Possibility of artificial recharge in overdeveloped miniwatersheds: …earthscienceindia.info/pdfupload/tech_pdf-29.pdf · 2016. 1. 22. · artificial recharge in the overdeveloped

e-Journal Earth Science India Vol.2 (II), April, 2009, pp. 101 - 110

http://www.earthscienceindia.info/

101

Possibility of artificial recharge in overdeveloped miniwatersheds: A RS-GIS approach

Bhagyashri C. Maggirwara and Bhavana N. Umrikarb

aGroundwater Surveys and Development Agency, Pune, India

bDepartment of Geology, University of Pune, India

Email: [email protected]; bnumrikar@unipune. ernet.in

Abstract

The stress on groundwater has become a point of concern for planners and researchers. The groundwater pumping is exceeding the recharge due to increased dependency on groundwater to cater the needs of the growing population. Therefore, the assessment of groundwater potential and scope for artificial recharge in the overdeveloped watersheds is very crucial. GV-41 5/8 and 6/8 miniwatersheds are such overdeveloped areas where the groundwater occurring in unconfined / semi confined shallow aquifer needs to be augmented by undertaking suitable artificial recharge structures in order to ensure economically viable yields of wells vis-à-vis increase the groundwater availability on sustained basis.

For the purpose of assessment of groundwater potential in GV-41 5/8 and 6/8 miniwatersheds, detailed hydrogeological surveys were carried out in Aurangabad District, Maharashtra and the database was also used to find out the feasibility of artificial recharge structures.

The present study is an attempt to find out the possibility of artificial

recharge considering the existing water harvesting structures using Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System techniques (RS - GIS).

Introduction

Water is a vital resource, necessary for all aspects of human life and ecosystem. In recent years, new alarms are sounding about growing water scarcity, contamination and the likely inability to meet the water requirements of rapidly growing population (Gleick, 1993; Engleman and LeRoy 1993). The striking manifestation of this is experienced through droughts, land degradation, soil erosion, sedimentation of reservoirs, depletion of groundwater levels etc (NWDPRA, 1992).

Remote Sensing with its advantages of varying spatial and spectral resolutions and

temporal availability of data covering large and inaccessible areas within short time has become a very handy tool in assessing, monitoring and analyzing the groundwater potential (Rao, 1993; Murthy, 2000). Thematic layers like geomorphology, drainage network, land use/land cover etc. generated using remote sensing data can be integrated in a Geographical Information System (GIS) framework to find out the scope for artificial recharge (Jensen, 2003).

In the present study RS-GIS techniques have been used to find out the possibility of

artificial recharge by studying various characteristics of GV-41 5/8 and 6/8

Possibility of artificial recharge: Bhagyashri C. Maggirwar and Bhavana N. Umrikar

miniwatersheds generating the thematic layers of geomorphology, soil, land use and drainage in Aurangabad District, Maharashtra.

Study Area

GV-41 5/8 and 6/8 miniwatersheds shows a significant drainage system contributing to river Godavari. The watershed lies between longitude 74° 58' 55” and 75° 07' 24” East and between the latitude 19° 53' 33” and 19° 45' 27” North (Fig 1). It is included in Survey of India topographic sheet No. 47 I/13 and 47 M/1 on 1: 50,000 scale.

Fig. 1: Location map of the study area

The mini-watersheds 5/8 and 6/8 is drought prone area that covers 17 villages with areal extent of 125.28 sq km (2001 Census). The area is characterized by hot summer and dryness in all seasons except during monsoon period. The average rainfall is 634 mm. The area is well served by a network of metaled and unmetaled road. The elevation of the ground within the watershed varies from 472 to 606 m above mean sea level. The density of wells in this area is about 12 wells per sq km (GSDA report).



103

General geology and hydrogeology

The study area is covered by Deccan Trap basaltic flows of Upper Cretaceous to Lower Eocene age. These flows are further classified as simple and compound type. The vesicular, amygdaloidal, jointed / fractured and hard massive basalt are the various forms of basalt seen in the study area. In general, depth of weathering of these flows varies from 3 to 9 m (CGWB report). Weathered, vesicular, jointed (sheet and columnar joints) and fractured basalt plays an important role of an aquifer in the study area. Due to the presence of alternate units of vesicular and massive basalt the Deccan Trap acts as multi-aquifer system (CGWB report).

The assessment of the groundwater potential has been carried out in the existing

river basins of Maharashtra considering watershed as a basic unit (Maggirwar, 1990). Further, the miniwatershed assessment has been undertaken to find out the scope for development of groundwater on micro-level. As per the norms of VI Ground Water Assessment it has been found that watershed GV-41 is falling under “critical” category and water level trends in both pre- and post monsoon seasons are declining at an alarming rate (G.S.D.A. Data). The watershed GV-41 is further assessed on the basis of miniwatersheds to understand the groundwater status on micro-level (Table-1).

