Groundwater accounts for approximately 30% of the global freshwater and is a major source of drinking water in both urban and rural areas. It is also an important source of water for the agricultural and industrial sector. The groundwater dynamics is controlled by several factors e.g. recharge due to rainfall, recharge due to leakage in the water supply or sewage system, drafts for different purposes e.g. domestic, agricultural, industrial, etc.
In India, over the years there is an increase in the irrigated area through groundwater. In year 2009, around 60% of irrigation was done using the groundwater1. In India, several states are having groundwater development (ratio of usage to availability) of more than 100 %2. It is expected that at the current trend, by 2030, approximately 60% of Indian aquifers will be in a critical condition3.
Aapah Innovations in partnership with AMBHAS team of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and Stockholm Environment Institute – US developed a transient distributed groundwater model to understand the impact of anthropogenic (pumping, leakage, etc.) and natural forcings (baseflow, recharge, etc.) on the groundwater. A simple version of the model is available to download from CRAN at CRAN:ambhasGW. The developed groundwater model has been tested in agriculture and urban catchments and found to be working well.
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