Biotechnological

Communication

Biosci. Biotech. Res. Comm. 10(3): 431-437 (2017)

Spatial and temporal ground water responses to

seasonalrainfall replenishment in an alluvial aquifer

Sourabh Nema

, M. K. Awasthi

and R. K. Nema

Department of Soil & Water Conservation Engineering, JNKVV, Jabalpur

Professor, Department of Soil & Water Conservation Engineering, JNKVV, Jabalpur

Professor & Head, Department of Soil & Water Conservation Engineering, JNKVV, Jabalpur

ABSTRACT

Groundwater is an enormously vital water resource available on earth. Due to over exploitation of groundwater,

especially in dry regions and in the water scares areas, has led to irretrievable consequences due to deterioration of

water quality. The groundwater resources, which are found in shallow depth often have poor in water quality and in

most cases the ground water are severely over-exploited. Therefore, the study has been planned to identify the spatial

& temporal variation of aquifer responses of the study area to the natural recharge as well as Ground water level

trend in last 15 years. This study is conducted in Tawa command area, which lies in Hoshangabad District of Madhya

Pradesh. Also facing problem of water logging and shortage in the region. The study identi ed the spatial behavior of

ground water level in pre-monsoon and post monsoon. Insight of the current study, the spatial and temporal graphi-

cal analysis for the observation sites of the uncon ned aquifer indicated that there is a good hydraulic connection of

groundwater level with the rainfall.

KEY WORDS: AQUIFER, GROUNDWATER RESOURCES, WATER LOGGING, WATER LEVEL FLUCTUATION

431

ARTICLE INFORMATION:

*Corresponding Author:

Received 20

June, 2017

Accepted after revision 27

Sep, 2017

BBRC Print ISSN: 0974-6455

Online ISSN: 2321-4007 CODEN: USA BBRCBA

Thomson Reuters ISI ESC and Crossref Indexed Journal

NAAS Journal Score 2017: 4.31 Cosmos IF: 4.006

reserved.

Online Contents Available at:

http//www.bbrc.in/

DOI: 10.21786/bbrc/10.3/16

432 SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL GROUND WATER RESPONSES TO SEASONALRAINFALL REPLENISHMENT BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Nema, Awasthi and Nema

INTRODUCTION

Water is the most vital resource of both biosphere and

human society, without which no life can sustain on

the earth. Over 95% of the earth’s useable freshwater is

stored as groundwater, of which about 50% exists within

the earth’s crust down to a depth of 800 m, while only

1.5% exists in rivers and lakes (World Bank, 2010). Over

exploitation of groundwater for irrigation and other pur-

poses, especially in dry climates and in areas which are

facing water stress, has led to irreversible consequences.

The water stress on different sessions leads to Groundwa-

ter-level  uctuations, which basically represent hydrau-

lic responses to changes in groundwater storage due to

aquifer recharge and drainage as well as to changes in

stress that include water mass loading and unloading

above the aquifer surface (Burgess etal., 2017).

In order to meet the requirement of fast growing popu-

lation and industrialization, the water demand has been

increased signi cantly all over the globe. Overexploitation

of groundwater in many part of the world has resulting a

threatening condition of falling groundwater levels, saline

water infringement, crop demand-supply gap, drying of

the shallow aquifers, increasing power consumption due

to increase in cost of lift, decrease in free  ow and even

local subsidence in some places (Singh and Singh, 2002).

In many regions there is a lack of surface water

resource and the water bearing sub-surface zones are

having severe water contamination. Shallow groundwa-

ter resources are often of poor quality and above that

they are severely over-exploited. In a recent study based

on the analysis of GRACE satellite data revealed that the

groundwater resources in the states of Rajasthan, Punjab

and Haryana are being depleted at a mean rate of mean

rate of 4.0+1 cm yr-1 (Rodell etal., 2009).

Thus, it is evident that the current patterns of water

development and consumption are not sustainable in

several countries of the world, including India. Impend-

ing global/regional climate change, increasing popula-

tion and growing socio economic changes are expected

to exacerbate existing groundwater depletion through

considerable rise in water demand (Sauer et al., 2010;

Brown et al., 2013) and alterations in the spatio-tem-

poral availability of freshwater resources (Healy, 2002;

Elliott etal., 2014; Schewe etal., 2014; Bouwer, 2002;

CGWB, 2012; Singh, 1997; Kumar, 2002; Vanderzalm

etal. 2015 Nema 2017, and Smith etal., 2016).