Table-1: Details of groundwater assessment in miniwatersheds 5/8 and 6/8.

WS

No.

Type

of

Area

Total

WS

Area

(Ha)

Total

Annual

GW

Recharg

e (Ham)

Natural

Dischar

ge

(Ham)

Net

Annual

GW

Availabilit

y

(Ham)

Gross

Draft

(Ham

)

Stage of

Develop

-ment

(%)

Water Table Trend

Category

of

Watershe

d

Pre –

monsoo

n

Post -

monsoo

n

GV-41

5/8 C 282.00 35.61 1.78 33.83 50.20

115.11 Falling Falling Over-

developed GV-41

5/8 NC

7020.7

3 658.00 32.90 625.10

708.2

6

GV-41

6/8 NC

5225.0

0 709.74 35.49 674.25

677.4

0 100.47 Falling Falling

Over-

developed

C – Command; NC – Non-command; Ha– Hectare; Ham - Hectare Meter

In this area groundwater occurs under phreatic and semi-confined conditions. Water level data recorded for 1985 – 2005 period for bore wells located in the 17 villages of the mini-watersheds 5/8 and 6/8 (Table-2) reveals that the success ratio is greater than the dry and poor yield bore well conditions. The observation well fixed at Gajgaon shows the pre-monsoon water level at 10.00 m bgl and post-monsoon water level at 8.30 m bgl with the water level fluctuation of 1.70 m (GSDA report).


Table- 2: Hydrogeological data of bore wells in watershed GV-41.

Sr. No.

Name of Village

Area (ha)

Population

(Souls)

No. of

BWs

Successful Dry Poor Yield

Avg. Depth

(m)

Avg. Yield

(lph)

Avg. Water Level (mbgl)

1 Butte Wadgaon

641.49 917 12 10 1 1 68.08 3319 10.93

2 Derda 510.44 460 2 2 0 0 66.78 1952 13.81

3 Gajgaon 834.97 2389 14 12 2 0 70.87 5884 8.62

4 Gavli Dhanora

719.2 750 7 3 4 0 63.24 571 14.00

5 Ghodegaon 1120.26 1678 8 6 1 1 62.87 1462 6.00

6 Golegaon 617.98 519 8 4 2 2 81.98 937 18.81

7 Kankori 814.32 1414 4 3 1 0 69.40 7212 6.86

8 Khadgaon 462.52 703 7 6 0 1 72.45 6780 10.02

9 Kolghar 775.26 887 4 3 1 0 65.42 14496 8.59

10 Palasgaon 661.24 683 4 3 0 1 79.23 5753 12.57

11 Shahapur 357.45 1613 11 9 2 0 76.29 2853 9.85

12 Shekta 641.49 511 6 4 1 1 80.04 1584 5.07

13 Siddha- Wadgaon

705.72 2185 10 4 3 3 82.25 961 12.06

14 Sillegon 1289 2745 12 7 4 1 70.16 1429 8.70

15 Singpur 357.45 443 6 3 2 1 84.60 500 14.00

16 Tandulwadi 660.75 644 7 5 1 1 80.48 965 6.71

17 Wajanapur 498.87 596 8 7 0 1 65.00

1061 9.15

BW- Bore well; bgl- below ground level; lph- liter per hour.

Methodology

A preliminary survey has been taken up with the help of above mentioned toposheets and satellite imageries to understand the framework of topography, geomorphology and structural features prevailing in the area.

The Survey of India toposheets were used for the preparation of the Base Map on 1:

50,000 scale in GIS environment. The thematic layer of drainage was also prepared by making use of the same. The village map was prepared from the maps available with the Revenue Department. The Soil map was prepared with the help of information available with National Bureau of Soil Survey (NBSS). The Geomorphology and Land Use themes were prepared using supervised classification technique. All the themes were digitized and converted into the GIS dataset in the form of thematic layers using Arc-GIS software and brought on the scale of 1:50,000 using Regional Conformal Conic (RCC) Projection. Further, the data was converted to Tab files and all the study- and analytical work was carried out in the Map Info software.

The overlay analysis of geomorphology and drainage was carried out by

superimposing the geomorphology and drainage thematic layers for identification of the suitable sites for water conservation structures. The database so generated was also helpful in exploring the possibility of artificial recharge in the study area. The terrain was found to be exhibiting mainly Moderately Dissected Plateau (MDP) and was further classified into MDP-A, B, and C based on the weathering index along with the slopes



105

(Fig.2). It is observed that majority of the area falls under MDP-B, with moderate soil cover.

