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Paper Number: 75
Jothibasu, A1
and Anbazhagan, S1
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Sustainable development is one of the prime factors focused in most
of the countries in the world, irrespective of developed or developing
countries (IMSD, 2002). The scientists, planners and decision makers are
paying their attention towards sustainable development, a concept
suggested by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED,
1983). The systematic planning of groundwater development using modern
techniques is essential for proper utilization and management of such
natural resource (Al Bakri & Chowdhury, 1999). The aquifer should be
in sustainable status in terms of potential, quality and water table
condition.
In the present research, an attempt
has been made to assess the sustainability state of aquifers for
sustainable groundwater resource planning in Uppar Odai sub-basin
located in Southern part of India. The sub-basin area is mostly covered
by Precambrian gneissic rocks. In this region, groundwater occurs in
almost all geological formations at a depth of >10 m bgl. This is due
to extensive mining of groundwater for agricultural practices. The
average annual rainfall is 625 mm which is much lower than the state
average (926 mm). The thematic maps on sustainable groundwater potential
(SGWP), groundwater quality for drinking (GWQD), groundwater quality for
irrigation (GWQI) and groundwater level (GWL) were generated through
remote sensing and field hydro-geological investigations. The databases
were integrated through geospatial modeling in GIS environment. For this
purpose, the spatial themes were ranked as per importance. The results
have shown that the aquifer condition in the sub-basin fall in the
category of sustainable state to the highly unsustainable state
(Belousova, 2000). The major portion in the sub-basin covered by
slightly unsustainable to medium unsustainable aquifer zone, which
requires immediate restriction of the current rate of groundwater
exploitation and protect the aquifer through artificial recharge to
maintain the aquifer in sustainable environment.
References:
Al Bakri D and Chowdhury M (1999) Nutrients and algal blooms:
lessons from inland catchments. In: Robertson A, Watts RJ (eds)
Preserving rural landscapes – issues and solutions. CSIRO Publishing
Press, Melbourne, pp 60–68
Belousova AP 2000. A concept of forming a structure of ecological
indicators and indexes for regions sustainableDevelopment. Environmental
Geology 39 (11), pp.1227-1236
IMSD 2002. Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development,
technical guide, pp 56-100
WCED, 1983. Report of the World Commission on Environment and
Development: Our Common Future
