Chapter 10 - Field-based spatio-temporal monitoring of hydrograph network stations to predict the long-term behavioral pattern of groundwater regime and its implications in India: A review

Abstract

Spatio-temporal monitoring of hydrograph network stations are depicting changes in the groundwater regime of India in both premonsoon and postmonsoon seasons. The monitoring facilitates to acquire information on groundwater levels in different hydrogeological terrain conditions through representative monitoring wells. The significant attributes of groundwater regime monitoring are groundwater level and quality assessment. The natural conditions affecting the regime involve climatic parameters like rainfall, evapotranspiration, etc., whereas anthropogenic influences include pump lifting from the aquifer, recharge in the form of irrigation return flow, and other practices like waste disposal, etc. Central Ground Water Board is monitoring the groundwater regime during four times a year in the months of March/April/May and August (premonsoon) as well as during January and November (postmonsoon) since the year 1969. At present, total 22,730 network hydrograph stations (dug well, bore well, tube well, and piezometer) are being monitored throughout the India for both the depth to water level measurement and quality especially during premonsoon period. Groundwater samples are collected from these monitoring wells once a year during the month of March/April/May to obtain background information of groundwater quality changes on the regional scale. Systematic seasonal monitoring for long years will help to build the database, which would enable the process of enhanced planning of groundwater extraction and management approaches. The groundwater level as well as quality monitoring data deserve importance especially for coastal and inland saline environment to judge the changes to occur in the interface of salt water/fresh water. The changes also get reflected in the gradual quality deviations in the fresh groundwater regime. The data obtained from the study would be useful for the assessment of groundwater resources and to determine the changes in regime consequential of numerous development and management accomplishments.