Abstract

The study area Krishni-Hindoninterfluve region is underlain by thick pile of unconsolidated Quaternary alluvial deposits and host multiple aquifer system. Groundwater is a major source of water supply for agricultural and domestic requirements in the Ganga basin region. Due to expanding agricultural activities and population growth, the abstraction of groundwater has increased manifold in the last two-to-three decades. Although the area hosts potential aquifers these have been adversely affected by poor management. For effective groundwater management of a basin it is essential that a careful water balance study should be carried out. Keeping this in view, groundwater flow modelling was attempted to simulate the behavior of flow system and evaluate water balance. Visual MODFLOW,pro 4.1was used in this study tosimulate groundwater flow. Themodel simulates groundwater flow over an area of about 650km2with a uniform grid size of 1000 m.The horizontal flows, seepage losses from unlined canals, recharge from rainfall and irrigation return flows were applied using different boundary packages. The water balance for the steady state conditionof study area indicated that the total annual direct recharge is 231.81 MCM, the total annualgroundwater draft through pumping is of the order of 244.57 MCM.Based on the model results few management techniques have been suggested.

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