Evaluation of Recharge and Groundwater Dynamics of a Shallow Alluvial Aquifer in Central Ganga Basin,Kanpur (India)

Evaluation of recharge and groundwater dynamics of an aquifer is an important step for finding a proper groundwater management scenario. This has been performed on the basis of statistical Kendall Tau test to find a relationship between groundwater levels and hydro-meteorological parameters (e.g., precipitation, temperature, evaporation). Recharge to the aquifer was estimated for identification of critical areas/locations based on the analytical Soil and Water Assessment Tool. Moreover, spatiotemporal variability of groundwater levels has been quantified using space–time variogram. The overall characterization method has been applied to the shallow alluvial aquifer of Kanpur city in India. The analysis was performed using groundwater level data from 56 monitoring piezometer locations in Kanpur from March 2006 to June 2011. Groundwater level shows relatively higher correlation with temperature. Performance of the geostatistical model was evaluated by comparing with the observed values of groundwater level from January 2011 to June 2011 for two scenarios: “with limited spatiotemporal data” and “without spatiotemporal data.” It is evident that spatiotemporal prediction of groundwater level can be performed even for the unmonitored/missing data. This analysis demonstrates the potential applicability of the method for a general aquifer system.