2-Isotope Techniques in Hydrology.

Abstract

Isotope hydrology is one of the two modern tools in hydrological investigations, the other being remote sensing. Isotope techniques are today well established and their utility has been well demonstrated over the last 3 decades by the efforts of the International Atomic Energy Agency and countries like India. Some Indian examples include studies on groundwater recharge processes in western Rajasthan, studies on some geothermal water in India, paleo-transgressions of the sea in the East Coast, river- groundwater interconnection, coastal dispersion of sewage and lake dynamics and sedimentation studies. Inspite of the well proven achievements on isotope hydrology in India and elsewhere, the methodology is still to be well integrated with other techniques in field hydrology. The reasons are probably that the techniques are more basic science oriented and are equipment- intensive, needing elaborate laboratory support. One way to overcome the situation could be introduction of isotope techniques in hydrology in the university curricula.