Fig. 2: Geomorphology and drainage of the study area

Fig. 3 shows the thematic layer of drainage and various morphometric parameters such as drainage density, stream frequency, elongation ratio, circularity ratio are included in Table- 3 (Linear aspects) and 4 (Areal aspects).

Fig. 3: Drainage layer of the study area


Table- 3: Linear aspects of the drainage network in GV-41 (5 and 6) mini-watersheds.

Basin Order of Streams

Total no. of

Streams

Bifurcation ratio (Rb)

Total stream length (km)

Average stream length (km)

Length ratio

GV -41 5&6/8

1 81 2.79 84.88 1.05 -

2 29 4.83 41.06 1.42 1.35

3 6 6.00 24.34 4.05 2.85

4 1 - 18.41 18.41 4.55

Avg.= 4.54 Avg.= 2.92

Table- 4: Areal aspects of the drainage network in GV-41 (5 and 6) miniwatersheds

Basin No. of

streams N

Basin

area A (km2)

Total

length of

streams L (km)

Drainage

density Dd= L/A (km/ km2)

Constant of

channel maintenance C=1/Dd (km2/km)

Stream

frequency F= N/A (per km2)

GV -41 5/8 and 6/8

117 125.28 168.69 1.35 0.74 0.93

The thematic layer of Soil was studied on the basis of texture, depth, erosion and drainage wise for identifying the type of structures suitable to the specific location (Fig. 4).

Categories suggested by Anderson et al. (1976) for different Land use / Land cover

classes were referred while preparing the Land use / Land cover thematic layer. The satellite data was used for preparation of land use land cover layer. Total 7 classes namely Current fallow, Kharif, Kharif+ Rabi, Rabi, River, Tanks (water body) and villages were formed by using Supervised Classification Technique (Fig. 5).



107

Fig. 4: Various Soil maps of the study area


Fig. 5: Land use of the study area

Discussion and conclusion

GIS dataset have proven to be a very handy and efficient tool to the researchers and planners in delineation of drainage and water resources. The groundwater assessment carried out in GV-41 5/8 and 6/8 miniwatersheds depict the falling trend of both pre- and post monsoon water table (Table 1). The assessment further throws light on the overdeveloped stage of these miniwatersheds. Water level data recorded for bore wells (Table-2) reveals that the success ratio is greater than the failure of bore wells in the study area.

According to Strahler (1952), the bifurcation ratio obtained for the miniwatersheds is

4.54, which is suggestive of development of lineaments / structural control over the drainage in the study area (Table-3). According to Horton (1945) the length ratio gives general idea about the relative permeability of the rock formations in a basin and the value obtained for the 5/8 and 6/8 miniwatersheds is 2.92, indicative of less permeability in the area.

Drainage density (Dd) of the area is 1.35 km/km, indicative of the medium texture of

the basin (Horton 1945). The factor of the constant of channel maintenance (Schumm, 1956) shows that 0.74 sq km area is required to maintain one kilometer of stream channel supports the less permeability of the area (Table-4). Stream frequency (F) for the miniwatersheds is 0.93 that indicates the moderate runoff of the area. The morphometric analysis thus throws light on the variation in the permeability of the flow units exposed in the study area.

The GIS database generated on geomorphology, land use / land cover and soil

(texture, depth, erosion and drainage wise) reveals various geomorphic units, major landforms, farming pattern, tanks, water bodies and built-up areas present in the study area. Geomorphological map reveals moderate slope (<10%) which forms recharge zone for the watershed. This zone has less drainage density, less runoff and more infiltration



109

and has thick zone of weathered mantle, therefore this zone is suitable for recharge structures.

The shallow (10-25cm), moderate (25-50cm) and deep (>100cm) soils are found in

the MDP-A, MDP-C and MDP-B morphological terrains respectively. The area is predominantly drained by moderately well drainage which can be selected to check the runoff. The dominance of Kharif crops over the area indicates the dependability over the rainfall.

The state irrigation department has constructed 3 K.T. weirs and 21 percolation

tanks with total storage capacity of 107 and 2897 TCM respectively in the study area (CGWB Report). The average rainfall received by the area is 634.8 mm. Therefore according to Strenger’s table total available runoff is about 7952.77 TCM. From existing water conservation structures in the area about 3004 TCM runoff has already been arrested but there is further scope for harvesting 4948.77 TCM of surface runoff by constructing additional water conservation structures at suitable sites. An attempt has been made to quantify the possible recharge through proposed structures, which comes around 2474.77 TCM (Table 5). This would help in strengthening of existing drinking water sources by supplying 17 villages (19127 souls) on sustained basis.

Table 5: Proposed plan for artificial recharge structures in the study area.

Sr. No.

Name of the structure proposed

No. of structures

proposed

Runoff that can be checked

(TCM)

1.

