Long-term groundwater recharge rates across India by in situ measurements

Soumendra N. Bhanja, Abhijit Mukherjee, R. Rangarajan, Bridget R. Scanlon, Pragnaditya Malakar, Shubha Verma

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

45 Scopus citations

Abstract

Groundwater recharge sustains groundwater discharge, including natural discharge through springs and the base flow to surface water as well as anthropogenic discharge through pumping wells. Here, for the first time, we compute long-term (1996-2015) groundwater recharge rates using data retrieved from several groundwater-level monitoring locations across India (3.3 million km 2 area), the most groundwater-stressed region globally. Spatial variations in groundwater recharge rates (basin-wide mean: 17 to 960 mm yr -1 ) were estimated in the 22 major river basins across India. The extensive plains of the Indus-Ganges-Brahmaputra (IGB) river basins are subjected to prevalence of comparatively higher recharge. This is mainly attributed to occurrence of coarse sediments, higher rainfall, and intensive irrigation-linked groundwater-abstraction inducing recharge by increasing available groundwater storage and return flows. Lower recharge rates (200 mm yr -1 ) in most of the central and southern study areas occur in cratonic, crystalline fractured aquifers. Estimated recharge rates have been compared favorably with field-scale recharge estimates (52) based on tracer (tritium) injection tests. Results show that precipitation rates do not significantly influence groundwater recharge in most of the river basins across India, indicating human influence in prevailing recharge rates. The spatial variability in recharge rates could provide critical input for policymakers to develop more sustainable groundwater management in India.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)711-722
Number of pages12
JournalHydrology and Earth System Sciences
Volume23
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 7 2019
Externally publishedYes

Funding

Acknowledgements. Soumendra N. Bhanja acknowledges the CSIR (Government of India) for their support in providing the SPM fellowship. Soumendra N. Bhanja also acknowledges U.S. Department of State for the Fulbright fellowship. We acknowledge the Central Ground Water Board of India and the IMD, India, for the water-level data and precipitation data, respectively. We thank Robert C. Reedy, UT Austin, for his help with the improvement of the figures. We thank Charudutta M. Nirmale for his help in data retrieval.

FundersFunder number
U.S. Department of State for the Fulbright
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India

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