CS(AR)-1/2012 : Impact of climate change on dynamic groundwater system in a drought prone area

Abstract

The Sonar basin lies in the Bundelkhand region of the Madhya Pradesh State and it is subjected to frequent droughts. The basin suffers with water scarcity problem and most of the agriculture is under rain-fed conditions. Climate change is unequivocal and is expected to affect the recharge to the groundwater because of high intensity and short duration rainfall. In order to quantify the impact of climate change on groundwater, the present study is being carried out to quantify the impacts of climate change on groundwater recharge in a part of Sonar basin of Madhya Pradesh and to simulate the groundwater levels and investigate the temporal response of the aquifer system to historic and future climate periods. The present study entitled "Impact of Climate Change on Dynamic Groundwater System in a Drought Prone Area" deals with the databases and their analysis, generation of future rainfall and temperature, recharge estimation and groundwater simulation for proper management and augmentation of groundwater in the basin. All the thematic maps have been generated in ILWIS 3.2 and necessary data have been collected. Future rainfall has also been generated based on the SRES GCM projections for the South-Asia region for baseline. A 1 Fl and B1 scenarios for the time-slice 2004-2039. The site-specific soil, vegetation and climate database needed for the VHELP model is generated and site-specific groundwater recharge is estimated at twelve locations in the basin. The groundwater simulation is done using the water balance method by dividing the whole basin into twelve zones. Finally, the quantification of impact of climate change on the groundwater recharge and levels for the time-slice 2004-2039 has been done.