Abstract
Lahore is the provincial capital of Punjab and second biggest city of Pakistan with respect to the population. Average annual population growth of Lahore is 4.14% from 1998-2018, which is much higher than the average population growth rate of Pakistan which is 2.4%. According to investigations average annual groundwater depletion rate of Lahore is 1.07 m/year. As with the growth of population new housing societies are being built to accommodate the burgeoning population. These societies enhance impermeable areas, moreover, pump huge amount of groundwater from the underground water source. There should be sustainability in water pumping and water recharging. Past studies show that groundwater exploitation in Lahore is not sustainable as abstraction rates are higher as compared to groundwater recharge rates. Therefore it is necessary of find out alternative means to recharge the groundwater aquifer of Lahore. There is a need to investigate the role of infiltration galleries to accelerate the groundwater recharge. In order to complete the research, temporal distribution was plotted on ArcMap. HEC-HMS was used for the calculation of discharges which were verified with analytical methods. Groundwater model prepared on Visual MODFLOW was calibrated and validated. The results indicate that due to groundwater overexploitation water levels continue to decrease with the passage of time. The average simulated water table decline is 1.1 meter per year in the study area. So in order to overcome this crisis, infiltration galleries were proposed and designed in the study area. It was seen that these infiltration galleries allow recharging the groundwater at better rate. As the model results showed that depletion rate of groundwater reduces and the groundwater level is about 0.3m higher when there are infiltration galleries. The study proposes that the Infiltration Galleries have a potential to recharge the groundwater at good rate, therefore its installation must be preferred according to the groundwater hydrological balance in the region.
Highlights
Groundwater is one of the most treasured and widely distributed natural water resources, which constitutes the largest available source of water for water supply and irrigation in semi-arid regions
The results showed that when the infiltration galleries are being placed in the model, for the recharging than the depletion rate reduces to 0.8 - 0.85 meters for the five years
Groundwater depletion rates in the study area without infiltration galleries for 5 years were assessed as 1.1 m/year
Summary
Groundwater is one of the most treasured and widely distributed natural water resources, which constitutes the largest available source of water for water supply and irrigation in semi-arid regions. 2.8% of total water available is fresh water on the earth. From this 2.8%, 2.2% is surface water and 0.6% is ground water, which is available beneath the earth’s surface. Out of the 0.6% the water available within 800 m depth can be economically extracted using the present drilling technology. This accounts to 0.3% of the total ground water. More than 90% of our rural population depends on groundwater. The depletion of groundwater is undergoing a rapid increment for meeting the water needs of increasing population. It is important to analyze and predict the future trends in groundwater flow
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