GROUNDWATER PROTECTION PLANNING: A CASE STUDY FROM SAHARANPUR CITY U.P.

Abstract

In the present case study, impact of urbanization and industrial development on the shallow groundwater regime of Saharanpur town of lJttar Pradesh in India is examined with the aim of planning groundwater protection for better governance. An assessment of' ground water vulnerability using the well known DRASTIC method has confirmed that the shallow groundwater in some central and southern localities of Saharanpur town fall in the Medium risk zones. Further, using field data of 32 electrical resistivity soundings, the protective capacity of the unconfined aquifer is assessed in terms of a total longitudinal conductance' of' the semipervious to impervious sediments overlying the unconfined aquifer. A ground water protection planning map prepared by combining the I)RASTIC map and the Potentially Hazardous Pollutants' map has brought out the need to install eleven new groundwater quality monitoring wells in the town at locations near the line sources and point sources of pollution. In the present study an effort has been made to depict these conditions using a mechanistic model to study the behavior of moisture movement and solute migration to the underlying shallow groundwater resources. Simulation has also been done for moisture and solute tiow at twelve different point locations in the study area. The simulation employs the widely used Richards equation for moisture flow in the porous formation and fickian based adjective-dispersive equation for solute transport. The assigned physical or hydraulic parameters like moisture content, hydraulic conductivity, curve fitting parameters are used to be representative of actual subsurface conditions so as to replicate the natural process as closely as possible. 'I'he simulation is performed for transient flux boundary condition. The time required by solute to travel from surface to the underground water resources until its peak concentration is taken as an indicator of vulnerability. The results show a higher vulnerability in the some central and southern region of'the study area and lower vulnerability in north-eastern and northern part. This can be attributed to lower water table depths, less runoff and higher hydraulic conductivity of the Vadose zone material in the central part of' study area. l'he north eastern part being higher slope and greater depths to water table is having lowest vulnerability.