Chapter 6

6. Groundwater Management
6.1 water Resources Management in General
 Water resources management means involvement in matters
concerning water. Such matters may be the planning, design
or operation of hydraulic works, but they may also be factors
that are related indirectly to water.
Objectives of Water Resources Development and Management
• Conserve and control the water resources zone so as to
prevent or minimize excessive or deficiencies in quantity or
quality.
• Provide or maintain water in such places and times, and
according to the many single quantity and quality
requirements;
• Minimize expenditures (Costs) involved in accomplishing all of
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 Generally, the functions of groundwater management are as
follows

1. Regulation of water consumption

 to maintain the aquifer yield at a satisfactory level

 to prevent the mining of the aquifer when water withdrawals

through a specified period of time exceed the aquifer recharge
during the same period.

2. Augmentation (increase) of water supply

Several methods are used to increase the water supply, such as

artificial recharge, relocation of wells, or importing water
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3. Aquifer restoration

• The ideal purpose of groundwater management in a basin is to

develop the maximum possible groundwater to satisfy the
requirements of all users within the basin and to meet specific
predetermined conditions

• Management procedures should be adequate to avoid present

and future potential detrimental effects, such as excessive
water depletion, deterioration of water quality, and land
subsidence due to excessive pumping

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Groundwater Resources Management issue
The issue of concern for groundwater resources management
reflects the physical conditions and the socio-economic
development of the area considered.
They can be grouped roughly under three different headings:
 Groundwater quantity management,
 Groundwater quality management
 And groundwater-related environmental protection.
Therefore, a brief review of the mentioned issues
and suggested or pioneered approaches will follow.
1. The rate of aquifer exploitation: Sustainable-yield policy,
Mining policy, Is there really need for control?
2. Allocation problems

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  Allocation of abstracted groundwater among users
 Allocation in space
3. Conjunctive management of ground water and surface water
 Artificial recharge
 Base flow Separation
 Surface water storage dams
 Conjunctive use of groundwater and surface water
4. Salinity control
• Salt water upcoming
• Saline water intrusion
• Soil salination
5. Groundwater pollution control
 Well field protection
 Aquifer protection
6. Conservation of chemical water types
7. Groundwater level control
8. Control of land subsidence
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 Recharge and Artificial Recharge of Groundwater
Recharge: Water (from precipitation) in the vadose zone that crosses
the water table into the saturated zone.
Groundwater in a certain basin is recharged from either surface water
within the basin or groundwater percolating from another basin.
 The (main) driving force for natural recharge is precipitation
 Groundwater recharge can be divided into three distinct processes:
• Direct recharge, which is water added to the groundwater
system in excess of soil moisture deficits and evapotranspiration
by direct vertical percolation of precipitation through the
unsaturated zone.
• Localized recharge is an intermediate form of recharge
resulting from the horizontal surface concentration of water in
local joints and depressions.
• Indirect recharge is the flow of water to the water table through
the beds of surface water courses, such as rivers and lakes.
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Recharge in the hydrologic cycle

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 Factors Affecting Recharge
 Precipitation: intensity, amount, duration
 Land Use and Cover: compaction/drop impact/ flow velocity
 Vegetation: reduces recharge by ET
 Urbanization: high runoff coefficient
 Infiltration and Flow in the Unsaturated Zone: f(t) and K
 Temperature: viscosity/freeze/ Frost

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Interaction of Groundwater and Surface Water

 Discharge of water between a surface water body and the underlying groundwater
can go either way, and it typically is a significant fraction of the water body’s water
budget.
 In humid climates, net groundwater discharge into streams
 in drier climates, surface waters often have a net outward discharge into the
groundwater beneath.

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 The recharge may be natural, incidental or artificial
1. Natural Recharge
It is usually produced under one or more of the following conditions
 Deep infiltration of precipitation
 Seepage from surface water (stream & lakes)
 Under flow from another basin (if hydraulically interrelated)
2. Incidental Recharge
Incidental or unplanned, recharge occurs where water enters the
ground as a result of a human activity whose primary objective is
unrelated to artificial recharge of groundwater.
In includes water from:
Irrigation, cesspools, septic tanks, water mains, sewers, land fills,
waste-disposal facilities, canals, and reservoirs.

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3. Artificial Recharge
Artificial recharge may be defined as man’s planned operations of
transferring water from the ground surface into aquifers
Objectives of Artificial Recharge
AR may be practiced in order to achieve various objectives. Among them,
we may list the following:
a. Control of regional hydrological regime
By artificially recharging an aquifer, water level, or piezometric heads, is
raised.
By manipulating these levels (obviously, taking also the effect of pumping
into account), we can control the rate and direction of flow in an
aquifer, control the movement of water bodies of inferior quality
b. Storage of water
Water can be stored in an aquifer, to be pumped at a later
time
c. Control of water quality
As water is introduced into an aquifer and the indigenous water of the
aquifer moves, they mix as a result of hydrodynamic dispersion
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 Cont. …
The main advantages of artificially recharging the ground water
aquifers are:
 Enhance the dependable yield of wells and hand pumps
 Negligible losses as compared to losses in surface storages
 Improved water quality due to dilution of harmful chemicals/
salts
 No adverse effects like inundation of large surface areas and
loss of crops
 No displacement of local population
 Reduction in cost of energy for lifting water especially where
rise in ground water level is substantial
 Utilizes the surplus surface runoff which otherwise drains off

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 Artificial Recharge Methods

a. Direct surface techniques

 Flooding
 Basins or percolation tanks
 Stream augmentation
 Ditch and furrow system
 Over irrigation
b. Direct sub surface techniques
 Injection wells or recharge wells
 Recharge pits and shafts
 Dug well recharge
 Bore hole flooding
 Natural openings, cavity fillings.
c. Combination surface – sub-surface techniques
Basin or percolation tanks with pit shaft or wells.
d. Indirect Techniques
 Induced recharge from surface water source.
Aquifer modification.
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 Cont. …
These can be broadly classified as:
1. Spreading Method
 Spreading within channel
 Spreading stream water through a network of ditches and furrows
 Ponding over large area
 Along stream channel viz. Check Dams/ Nala Bunds
 Vast open terrain of a drainage basin viz. Percolation Tanks
 Modification of village tanks as recharge structures.
2. Recharge Shafts
Vertical Shafts
Lateral Shafts
3. Injection Wells

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 Water and pollutants carried with it may enter an
aquifer, or a considered portion of one, in the
following ways (In flow):
 Groundwater inflow through aquifer boundaries and
leakage from overlying or underlying aquifers.
 Natural replenishment (infiltration) from precipitation
over the area.
 Return flow from irrigation and septic tanks (or similar
structures, including faulty water supply or sewage
networks)
 Artificial recharge.
 Seepage from influent streams and lakes
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 Water and pollutants carried with it may leave an
aquifer in the following ways (Out flow)
 Groundwater outflow through boundaries and leakage
out of the considered aquifer into underlying or overlying
strata.
 Pumping and drainage
 Seepage into effluent streams and lakes
 Spring discharge
 Evapotranspiration
The difference between total inflow and total outflow of
water and of pollutants during any period is stored in the
aquifer
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Regional Groundwater Balance

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 -

6.3 Groundwater Balance

The basic concept of water balance is: The amount of

water entering a control volume during a defined time
period (inflow, I), minus the amount leaving the volume
during the time period (outflow, O), equals the change
in the amount of water stored (∆S) in the volume during
that time period.

I – O = ∆S
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Class End !

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