Therefore, there is an urgent need for ef cient man-

agement of freshwater resources in India in order to

ensure sustainable management of our depleting fresh-

water resources.In many parts of India, The water table

is declining at a very fast rate. In few locations, it has

been gone beyond to the depth where it is uneconomi-

cal for pumping water for non-commercial and com-

mercial uses. In few states, the situation is so critical

that Government has banned ground pumping to sta-

bilize the ground water. Groundwater extraction rate is

not only the one factor which is responsible for declin-

ing water levels, the low rainfall resulting due to inad-

equate monsoon is equally responsible. Majority of the

ground water stress areas categorized as overexploited

and critical units also lies in such states. Considering the

importance of Groundwater, the issue of Ground water

declination or waterlogging has to be taken with priority

considering all the proved water management technolo-

gies along with ef cient strategies shall be adopted that

could help to reduce the prevailing disaster. This cur-

rent study demonstrate a comprehensive analysis of the

effects of spatial and temporal precipitation patterns on

Ground water level  uctuations.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Hoshangabad District which is situated in Upper Narmada

Region, M.P., lndia (Fig.1) was selected for this study. Nar-

mada River, the other main river of Hoshangabad is Tawa

River, which  ows towards north and joins river Narmada

near Hoshangabad.District Hoshangabad covers majority

of Tawa command areas which are the primary sources

of irrigation for entire district. The Hoshangabad district

lies between north latitudes 22º 15’ and 23º 00’ and east

longitudes 77º 15’ and 78º 42’ in part of survey of India

topo sheet Nos, 55F & 55J. Hoshangabad is the district

headquarter and Sohagpur, Piparia, Babai, Pachmarhi,

Seoni Malwa and Bankheri are some of the major towns.

The location map of study area is represented in Fig. 1.

Soils of the area are characterized by black grey, red and

yellow colors, often mixed with red and black alluvium

and ferruginous red ravel or lateritic soils.

Northern part of the study area (i.e. Hoshangabad dis-

trict), adjoining the Narmada river is covered with allu-

vium, which makes for more than 50% of the entire district.

Deccan traps occur as lava  ows in the west central

part of the district. The southern part of the district is hilly

and occupied by rocks belonging to Gondwanas. There

are two aquifer systems present in the study area. The top

phreatic aquifer range in thickness from 4 to 30m and

is encountered in the depth range of 4 to 20 mbgl. The

phreatic aquifer has intercalations of clay and silt, and at

places also of coarse sand or gravel. The Deeper aquifer

(i.e. con ned aquifer) ranges varies from 30 m to 60 m.

WATER LEVEL FLUCTUATION IN THE

STUDY AREA

Water table Declination in summer season is a common

problem for many part of the state as well as for India.

The current study has been done to observe the ground

BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL GROUND WATER RESPONSES TO SEASONALRAINFALL REPLENISHMENT 433

Nema, Awasthi and Nema

water level of study area with observing the rainfall (pre

monsoon and post monsoon) and river gauge impact

over ground water level for 16 years period from year

2000 to year 2015. The  uctuations have been observed

in relation to rainfall (pre monsoon and post monsoon).

The water table  uctuations have been in uenced by

many factors. The decline of groundwater level occurs

when the out ow exceeds or less recharge over the area.

The groundwater-level level data of 74 observation

wells tapping uncon ned aquifer were collected for 15

years (2000-2015) from the Central Ground Water Board

(CGWB) and the Ground Water Survey and Investigation

(GWS&I), Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

SEASONAL WATER LEVEL FLUCTUATIONS DUE

TO RAINFALL (YEAR 2000 TO 2015)

Monthly variations of rainfall in the study area over

16-year period (2000-2015) at eight rainfall/rain gauge

stations along with the line graphs are shown in Fig. 4.2

It is apparent from Fig. 2 that though the rainfall events

are somewhat distributed throughout the year, however

the magnitude of rainfall is quite less or zero in some

places. The rainy season usually starts from mid-June

and lasts up to the end of October.

FIGURE 1. Location map of the study area

FIGURE 2. Monthly variations of rainfall in the study area over 16 years

(2000-2015)

434 SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL GROUND WATER RESPONSES TO SEASONALRAINFALL REPLENISHMENT BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Nema, Awasthi and Nema

FIGURE 3. Variations of Annual Rainfall during 2000-2015 Period at

Eight Rainfall Stations

FIGURE 4. Spatial Variations of Mean Pre Monsoon Ground water Depth

Thus, the bulk of the annual rainfall is concentrated

in a relatively short span of time and hence runoff and

groundwater recharge are con ned to these months. As

suf cient rainfall is available during July, August, Sep-

tember and October, groundwater withdrawal is mini-

mum during these months. The standard line graph indi-

cate monthly variation of rainfall over 16-year period.

