s, Indian farmers, supported by the government, have partially shifted from surface-water to groundwater irrigation in response to the uncertainty in surface-water availability. Water-management authorities only slowly began to consider sustainable use of groundwater resources as a pri...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hydrogeology journal 2013-11, Vol.21 (7), p.1567-1580
Main Authors: Massuel, S., George, B. A., Venot, J.-P., Bharati, L., Acharya, S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aquatic Pollution
Aquifers
Availability
Catchment area
Catchment scale
climate
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Geology
Geophysics/Geodesy
Groundwater
Groundwater availability
Groundwater flow
Groundwater irrigation
Groundwater table
hard-rock aquifers
hyderabad
Hydrogeology
Hydrology
Hydrology/Water Resources
India
integrated assessment
Irrigation water
management
Mathematical models
methodology
Modelling
Natural resource management
Overexploitation
recharge
River basins
river-basin
Surface water
Sustainability
Sustainable use
Waste Water Technology
water allocation
Water availability
Water Management
Water Pollution Control
Water Quality/Water Pollution
Water resources management
Water supply
Water table
yield
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Summary:Since the 1990s, Indian farmers, supported by the government, have partially shifted from surface-water to groundwater irrigation in response to the uncertainty in surface-water availability. Water-management authorities only slowly began to consider sustainable use of groundwater resources as a prime concern. Now, a reliable integration of groundwater resources for water-allocation planning is needed to prevent aquifer overexploitation. Within the 11,000-km 2 Musi River sub-basin (South India), human interventions have dramatically impacted the hard-rock aquifers, with a water-table drop of 0.18 m/a over the period 1989–2004. A fully distributed numerical groundwater model was successfully implemented at catchment scale. The model allowed two distinct conceptualizations of groundwater availability to be quantified: one that was linked to easily quantified fluxes, and one that was more expressive of long-term sustainability by taking account of all sources and sinks. Simulations showed that the latter implied 13 % less available groundwater for exploitation than did the former. In turn, this has major implications for the existing water-allocation modelling framework used to guide decision makers and water-resources managers worldwide.
ISSN:1431-2174
1435-0157
DOI:10.1007/s10040-013-1030-z