Understanding the Long-Term Changes in Groundwater Level—A Tale of Highly Urbanized City

Mst Ilme Faridatul,Md Niamul Bari

doi:10.4236/jgis.2021.134026

Abstract

The rapid drop in the groundwater level has raised concerns in the sustainable water management plan in many cities of the world. It is important to understand the underlying factors of such depletion. To improve knowledge of the changes in groundwater, this study investigates a long-term perspective of urbanization, and evaluates the influence of several factors including land cover, water use, and abstraction. Multi-year land cover maps are used to detect urbanization and land cover types. Hotspot analysis and correlation-regression are applied to assess the relationship between changes in groundwater and the driving factors. The investigations confirm that an extensive withdrawal of groundwater due to urbanization results in a progressive drop in the water level. However, the major industrial and commercial zone shows the consistent hotspot of groundwater depletion. The results indicate that groundwater abstraction and types of water use have a high influence on the changes in urban groundwater.

Highlights

Groundwater is one of the important life-sustaining resources [1], and main sources of water supply in many urban areas [2] [3] [4]
Several important factors including urbanization, land cover, water use, and water abstraction influence in the changes in groundwater (Islam et al, 2017; Arfanuzzaman and Atiq Rahman, 2017; Restiani [31]; Baillieux et al, 2015), this study focuses on the assessment of these factors influencing groundwater in a typical urban environment
This study presents an approach of investigating the changes in groundwater level in relation to several important factors, e.g., urbanization, land cover, water demand, water abstraction, and its use

Summary

Introduction

Groundwater is one of the important life-sustaining resources [1], and main sources of water supply in many urban areas [2] [3] [4]. It consists of liquid water located below the ground surface, and includes soil water either above the water table or as groundwater below the water table [5]. Mismanagement and high abstraction of groundwater resources have led to the depletion of water level and aquifer disaster in many cities across the world [9]

Objectives

Results

Conclusion