Computation of groundwater recharge prospect in urban environment for sustainable water security

Abstract

The present work discusses the assessment of groundwater recharge in urban environment of Noida City, National Capital Region (NCR), India, by considering earth observation technology, analytical hierarchical process, and field observation for sustainable aquifer management. The important hydrogeological factors of the city such as land use, water level, geology, soil type, rainfall, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), impervious surface area (ISA), and slope were evaluated from satellite data along with published maps and field survey to understand the hydrogeological characteristics under GIS environment. The final observation shows that about 4.9% area demarked as very good groundwater recharge potential, high (9.8), medium (44.4), and (40.9%) low groundwater recharge potential respectively based on integrated contribution of all groundwater recharge contributing factors. The very good potential zones are mainly associated with low lying and near river side and poor are found in highly urbanized area where recharge is very low and open lands were converted into impervious layer. The observed results also verify with actual bore well yield data; its shows good correlation and satisfaction. Findings of the present work clearly indicate that large population and high demand of water in the last two decades cause stress in potential aquifer and urbanization to continue taking place, which will put the city in a very alarming situation in the very near future, if proper recharging and management plan were not to take place. The findings of present work will be very essential data base for water resource management and planning for water security.