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 prime concern. Now, a reliable integration of groundwater resources for water-allocation planning is needed to prevent aquifer overexploitation. Within the 11,000-km2 Musi River sub-basin (South India), human interventions have dramatically impacted the hard-rock aquifers, with a water-table drop of 0.18m/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 waterallocation modelling framework used to guide decision makers and water-resources managers worldwide.
Main Authors: | Massuel, S., George, B.A., Venot, Jean-Philippe, Bharati, Luna, Acharya, S. |
---|---|
Format: | Journal Article biblioteca |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2013
|
Subjects: | groundwater management, water resources, water supply, sustainability, arid lands, river basins, aquifers, models, case studies, |
Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/40284 |
Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
Similar Items
-
Groundwater modeling for sustainable resource management in the Musi catchment, India
by: Massuel, Sylvain, et al.
Published: (2007) -
Conjunctive management of surface water and groundwater in the Middle Rio Lerma Basin, Mexico
by: Scott, Christopher A., et al.
Published: (2001) -
Managing water for peace in the Middle East: alternative strategies
by: United Nations University, et al. -
Non-renewable groundwater resources: a guidebook on socially-sustainable management for water-policy makers
by: Foster, Stephen, et al. -
Hydronomic zones for developing basin water conservation strategies
by: Molden, David J., et al.
Published: (2001)