An Observatory of Groundwater in Crystalline Rock Aquifers Exposed to a Changing Environment: Hyderabad, India

Abstract

Core Ideas Long‐term observatories allow the study of global changes to water resources in India. Crystalline rock aquifers are highly heterogeneous. Management of crystalline aquifers necessitates solving several scientific questions. A multidisciplinary approach is necessary for improving water management in India. Multiscale and long‐term work is needed to tackle the scientific challenges found in areas vulnerable to climate change and anthropic pressure. This is the case in the semiarid and drought‐prone regions of southern India where freshwater is scarce and agriculture near fast‐growing cities is triggering high water demand. The Indo‐French Center for Groundwater Research (IFCGR) was established in 1999 between the Indian National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) and the French Geological Survey (BRGM) at the NGRI campus in Hyderabad, India. For almost 20 yr, the IFCGR has studied the hydrodynamic properties and associated hydrological processes in crystalline aquifers. To that end, the Center set up two sites for observing groundwater in crystalline rock aquifers: (i) the Maheshwaram basin for the study of groundwater management at catchment scale, and (ii) the Choutuppal experimental site for the detailed study of hydrogeological processes at local scale (between wells). Multiscale approaches allow the characterization of hydrodynamic and transport properties of the shallow weathered part of such crystalline aquifers and the implications for groundwater management under overexploitation conditions. The objective is to provide suitable characterization of aquifer properties for developing modeling and management tools applicable to such heterogeneous aquifers.

Heat Tracing in a Fractured Aquifer with Injection of Hot and Cold Water

“…The EHP is a scientific observatory for environmental research and is located around 60 km southeast of the state capital Hyderabad in Telangana state (Figure 1a ). The French Geological Survey (BRGM) and the Indian National Geophysical Research Institute of Hyderabad (NGRI) are studying the impact of global (climate) and other local anthropogenic changes on the groundwater resources in a fractured weathered crystalline rock aquifer under high stress for irrigation (Maréchal et al 2018 ). In the region of the EHP, the climate is semi‐arid and controlled by the periodicity of monsoons (Nicolas et al 2019 ).…”

Elevated uranium in drinking water sources in basement aquifers of southern India

“…This is particularly evident in wellfields for the growing towns and cities across Peninsular India and Africa which extract water from basement aquifers (e.g. Sekhar et al, 2017;Maréchal et al, 2018;Foster et al, 2012).…”

Litho-structural conditioning in the exploration of fractured aquifers: a case study in the Crystalline Basement Aquifer System of Brazil

“…The weathered mantle of the rock in situ can mean an important water reserve for the underlying fractures, where in India Maréchal et al (2018) attests to low permeability and high porosity for a portion of a few drawings of meters of saprolite rich in clay minerals that contributes as a reserve for the aquifer; and in the USA Setlur et al (2019) attests that the productivity of the wells is largely associated with the thickness of the regolith, which is generally higher on granites than on metamorphic rocks. We attested in our work that there is not a positive linear relationship between specific capacity and weathering mantle from all wells (Figure 11) and any hydrolithological unit, although there are occasionally some wells with high productivity.…”