GIS-based impact assessment of land-use changes on groundwater quality: study from a rapidly urbanizing region of South India

Abstract

This study attempts to assess the influence of changing land-use patterns on the groundwater quality of the hard rock aquifer system in the Maheshwaram watershed, near Hyderabad, India. The study area is a rapidly urbanizing region with land development progressing at a fast pace. To study the impact of this rapid urbanization and overall land-use transition, a groundwater quality index (GQI) was prepared within a geographical information system (GIS). The GQI integrates the different water quality parameters to give a final index value that can be used for spatio-temporal comparisons. The land-use transitions were closely monitored from 2003 to 2008 using multispectral satellite images. The land-use pattern has changed drastically with an increase in the built-up area at the expense of other land uses. The analysis reveals a rapid deterioration of groundwater quality related mainly to the increase in built-up land with unsewered sanitation and poultry farms. Seasonal variability of the groundwater quality was also assessed. Mean GQI decreased from 84.16 to 83.26 over a period of 5 years from 2003 to 2008, while seasonal variability of water quality increased. GQI and Seasonal Variability of water quality were integrated in GIS to yield a groundwater sustainability map, in terms of water quality. Zones of sustainable and unsustainable groundwater use were demarcated for better decision making related to municipal land allotment in this rapidly urbanizing region.

An assessment of land use change impacts on the water resources of the Mula and Mutha Rivers catchment upstream of Pune, India

“…The largest increases of runoff were found when converting forest and savanna to agriculture, whereas the largest decrease of runoff resulted from a conversion to forest in this study. Further Indian studies focus on the impact of land use change on groundwater (e.g., Khan et al, 2011;Ramesh, 2001;Singh, 2001).…”

Impact of land-use on groundwater quality: GIS-based study from an alluvial aquifer in the western Ganges basin

“…The use of GIS technology has greatly simplified the assessment of natural resources and environmental concerns, including groundwater (Khan et al 2011). GIS can be a very strong tool for generating solutions for water quality assessment, problems of water resources, and determination of water availability and management of water resources on a local or regional scale (Ketata et al 2011;Shabbir and Ahmad 2015).…”

Assessing groundwater pollution hazard changes under different socio-economic and environmental scenarios in an agricultural watershed

“…Even though an extensive amount of research concerning land-use impacts on groundwater exists in primary literature (Giacomelli et al, 2001;Batelaan and De Smedt, 2001;Klöcking and Haberlandt, 2002;Batelaan et al, 2003;Scanlon et al, 2005;Dams et al, 2007;Jiang et al, 2008;Singh et al, 2010;Lima et al, 2011a;Khan et al, 2011;Ouyang et al, 2014), the complex interactions between hydrologic and socio-economic factors are yet to be elucidated.…”