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Modelling water levels of northwestern India in response to improved irrigation use efficiency

Shekhar, S.; Kumar, S.; Densmore, A.L.; van Dijk, W.M.; Sinha, R.; Kumar, M.; Joshi, S.K.; Rai, S.P.; Kumar, D.

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Authors

S. Shekhar

S. Kumar

W.M. van Dijk

R. Sinha

M. Kumar

S.K. Joshi

S.P. Rai

D. Kumar



Abstract

The groundwater crisis in northwestern India is the result of over-exploitation of groundwater resources for irrigation. The Government of India has targeted a 20 percent improvement in irrigation groundwater use efficiency. In this perspective, and using a regional-scale calibrated and validated three-dimensional groundwater flow model, this article provides the first forecasts of water levels in the study area up to the year 2028, both with and without this improvement in use efficiency. Future water levels without any mitigation efforts are anticipated to decline by up to 2.8 m/year in some areas. A simulation with a 20 percent reduction in groundwater abstraction shows spatially varied aquifer responses. Tangible results are visible in a decade, and the water-level decline rates decrease by 36–67 percent in over-exploited areas. Although increasing irrigation use efficiency provides tangible benefits, an integrated approach to agricultural water management practice that incorporates use efficiency along with other measures like water-efficient cropping patterns and rainwater harvesting may yield better results in a shorter period.

Citation

Shekhar, S., Kumar, S., Densmore, A., van Dijk, W., Sinha, R., Kumar, M., Joshi, S., Rai, S., & Kumar, D. (2020). Modelling water levels of northwestern India in response to improved irrigation use efficiency. Scientific Reports, 10, Article 13452. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-70416-0

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 29, 2020
Online Publication Date Aug 10, 2020
Publication Date 2020
Deposit Date Jul 30, 2020
Publicly Available Date Aug 19, 2020
Journal Scientific Reports
Publisher Nature Research
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 10
Article Number 13452
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-70416-0
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1264820

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.






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