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Assessing Groundwater Depletion in Southern India as a Function of Urbanization and Change in Hydrology: A Threat to Tank Irrigation in Madurai City

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Climate Change and Water Security

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering ((LNCE,volume 178))

Abstract

The comprehensive understanding of the impacts of urbanization on surface water-groundwater security in rapidly urbanizing cities is of paramount importance, especially in the era of climate change. This study thus documented these impacts in Madurai city, India using a combination of observed data (rainfall and groundwater), remote sensing data, and survey data for the study period 2002–2018. Results indicated a deficiency in annual rainfall, with an average departure of 28% for the 11 years. Using areal imagery, a rapid increase in both rural and urban areas, ranging from 127 to 335%, was estimated wherein the rate of urbanization obtained higher in peri-urban followed by urban and rural areas. The surface runoff was found as high as 86% of the rainfall owing to an increase in urban cover while it was estimated ~70% in rural areas. Results further demonstrated that due to erratic rainfall patterns and increased urbanization, the discharge into the traditional tanks decreased drastically. Field survey and groundwater data further validated that approximately 60% of the groundwater levels have gone from safe to critical status (annual extraction above annual natural recharge). The depth of extracting groundwater resources using tubewell and borewell indicated a substantial increase from 8 m in 1990 to 200 m in 2018, indicating the lowering of groundwater to unsustainable levels. Learning from the study can aid to sensitize the importance of rehabilitating traditional tank systems to attain surface water-groundwater security given the rising cases of flash floods, recurrent droughts, and growing impacts towards these infrastructures.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Western Ghats, also known as Sahyadri Range, is a mountain range located parallel to the Western coast of the Indian peninsula; representing one of the 10 biogeographic regions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA) of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and DHAN Foundation Madurai, India, for providing an internship platform for this work to be conducted. Thanks are due to Mr. Elamuhil (Water Resources Engineer), Mr. Lokesh Sinram (Environmentalist), Mr. N. Venkatesan (Program Manager—Human Resource), Mr. V. Venkatesan (Chief Executive Officer—Vayalagam), Mr. Arumugam Gurunathan (Director—The DHAN Academy), and Mr. M. P. Vasimalai (Executive Director—DHAN) from DHAN Foundation. Partial funding for Prof. Pennan Chinnasamy from the Programmatic Cooperation between the Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS) of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and IHE Delft in the period 2016–2023, also called DUPC2 is also acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, 400076, India

    Aman Srivastava & Pennan Chinnasamy

  2. Rural Data Research and Analysis (RuDRA) Lab, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, 400076, India

    Pennan Chinnasamy

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  1. Aman Srivastava
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  2. Pennan Chinnasamy
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Correspondence to Pennan Chinnasamy .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, India

    Sreevalsa Kolathayar

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

    Arpita Mondal

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Siau Chen Chian

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Srivastava, A., Chinnasamy, P. (2022). Assessing Groundwater Depletion in Southern India as a Function of Urbanization and Change in Hydrology: A Threat to Tank Irrigation in Madurai City. In: Kolathayar, S., Mondal, A., Chian, S.C. (eds) Climate Change and Water Security. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 178. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5501-2_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5501-2_24

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