GIS-based decision support system for groundwater assessment in large irrigation project areas

In large canal irrigation project areas, integrated management of surface and groundwater resources can improve water use efficiencies and agricultural productivity and also control water logging. Such integrated management requires an estimation of spatial distribution of recharge and ground water flow in the underlying aquifer. Recharge occurs both as percolation losses from fields and seepage losses from the water distribution network. Percolation losses are influenced by weather, soil properties, land use, and canal water and groundwater use. Seepage losses depend on the conditions of flow in the water distribution system. In large irrigation project areas all the factors influencing the recharge of groundwater vary spatially. In this study, a geographical information systems (GIS) is used to map the spatial distribution of recharge which then serves as input to a regional groundwater flow model for simulating the behavior of the underlying aquifer. The basis is that the project area can be divided into a set of basic simulation units (BSUs) that are homogenous with respect to the conditions that influence the recharge processes. A daily field soil water balance model and a simple canal flow model are used to estimate the percolation and seepage losses, respectively. The combination of models and GIS can be used as an integrated decision support system to assess the groundwater resources and derive strategies for integrated management of canal and groundwater resources in the project area. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.