Watershed and

Groundwater Management
Concept 1
 Watershed concepts
 A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that is under
it or drains off of it goes into the same place.
 John Wesley Powell, scientist geographer, put it best when he said
that a watershed is: "that area of land, a bounded hydrologic
system, within which all living things are inextricably linked by
their common water course and where, as humans settled, simple
logic demanded that they become part of a community."
 Watersheds come in all shapes and sizes.

2
 A watershed is a basin-like landform defined by highpoints
and ridgelines that descend into lower elevations and
stream valleys.
 A watershed carries water "shed" from the land after rain
falls and snow melts.
 Drop by drop, water is channeled into soils, groundwater,
creeks, and streams, making its way to larger rivers and
eventually the sea.

3
 The distinction made between a river basin and a watershed
differs depending on one’s viewpoint.
 Here, we refer to a river basin as a large unit of land that
drains into an ocean.
 A river basin The term watershed is used to refer to smaller
units that contain all lands and waterways that drain to a
given common point.
 can, therefore, contain many watersheds within its
boundaries.
4
5
6
 Water Resource Management
 Water resource management is the activity of planning,
developing, distributing and managing the optimum use of water
resources.
 In an ideal world, water resource management planning has regard
to all the competing demands for water and seeks to allocate water
on an equitable basis to satisfy all uses and demands. This is rarely
possible in practice.
 Much effort in water resource management is directed at
optimizing the use of water and in minimizing the environmental
impact of water use on the natural environment.
7
Successful management of any resources requires:
 accurate knowledge of the resource available,
 the uses to which it may be put
 the competing demands for the resource
 measures to and processes to evaluate the significance
 and worth of competing demands and mechanisms to translate
policy decisions into actions on the ground.

8
 Land management
 Land is the solid part of the surface of the earth as different from
seas, lakes, etc.
 If there is general agreement, it is that land, on the basis of
Barlowe’s definition, is of great significance in political, social,
economic and environmental terms, at all levels ranging from the
individual up to the global.
 Land management is the process of managing the use and
development of land resources.
 Land resources are used for a variety of purposes which may
include organic agriculture, reforestation, water resource
management and eco-tourism projects. 9
 When it comes to ownership and subsequently management of lands
is concerned there are two views:
 Public ownership: Land cannot be bought and sold." said Victor
Shevelukha of the Communist Party. "None of us created it, so it
does not belong to you or me.“
 Private ownership: It is individual owners and families, caring for
their land and its future, who will manage land most effectively.“
(Hugonin).
 The argument is that as it is their land individual owners will
obviously care for it, look after it, far better than people who are
simply paid to do so."`
10
 Integrated watershed management
 The idea that water resources should not be managed in
isolation from other ecosystem components, such as land,
air, living resources and humans present in the watershed.

 The watershed is thus considered as an entire ecosystem.

 The protection, sustainable use and restoration of its

components are essential for the sustainability of water
resources management. 11
12
 Groundwater supply and Demand Management
 Supply side management includes improving the resource by
artificial recharge, etc
 Demand side management includes regulating and optimizing the
groundwater use, like by improving the amount of crops produced
per drop of water by using high tech irrigation scheme such as drip
and sprinkler, reuse of water, etc.

13
Key issues for groundwater supply management are
the need to understand:
 Aquifer systems and their specific susceptibilities to negative
impacts under abstraction stress
 Interactions between groundwater and surface water, such as
abstraction effects (on river baseflow and some wetlands) and
recharge reduction effects (due to surface-water modification).
 All of these effects can be short-term and reversible or long-term
and quasi-irreversible.
 Operational monitoring is a vital tool to develop the
understanding needed for effective resource management.
14
15
On the groundwater demand management side it will be
essential to bear in mind that:
 Social development goals greatly influence water use, especially where
agricultural irrigation and food production are concerned, thus
management can only be fully effective if cross-sector coordination
occurs
 Regulatory interventions (such as water rights or permits) and
economic tools (such as abstraction tariffs and tradable water rights)
become more effective if they are not only encoded in water law but
implemented with a high level of user participation.

 Regulatory provisions should not go beyond government capacity to

enforce and user capacity to comply.
16
 Other generic principles that emerge are that: both hydro-geologic
(supply side) and socio-economic (demand side) conditions tend
to be somewhat location-specific and thus
 no simple blueprint for integrated groundwater management
can be readily provided
 the development of an effective and sustainable approach to
management will always require involvement of the main
stakeholders
 implementing management measures will often require capacity
building, both among water resource authorities and water users.

17
 Artificial Recharge enhancement

 It aims at augmentation of groundwater reservoir by modifying

the natural movement of surface water utilizing suitable civil
construction techniques.

18
 Artificial recharge techniques normally addresses the
following issues:
(i) To enhance the sustainable yield in areas where over-
development has depleted the aquifer.
(ii) Conservation and storage of excess surface water for future
requirements, since these requirements often changes within a
season or a period.
(iii) To improve the quality of existing groundwater through
dilution.
(iv)To remove bacteriological and other impurities from sewage
and waste water so that water is suitable for re-use.
19
The sub-surface reservoirs are very attractive and
technically feasible alternatives for storing surplus runoff.
The sub-surface reservoirs can store substantial quantity of
water.

20
The sub-surface storages have advantages of being
free from the
adverse effects like inundation of large surface area,
loss of cultivable land,
 displacement of local population,
 substantial evaporation losses and
 sensitivity to earthquakes.
21
 Basic Requirements for Artificial Recharge

a) Availability of non-committed surplus heavy rain and

runoff in space and time.
b) Identification of suitable hydrogeological environment
and sites for creating sub-surface reservoir through cost
effective artificial recharge techniques

22
 Source Water Availability
The availability of source water can be assessed by :
analyzing the rainfall pattern,
its frequency,
number of rainy days, and
maximum rainfall in a day and
its variation in space and time.