The large standard line graph during May to October

indicated considerable temporal variation of rainfall

in these months (Fig. 2). However, during November

through April, the variation in monthly rainfall is very

small. Furthermore, the rainfall of Pachmari station has

the highest rainfall for month of August, followed by

Hoshangabad & Seoni Malwa.

Long-term variations in the annual rainfall of the

study area from 2000 to 20l5 are shown in Fig. 3 for the

BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL GROUND WATER RESPONSES TO SEASONALRAINFALL REPLENISHMENT 435

Nema, Awasthi and Nema

FIGURE 5. Spatial Variations of Mean Post Monsoon Ground water Depth

FIGURE 6. Spatial Variation of Mean ground water  uctuations depth classes

Nema, Awasthi and Nema

436 SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL GROUND WATER RESPONSES TO SEASONALRAINFALL REPLENISHMENT BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

eight rain gauge stations. The average annual rainfall

over the study area is estimated at about 1099.24 mm

based on 16 years (2000-2015) rainfall records. In con-

trast, the rainfall at Pachmari station was found highest

and found above than average annual rainfall for all

years. The analysis were also done to  nd out the spatial

variation of mean ground water  uctuation depth class

(Mean of 2000-2015) over study area as shown in Fig.4.,

Fig. 5. & Fig. 6.

The minimum pre-post water  uctuation was

observed in Hoshangabad and Kesla Block. The  uctua-

tion of Pre-Post-monsoon groundwater depths (mean

of 2000-2015) was maximum in Bankhedi followed by

Babai, Sohagpur and Seoni Malwa block over the study

area is shown in Fig. 5 & Fig. 6. It is clearly evident

that the Bankhedi block of Hoshangabad showing the

maximum water  uctuation depth which may be due to

the non-command area exist on Bankhedi (Nema, 2017)

The average annual water level at downstream site

varies from 5.5 to 7.0 m in last 15 years. The rainfall

amount and ground water level from mean sea level has

been found inversely proposal similar to upstream and

middle stream sites.

The analysis of groundwater-depth contour maps of

pre- and post-monsoon seasons revealed that the mean

seasonal groundwater  uctuation in the study area

ranges from 3.45 to 7.70 m, with a major portion of the

study area having a mean groundwater  uctuation of

4.50 to 6.70 m.

Temporal analysis of Ground water level had been

done in to upstream, mid stram and down stram sites

represented in Fig 7(a-c). It has been evident from Fig.

7.(a) that in upstream, mean ground water depth varied

in the range of 10-13 m from mean sea level (MSL).

The ground water depth from MSL is seems to

be inversely correlated with rainfall. As the rainfall

amount increases the depth of water table from MSL has

decreases. Fig 7.(b) indicated the similar kind of pattern

of ground water behavious with respect to rainfall hav-

ing avg. depth 6 to 7.8 m. The trend of ground water

level wass also found increasing in middle region over

the period of time.

The similar kind of pattern of ground water depth

behaviour with respect to rainfall was found in down-

stream region. The avg. depth to ground water from

mean sea level is around 5.5 m to 7 m in last 15 years

CONCLUSION

Insight of the current study, the spatial and temporal

graphical analysis for the observation sites of the uncon-

 ned aquifer indicated that there is a good hydraulic

connection of groundwater level with the rainfall. It can

also be revealed that the rainfall has reasonable correla-

tions with the groundwater level of Aquifer and sug-

gesting a signi cant contribution of recharge from the

rainfall sources to uncon ned aquifer. The study also

indicated that Bankeri block whichh lies in upstream fol-

lowed by Babai block having maximium water  uctua-

tion and depth in pre-monsoon & post monsoon which

needs to be addressed in future for arresting groundwa-

ter declination further.

FIGURE 7a. Temporal Response of Average

annual ground water level with respect to Rain-

fall for upstream region

FIGURE 7b. Temporal Response of Average annual

ground water level with respect to Rainfall for mid-

stream region

FIGURE 7c. Temporal response of Average annual

ground water level with respect to Rainfall for down-

stream region

Nema, Awasthi and Nema

BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL GROUND WATER RESPONSES TO SEASONALRAINFALL REPLENISHMENT 437

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