2

3

5

6

7

Recharge trench

Water harvesting pit

Recharge shaft

Nala bund

Filter point

Farm pond

36

108

60

65

60

115

360

540

600

1950

300

1150

GIS based site suitability analysis by giving weightages to individual parameters of different thematic layers which are favorable for artificial recharge is recommended prior to implementation stage. Technical guidelines for selecting suitable sites for conserving water are given by the Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development (IMSD, 1995). Acknowledgements: The authors are thankful to the Director, Groundwater Surveys and Development Agency, for all the information required during the study of overdeveloped miniwatersheds. B.N. Umrikar is thankful to the Head, Department of Geology, University of Pune.

References

Anderson, J.R., Hardy, E.E., Roach, J.T. and Witmer, R.E. (1976) A Land use and Land Cover Classification System for Use with Remote Sensor Data. Geol. Survey Professional Paper 964, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington.

CGWB Report. Artificial Recharge Project Study in Watershed G.V.-41, Aurangabad District, Maharashtra, Annual Action Program, 2000-2001.

Engleman, R. and LeRoy, P. (1993) Sustaining Water: Population and the Future of Renewable Water Supplies. International Publ., Washington, D.C., 138 p.

GIS Dataset, Village report, Drilling Information, VI Groundwater Assessment, Groundwater Surveys & Development Agency.

Gleick, P.H. (1993) Water in Crisis: A Guide to the World's Fresh Water Resources. Oxford University Press, New York.


Horton, R.E. (1945) Erosional development of streams and their drainage basins: Hydrophysical approach to quantitative morphology. Bull. Geological Society of America, v.56, pp. 275-370.

Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development (1995) Technical guide lines, National Remote Sensing Agency, Department of Space, Govt. of India.

Jensen,J.R. (2003) Remote Sensing of the environment: An earth resources perspective.

Pearson Education Inc., 430p. Kulkarni, H. and Deolankar, S.B. (1995) Hydrogeological Mapping in the Deccan Basalts

– An Apprisal; J. Geological Socity of India, v. 46(4), pp.345-352. Maggirwar, C.N. (1990) Suitability of Water Harvesting, Conservation and Artificial

Recharge Techniques in Relation to Watershed Behaviour in Maharashtra. In: ‘All India Seminar on Modern Techniques of Rain Water Harvesting, water Conservation

and Aritificial Recharge for Drinking Water, Afforestation, Horticulture and

Agriculture’, Pune, Maharashtra. Murthy V.V.N. (1982) Land and Water Management Engineering, Kalyani Publishers, New

Delhi/Ludhiana, 275p. Murthy, K.S.R. (2000) Groundwater Potential in a semi-arid region of Andhra Pradesh –

A Geographical Information System approach. Int. Jour. Remote Sensing, v. 21 (9), pp. 1867 – 1884.

Narendra, K. and Nageswara Rao,(2006). Morphometry of the Meghadrigedda Watershed, Visakhapatnam Distirct, Andhra Pradesh using GIS and Resourcesat data. J. Ind. Soc. Remote Sensing, v. 34(2), pp.101-110.

NWDPRA (1992) WARSA Guidelines: National Watershed Development Project for Rainfed areas. Dept. of Agriculture and Cooperation, Govt. of India, New Delhi, 145p.

Rao, U.R. (1991) Remote Sensing for sustainable development., Photonirvachak, Jour. Ind. Soc. Remote Sensing, v. 19 (4) pp. 217 – 235.

Schumm, S.A. (1956). Evolution of Drainage Basins and Slopes in Bundland of Perth Amboy-New Jersey. Bull. Geological Society of America,v. 67,pp. 597-646.

Strahler, A.N. and Strahler, A.H. (2002) A text book of Physical Geography. 2nd ed., John Wiley & Sons Publishers, New York, 748p.

Strahler, A.N. (1952) Dynamic Basis for Geomorphology; Bull. Geological Society of America,v.63, pp. 923-938.

About the Authors

Ms. Bhagyashri Chandrakant Maggirwar is working with Surveys and Development Agency, Pune and Aurangabad as Senior Geologist. A professional with 10 years of experience in Hydrogeology, she has supervised several research & development projects in groundwater modeling. E-Mail: [email protected]

Dr. Bhavana Narendra Umrikar is Lecturer, Department of Geology, University of Pune, Pune. She specializes in Hydrogeology, Watershed Management and RS – GIS. Dr. Umrikar has completed several projects on geoinvironmental, aquifer and urbanization studies. She has published more than 12 research papers. Email: [email protected]

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Possibility of artificial recharge in overdeveloped miniwatersheds: …earthscienceindia.info/pdfupload/tech_pdf-29.pdf · 2016. 1. 22. · artificial recharge in the overdeveloped