TITLE:
A Comparative Study on Precipitation and Groundwater Level Interaction in the Highly Urbanized Area and Its Periphery
AUTHORS:
Mst Ilme Faridatul
KEYWORDS:
Precipitation, Groundwater, Urbanization, Suburban, Aquifer Recharge, Relationship
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.6 No.2,
June
26,
2018
ABSTRACT: Precipitation is the primary source of freshwater. The availability of water in
an area is largely dependent on precipitation that is further distributed into
various components such as aquifer recharge, evapotranspiration and surface
runoff etc. Aquifer recharge is one of the significant sources of
groundwater that is affected because of increasing the urban sealed areas.
Urbanization brings numerous artificial changes by altering natural earth
surfaces into impervious areas that result in reducing infiltration. The
changes in the urban land covers modify the natural drainage system and
affect the groundwater recharge systems. As precipitation is the major
source of groundwater, it is important to evaluate its influence on the aquifer
recharge. Thus, this study is conducted to explore the interaction between
precipitation and groundwater level. A comparative analysis is performed
between urban and suburban environments. The results show that
both urban and suburban areas experience groundwater depletion but the
rate of depletion is high in urban areas compared to its suburban. The results
also demonstrate that during monsoon, the groundwater level changes
in the urban periphery but the water level remains static in the urban areas.
The urban areas include more sealed areas that prohibit direct recharge,
therefore, in urban areas, no significant relationship is observed between
precipitation and groundwater level. In contrary, the influence of precipitation
on groundwater level is observed in the suburban area therefore, relatively
a high correlation is observed.