Comparison of surface and groundwater balance approaches in the evaluation of managed aquifer recharge structures: Case of a percolation tank in a crystalline aquifer in India

Abstract

• Comparison of surface and groundwater balance approaches in crystalline aquifers. • Importance of flow in the unsaturated zone. • Limited impact of the percolation tank at the watershed scale. • Identification of the percolation tank beneficiaries (farmers). To face the problem of groundwater depletion, the Indian Government relies on large projects of Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR). Numerous recharge structures such as percolation tanks exist but the impact of these structures on groundwater resources remains poorly understood. Although the evaporation/infiltration ratio of percolation tanks was determined in several studies in semi-arid contexts using surface water balance methods, few studies evaluated the impact on the aquifer recharge. However, knowledge on recharge dynamics over time and space is essential for (1) the quantitative evaluation of stored water volumes, (2) the identification of beneficiaries (farmers) and (3) the estimation of percolation tanks recharge zone to the extent that is required to define proper management regulations at basin scale. These three points are of prime importance in the case of semi-arid regions where a limited number of rain events determine the water stored over the entire year. Assessment of the stored groundwater is even more difficult in crystalline aquifers due to the heterogeneous structure of flow paths. To date no methodological guidelines exist for local assessment of percolation tanks in crystalline aquifers. In this paper, we develop a method for calculating a local groundwater budget and we compare it with a computed surface balance. The method is applied to a case study in semi-arid crystalline context. From the groundwater balance we draw conclusions on (1) the limited amount of stored water in the aquifer, (2) the delayed recharge of the aquifer highlighting temporary storage/slow groundwater movement in the unsaturated zone and (3) the limited number of beneficiaries in years of medium monsoon rainfall. These results complement the understanding of the hydrodynamic functioning of percolation tanks, and their impact on the local groundwater balance.