Integrating cost and benefit considerations with supply- and demand-based strategies for basin-scale groundwater management in South-West India
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Efforts to reverse groundwater depletion in hard-rock regions by enhancing aquifer recharge with valuable surface water present complex challenges and trade-offs related to upstream–downstream interactions and equity. Here, groundwater modelling is used in combination with economic valuation techniques to assess the effectiveness of alternative supply and demand measures under different climate change scenarios in an upper sub-basin of the Krishna River basin in India. It is found that aquifer recharge provides benefits for the sub-basin that are not apparent at the basin scale. Water recharged or crops selected in upper catchments should aim to generate economic benefits that outweigh losses faced downstream.δ18O
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Lower Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin, southeastern United States (U.S.). Excessive groundwater withdrawal for irrigation from the Upper Floridan Aquifer is an important issue in the lower ACF River Basin as it has led to decline in groundwater levels as well as reduction in baseflows. Since the withdrawal is projected to further increase in the future, this study evaluated the impacts of the projected increase in irrigation on the groundwater levels as well as the stream-aquifer flux in the region. The study also identified regions that are most important for groundwater recharge. Evaluation of the geohydrologic zones identified Upland Instream Karst as the most sensitive zone for recharge into the aquifer while zones in the region where the aquifer thickness was comparatively lower and close to the land surface was generally identified as sensitive. Simulation of the projected irrigation scenario predicted a reduction in groundwater levels by as much as 2.38 m, while a general reduction was predicted in much of the model domain. Large groundwater level reductions were mostly predicted in regions where the aquifer is comparatively thinner. Evaluation of the changes in stream-aquifer flux showed that flux reduced by as much as 33 % with large reductions predicted in the Lower Flint and Kinchafoonee watersheds. This study also helped identify localized zones and stream sections most susceptible to the impacts of increase in irrigation.
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Abstract. The interaction between groundwater and surface water is dynamic and is known to show considerable spatial and temporal variability. Generally hydrological studies that investigate this interaction are conducted at weekly to yearly timescales and inadvertently lose information contained at the neglected shorter timescales. This paper utilises high resolution physical and chemical measurements to investigate the groundwater and surface water interactions of the small temperate Mangatarere Stream in New Zealand. Continuous electrical conductivity, water temperature and stage measurements were obtained at two surface water gauging stations and one groundwater station, along with one week of intensive hydrochemical grab sampling. A second groundwater gauging station provided limited additional data. The downstream reach of the Mangatarere Stream received significant base flow from neighbouring groundwaters which provided cool Na+-Cl− type waters, high in TDS and NO−3 concentrations. This reach also lost water to underlying groundwaters during an extended dry period when precipitation and regional groundwater stage were low. The upstream groundwater station received recharge primarily from precipitation as indicated by a Na+-Cl−-NO−3 signature, the result of precipitation passage through the soil-water zone. However, river recharge was also provided to the upstream groundwater station as indicated by the transferral of a diurnal water temperature pattern and dilute Na+-Ca2+-Mg2+-HCO3−-Cl− signature. Results obtained from the Mangatarere catchment confirm the temporal complexities of groundwater and surface water interaction and highlight the benefits of multiple investigative approaches and the importance of high frequency hydrochemical sampling and monitoring for process understanding.
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Projected longer-term droughts and intense floods underscore the need to store more water to manage climate extremes. Here we show how depleted aquifers have been used to store water by substituting surface water use for groundwater pumpage (conjunctive use, CU) or recharging groundwater with surface water (managed aquifer recharge, MAR). Unique multi-decadal monitoring from thousands of wells and regional modeling datasets for the California Central Valley and central Arizona were used to assess CU and MAR. In addition to natural reservoir capacity related to deep water tables, historical groundwater depletion further expanded aquifer storage by ∼44 km3 in the Central Valley and by ∼100 km3 in Arizona, similar to or exceeding current surface reservoir capacity by up to three times. Local river water and imported surface water, transported through 100s of km of canals, is substituted for groundwater (≤15 km3 yr−1, CU) or is used to recharge groundwater (MAR, ≤1.5 km3 yr−1) during wet years shifting to mostly groundwater pumpage during droughts. In the Central Valley, CU and MAR locally reversed historically declining water-level trends, which contrasts with simulated net regional groundwater depletion. In Arizona, CU and MAR also reversed historically declining groundwater level trends in active management areas. These rising trends contrast with current declining trends in irrigated areas that lack access to surface water to support CU or MAR. Use of depleted aquifers as reservoirs could expand with winter flood irrigation or capturing flood discharges to the Pacific (0–1.6 km3 yr−1, 2000–2014) with additional infrastructure in California. Because flexibility and expanded portfolio options translate to resilience, CU and MAR enhance drought resilience through multi-year storage, complementing shorter term surface reservoir storage, and facilitating water markets.
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A multi-component geochemical dataset was collected from groundwater and surface-water bodies associated with the urban Fountain Creek alluvial aquifer, Colorado, USA, to facilitate analysis of recharge sources, geochemical interactions, and groundwater-residence times. Results indicate that groundwater can be separated into three distinct geochemical zones based on location within the flow system and proximity to surface water, and these zones can be used to infer sources of recharge and groundwater movement through the aquifer. Rare-earth-element concentrations and detections of wastewater-indicator compounds indicate the presence of effluent from wastewater-treatment plants in both groundwater and surface water. Effluent presence in groundwater indicates that streams in the area lose to groundwater in some seasons and are a source of focused groundwater recharge. Distributions of pharmaceuticals and wastewater-indicator compounds also inform an understanding of groundwater–surface-water interactions. Noble-gas isotopes corroborate rare-earth-element data in indicating geochemical evolution within the aquifer from recharge area to discharge area and qualitatively indicate variable groundwater-residence times and mixing with pre-modern groundwater. Quantitative groundwater-residence times calculated from 3H/3He, SF6, and lumped-parameter modeling generally are less than 20 years, but the presence of mixing with older groundwater of an unknown age is also indicated at selected locations. Future investigations would benefit by including groundwater-age tracers suited to quantification of mixing for both young (years to decades) and old (centuries and millennia) groundwater. This multi-faceted analysis facilitated development of a conceptual model for the investigated groundwater-flow system and illustrates the application of an encompassing suite of analytes in exploring hydrologic and geochemical interactions in complex systems.
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