23
 Hydrogeological Aspects
The features, parameters and data to be considered are:
 geological boundaries;
hydraulic boundaries;  hydraulic conductivity;
inflow and outflow of waters;  depth of the aquifer;
storage capacity;  and tectonic boundaries.
porosity;  Soil type

24
 Two effects are generated by artificial recharge in
groundwater reservoir namely:
(a) Rise in water level and
(b) Increment in the total volume of the groundwater
reservoir

25
 Planning Of Artificial Recharge Projects
Identification Area
The artificial recharge of groundwater is taken in the following
areas:
1. Areas where groundwater levels are declining on regular basis.
2. Areas where substantial amount of aquifer has already been
desaturated.
3. Areas where availability of groundwater is inadequate.
4. Areas where salinity ingress is taking place.
26
 Artificial Recharge Structures

 Ditch and Furrow or channel Method

A. Lateral Ditch Pattern
B. Dendritic Pattern
C. Contour Pattern

27
Site Characteristics and Design Guidelines
the water contact area seldom exceeds 10 % of the total
recharge area.
 Ditches should have slope to maintain flow velocity and
minimum deposition of sediments.
 Ditches should be shallow, flat-bottomed, and closely
spaced to obtain maximum water contact area.
 A collecting ditch to convey the excess water back to the
mainstream channel should be provided.

28
 Percolation Tanks (PT) / Spreading Basin
 Some Important Aspects of Percolation Tanks:
 Percolation tanks are normally constructed on second to third
order stream since the catchment so also the submergence area
would be smaller.
 The submergence area should be in uncultivable land as far as
possible.
 Percolation tank be located on highly fractured and weathered
rock for speedy recharge. In case of alluvium, the boulder
formations are ideal for locating Percolation Tanks.
 The aquifer to be recharged should have sufficient thickness of
permeable vadose zone to accommodate recharge
29
 Recharge Mechanism:
Direct Percolation Recharge (Contd.)

Man-made
infiltration
basins are an
example of
direct recharge.
A hand dug well made productive because of existence of an upstream percolation pond 31
 Check Dams Cement Plug bunds
 Constructed across small streams having gentle slope
and
 feasible in both hard rock as well as alluvial formation
 The sites should have sufficient thickness of permeable
bed, or
 weathered formation to facilitate recharge of stored
water within short span of time

32
 Gabion Structure
Gabion structures are similar to check dams
except the boulders locally available are stored in
a steel wire

33
34
Modification of Village tanks as recharge structure

 silted and damaged can be modified to serve as

recharge structure.
 In general no “Cut off Trench” (COT) and Waste
Weir is provided for village tanks.

35
 Dug Well Recharge

 In alluvial as well as hard rock areas

 The recharge water is guided through a pipe to the bottom
of well, below the water level to avoid scoring of bottom
and entrapment of air bubbles in the aquifer

36
 Recharge Shaft
 Most efficient and cost-effective structures to recharge the
aquifer directly
 Following are site characteristics and design guidelines: -
(i) To be dug manually of the strata if non-caving nature.
(ii) If the strata is caving, proper permeable lining in the form
of open work, boulder lining should be provided.

37
(iii) The diameter of shaft should normally be more than 2 m
to accommodate more water in the well
(iv) In the areas where source water is having silt, the shaft
should be filled with boulder and sand from bottom to have
inverted filler
The recharge shafts can be constructed in two different
ways viz. Vertical and lateral.

38
 Induced Recharge
 It is an indirect method of artificial recharge
 Involves pumping from aquifer hydraulically connected with
surface water, to induce recharge to the ground water reservoir

39
 Groundwater Dams
 It is a sub-surface barrier across stream
 The main purpose of ground water dam is to arrest the
flow of ground water out of the sub-basin and increase the
storage within the aquifer
Moreover,
* No evaporation loss from the reservoir takes place.
* No siltation in the reservoir takes place.
* The potential disaster like collapse of dams can be avoided

40
41
 Roof Top Rain Water Harvesting

 Roof top rainwater can be conserved and used for recharge

of groundwater.
 This approach requires connecting the outlet pipe from
rooftop to divert the water to either existing wells/ tube
wells /bore well or specially designed wells.

42
 Recharge Mechanism:
Aquifer Injection
 Water is injected into the aquifer system by operating a
well backwards.
 It has the advantage of working in almost all geologic
conditions and in relatively small areas where other
recharge techniques are less suitable.
 Aquifer injection is relatively expensive. The usual costs for
well construction, pump operation, and mechanical
maintenance exist with aquifer injection plus additional
costs are necessary to treat the water prior to injection.
 Spring development and protection
 Spring are the oldest form of relatively safer water supply
since possibly the beginning of human kind.
 Most Urban centers in the developed nation are started
following existence of major springs.
 A spring is normally a spillway for an underground
reservoir.
 This implies that abstraction of groundwater from the
reservoir has an effect on flow rate of the spring.
44
FIGURE 1–1 Mean daily discharge hydrograph of Comanche Springs. (Data from U.S. Geological Survey, 2008).

45
FIGURE 1–2 Progressive elimination of major spring flows in southern Tunisia during the 20th century. (From
Margat, Foster, and Droubi, 2006; copyright UNESCO.) 46
47
FIGURE 1–11 Utilization of springs for public water supply in Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. (Modified from
Austrian Museum for Economic and Social Affairs, 2003.) 48