CONJUNCTIVE USE MANAGEMENT OF SURFACE AND GROUND WATER

Abstract

The management of regional water resources needs careful planning with regard to assessment of their availability and economics of allocation and use without degradation of the environment. An irrigation system which is the biggest consumer of surface and ground water resources needs these resources to be managed conjunctively and in an optimal manner keeping in view the sustainability of groundwater. Initially, a general introduction to the research problem, different modelling strategies and research methodology to achieve the objectives of the study are given. This research work aims at developing an appropriate modelling approach and its application for analysis of the conjunctive use of surface and groundwater in a real-life situation. A critical review has shown that application of linear programming, dynamic programming and nonlinear programming models has been extensively made. Some of the models are static in nature meaning that the dynamics of groundwater system is not incorporated in the model. The others do consider the transient groundwater flow 'conditions expr4sed in either finite difference on finite element framework but are complicated application in real life situation. This study simplifies the latter approach by proposing a two-level modelling approach for conjunctive use management comprising of a linear programming allocation model and a quadratic programming groundwater cost model, to be solved in an interactive manner.