Urban Groundwater Management Contributions to Policy

Prof. M. Sekhar Department of Civil Engineering Indian Institute of Science Bangalore http://civil.iisc.ernet.in/~muddu
29th December 2011

Groundwater system in urban context

Foster et al. (2010)

Urban Groundwater Complex setting

Rainfall Recharge (conventional & alterations). Leakage from water supply & sewage pipelines. Recharge from harvesting operations. Groundwater pumping (24x7 much different from agricultural demands). Impacts to Infrastructure & Effect of Infrastructure

Urban Groundwater Impacts

Urbanization modifies local hydrology, often extensively.
- Changes in land cover will often reduce recharge amounts and change recharge distributions; increased flood hazard. - Groundwater abstraction will lower piezometric surfaces: reduced well yields, reduce baseflows (river yields). - Deterioration in quality of groundwater; salinization (water logging), migration of polluted urban groundwater into surrounding rural areas.

 Few Asian cities are monitored. Groundwater development depletion of GW levels land subsidence in some cases Surface water imported rising of levels urban flooding, impacts on underground projects

Groundwater abstraction and land subsidence

Groundwater level rise negative anomalies

Tokyo underground station

Taniguchi (2008)

Impact of underground infrastructure

Case of Hong Kong Groundwater flow is affected by deep building foundations, tunnels and underground utilities. Due to increased resistance, reduced flow takes place Flooding in the upstream areas, Increased seawater intrusion in coastal cities. Externalities can get aggravated under climate change scenario.

Ding et al. (2008) Hydrological Processes

Indian scenario focus on GW use

Krishnan et al (2010)

Future demand conjunctive use of both SW & GW

Groundwater Management under IUWM

Mulbagal Town

Karnataka State Bangalore

Case Study
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Scientific Query
How are the inter-annual variations in the groundwater regime with respect to its use and inter-year variations in rainfall ? Recharge, groundwater balance and their spatial variations in peninsular urban catchments. What factors control the sustainable groundwater use ?
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Background & Methodology

The population is 60,000 and supply is ~ 5 MLD and entirely through GW. To help develop a sustainable water management plan towards the future needs. To efficiently manage the groundwater resources.

Hydrological & hydrogeological survey (monitoring of groundwater levels) over 3 years (2008-2011). Analysis of urban groundwater system behavior. Hydrological Models were developed to use as diagnostic tools for current setting and future scenarios.
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Recharge Modeling (1978-1996)

2000-2009

Mean Annual Rainfall = 790.23 mm COV = 27%

Apr-78
-15

Recharge = 68.64 mm COV = 45%

Apr-84 Apr-87 Apr-90 Apr-93 Apr-96
0 50 100 150
1978-1997

Modeling of Groundwater levels 1978-1996

Apr-81

-10

Depth to GW (m)

0 200 5 250 10 300 350

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Rain (mm)
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-5

August 2008

October 2008

November 2008

January 2009

April 2009

Depth to GW (m)

July 2009

Shallow GWL in the core areas of the town

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August 2009

October 2009

November 2009

January 2010

May 2010

Depth to GW (m)

July 2010

Shallow GWL in the core areas of the town

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Groundwater Model at well field scale

p08 ov -0 8 9 09 ar -0 nSe Ja M M N

Example:Sigehalli PS
ov -1 0 Se Ja ar M N M ay -1 1 10 11 np-1 1

ay -0 9 Ju l-0 9 Se p09 N ov -0 9 Ja n10 M ar -1 0 M ay -1 0 Ju l-1 0

10

250

MBW 105 (Pumping)

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Depth to GW, m

Rain, mm Depth calc, m Depth obs, m

200

20 100 25 50

30
mm

Recharge 2008 65 mm; 2009 50 mm; 2010 70 mm Recharge from other sources = ~ 75 mm/year

If the model is tweaked and fitted it gives us the recharge occurring in the dry season from the lakes surrounding the wells and the fraction of recharge from other sources.

Rain, mm

150

Numerical Modeling

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50

S imulated GW level (m)

Municipal BW
40 30 20 10

Municipal wells Non Monsoon period

The simulations indicate that observation wells in the town show a consistent deviations from measured values during the non-rainy season.

Agricultural BW

R2= 0.79
0 0 10 20 30 40 50

Observed GW level (m)

- indicating the role of recharge during non-rainy period and its estimate. Scenario modeling was performed.
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Bangalore Moderate size catchment

Central city area (~ 30 Km2) To assess the groundwater flow patterns in the metro tunnel region and to simulate potential impacts.
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Borewell monitoring & topo surface

Public BWs = 183 Private BWs = 152 Private OWs = 98 Total wells Monitored = 472

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Groundwater surface

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Finite Element Model

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Modeled GW levels & flow directions

Simulated Groundwater levels msl (m)
960 920

880

840

840

880

920

960

Measured groundwater level msl(m)

Groundwater pumping
Groundwater Pumping

Average recharge = 0.22 MLD/Km2

Total Pumping = 4.26 MLD

Population Density : 9206 70408 Persons/Km2 BWSSB Water Supply : 1.08 5.29 MLD/Km2
Well Density= Number/Km2
House Borewell Public Borewell

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Summary
Rapid Assessment Tools
The groundwater level survey performed in Mulbagal town brings out that the need for making such surveys in other towns. Even one time quick mapping of the groundwater level along with groundwater use in the town will bring out the state of the situation and helps in categorizing the towns for suitable management decisions.

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Summary
Mapping of groundwater level at suitable scale
The groundwater level regime cannot be captured with few wells in a town especially if the groundwater flow direction is also needed from water quality issues. Not having a proper knowledge of areas with depleting levels and rising levels would result in development and management decisions without taking into account these conditions. Often the entire town would not have the same behavior with respect to groundwater and hence it is needed to capture the spatial variation of this information and then use it in the appropriate interventions.
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Summary
Urban and peri-urban patterns
It appears from the studies that the patterns of groundwater level behavior either in cities and in smaller towns have same patterns i.e the central areas of the town/city have rising groundwater levels whereas levels are declining in the peri-urban areas. Shallow groundwater levels can influence urban flooding or causing a greater impact under large rain storms. Shallow groundwater levels are also not desirable from the groundwater quality considerations (as groundwater medium could connect the water supply & waste water pipe lines) or from infrastructural issues for buildings etc.
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Summary
Institutional strengthening
Even though groundwater is extensively used not only in cities but also in Tier II and III cities, the local municipalities or corporations have no clear knowledge of the groundwater situation and they work with hypotheses which could be flawed. Scientific information (as it is a hidden resource) needs to be gathered with respect to this resource and needs to be brought to the concerned agencies. Training of the engineers or decision makers along with residents needs to be carried out with this information so that they would make informed decisions.
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Thank You