Estimation of specific yield using water table fluctuations and cropped area in a hardrock aquifer system of Rajasthan, India

Pennan Chinnasamy, Basant Maheshwari, Peter Dillon, Ramesh Purohit, Yogita Dashora, Prahlad Soni and Ragini Dashora

Agricultural Water Management, 2018, vol. 202, issue C, 146-155

Abstract: Assessment of specific yields is important for effective groundwater management in semi-arid hardrock aquifers, especially in India with its unsustainable groundwater usage rates. The Dharta watershed in the Udaipur district of Rajasthan is one such hardrock area in India where the groundwater extraction rate is a concern. In this study, we use groundwater balance analysis to estimate the specific yield (Sy) based on crop irrigation water use and changes in water table depths, during the irrigation season, to develop an understanding of the volume of groundwater recharge from pre and post monsoon water table depths and an understanding of the spatial and temporal changes in estimates of specific yield in the study area. The analysis used here estimates values at village scale (average area 3.65 km2) and is a technique compatible with the farmers monitoring of groundwater levels to facilitate local cooperative groundwater management. Five villages in the Dharta watershed in Rajasthan were selected and 50 wells per village were monitored for water table depth, at weekly intervals, over a two-year period. This resulted in a total of 250 wells in the study area and the monitoring was carried out by local farmer volunteers − called Bhujal Jankaars (BJs), a Hindi word meaning ‘groundwater informed.’ Crop area coverage (with a total of 40 crops) was examined for two years in the study area. Estimates of Sy in the five villages were between 1.4 and 8%, resulting in values comparable with previous studies. The watershed area-weighted average Sy was 3.8%. The method used in this study enabled estimates of recharge without needing a calibrated groundwater model in an area with sparse information on aquifer hydraulic characteristics and unreliable digital elevation maps.

Keywords: Water balance method; Water table fluctuation method; Regional specific yield; India; Groundwater; Hardrock aquifer system; Semi-arid region (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377418301021
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:202:y:2018:i:c:p:146-155

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2018.02.016

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Water Management is currently edited by B.E. Clothier, W. Dierickx, J. Oster and D. Wichelns

More articles in Agricultural Water Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().