Land use-land cover anomalies and groundwater pattern with climate change for Western Vidarbha: a case study

Abstract

The study investigates the land cover degradation over 30 years of period from 1985 to 2015 and its impact on the groundwater regime for the Western Vidarbha region of Central India. Land use/land cover (LULC) data for four different time spans via 1985, 1995, 2005, and 2015 were obtained from Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). Along with that, a time-series analysis was carried out using two data sets: historic gridded rainfall data (1964–2013) from India Meteorological Department (IMD), Pune, and future predicted data (2024–2095) from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune. The increase in land use to cropland and a decrease in rainfall trend apparently mark the probability of groundwater exploitation of the region. Groundwater mapping of the study area has been evaluated using well data collected from the Central Ground Water Board (1996 and 2017). The non-parametric Mann-Kendall test is used for time series analysis and ArcGis 10.2 software was used for the generation of groundwater potential maps. The relation between changes in the land cover pattern, rainfall, and groundwater is identified and it is observed that there is a direct linkage between anthropogenic land degradation, erratic rainfall pattern, and depleted groundwater resources. A sustainable water supply plan, prioritizing the factors like rainfall pattern, nature of catchment, and land use/land cover characteristics should be defined to the region for overcoming future shortage and vulnerability.