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 Gondwana Geological Magazine
GGM
Special Volume No.14, 2014, pp. 1-9 www.ggsnagpur.org

Groundwater Management Using Modflow Modeling

B.R. Lamsoge1, Y.B. Katpatal2 and Anil M. Pophare3*
1
Central Ground Water Board, Central Region, Civil Lines, Nagpur-440 001, India
2
Department of Civil Engg., Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur-440 010, India
3
PG Department of Geology, RTM Nagpur University, Law College Square, Nagpur-440 001, India
*E-mail: apophare@gmail.com

Abstract

The highly diversified occurrence and substantial variation in the accessibility and utilization of groundwater in India, makes its
management a complex task. The present study was carried out in an over exploited WR-2 watershed in Warud taluka, Amravati district,
Maharashtra. This study emphasizes the need to adopt a systematic, economically viable and realistic framework for groundwater management
based on robust groundwater modeling approach. During the course of present study, a software viz. Processing MODFLOW for Windows
(PMWIN) was used to develop groundwater flow model, in order to evaluate the groundwater system, its current scenario and prediction of future
groundwater stress in the study area of WR-2 watershed. The modeling results show decline in groundwater level more than 15 meters below
ground level (m bgl) in the unconfined aquifers of WR-2 watershed, that would result into drying up of its 243 km2 area, by the year 2020. Hence it
is proposed to arrest the declining groundwater level by adopting suitable groundwater management strategies, particularly for irrigation sector.

Keywords: Over exploitation, Basaltic aquifer, MODFLOW modeling, Groundwater management, India.

Introduction supply, deteriorating groundwater quality and intrusion of

Over exploitation of groundwater occurs when
extraction exceeds both natural and induced aquifer recharge
over long periods. The adverse effects of groundwater over
exploitation includes uneconomic pumping conditions, water
quality degradation through induced intrusion of saline or poor
quality groundwater, flow reduction in streams, wetlands and
springs, land subsidence, interference with pre-existing water
uses and water rights along with gradual depletion of
groundwater level and storage (Sophocleous, 2003; Zektser et
al., 2005; CGWB, 2007; Harou and Lund, 2008).
Groundwater management in such an over exploited areas
requires multi-disciplinary approach. Groundwater
simulation modeling is a powerful management tool for study
of such problematic areas. At present, most of the
investigations related to groundwater modeling are carried out
by MODFLOW (Anderson and Woessner, 1992; Strom and
Mallory, 1995; Gnanasundar and Elango 2000; Singh and
Woolhiser, 2002; Flores-Marquez et al., 2006; Lalehzari et al.,
2010, Senthilkumar and Elango, 2001, 2004, 2011).
In India, over development of groundwater resources
resulted into depleting groundwater levels, scarcity in water
saline water in the coastal areas (Sivasankar et al., 2012). In
Maharashtra State, out of the total 1531 watersheds, 66
watersheds are categorised as over exploited (CGWB and
GSDA, 2009). Present study was carried out in one such over
exploited watershed WR-2, which is located in the basaltic
terrain of the Warud taluka, Amravati district, Maharashtra
State, India. It is bounded by latitudes 21°19' 36'': 21° 35' 26''
and longitudes 78° 05' 00'': 78° 22' 18'' and covered under the
Survey of India Topographical Sheet Nos. 55K/2, 55K/3,
55K/6 and 55K/7. This watershed constitutes a part of Wardha
river sub-basin and extends for ~30 km from north to south and
~28 km from east to west having an areal extent of about 632
km2 (CGWB, 1998) (Fig.1). Recent increase in the orange
orchards in this area, and water requirement for their irrigation,
resulted into excess withdrawal of groundwater from the
aquifers of WR-2 watershed, leading to severe depletion of
groundwater levels. The stage of groundwater development in
WR-2 watershed has reached up to 155.85% and it is
categorized as over exploited watershed (CGWB, 1998;
CGWB and GSDA, 2009). During the course of present study,
an attempt has been made to study the effect of ground-
water over exploitation and its effective management by
2 B.R. Lamsoge et al.

o o o o
78 05' 00" 78 22' 18" 78 05' 00" 78 22' 18"
21o 35' 26" 21o 35' 26" 21o 35' 26" 21o 35' 26"

21o 19' 36" 21o 19' 36" 21o 19' 36" 21o 19' 36"
o o o o
78 05' 00" 78 22' 18" 78 05' 00" 78 22' 18"

Fig.1. Location of the study area of WR-2 watershed showing model boundary and zones

developing a groundwater flow model through the software
MODFLOW.
Hydrogeology
The WR-2 watershed is mainly covered by Deccan Trap
basaltic lava flows with associated inter-trappean sediments of
Cretaceous- Lower Eocene age and Wardha Alluvial deposits
of Recent to Quaternary age. Towards the southern part of
WR-2 watershed, about 10 to 30 m thick alluvium deposit
occurs along the Wardha river course (Fig.1). Apart from
alluvium deposit, a bouldary deposit locally known as
'Bazada' with significant horizontal and vertical extension,
covering about 50 km2 area is noticed towards the northern part
of the watershed, in foothill areas. This formation is underlain
by the Deccan trap basalts and acts as a recharge area for the
central and southern part of WR-2 watershed. Groundwater in
basalt and alluvium occurs under unconfined conditions with
varying thickness from 4.35 to 36 m bgl comprising of jointed-
fractured massive and vesicular basalt.
The study area of WR-2 watershed falls under the
assured rainfall zone with ~ 44 annual rainy days and normal
rainfall of 934.16 mm. This area experiences sub-tropical to
tropical temperate monsoon climate (CGWB, 1998). The
analysis of long-term rainfall (1901-2010) in this area reveals
insignificant declining trend of rainfall i.e., -2.034 mm per
year with irregular rainfall pattern. This may be one of the
factors responsible for over exploitation of groundwater, as the
normal rainfall could not recharge the aquifers up to their
maximum capacity against the escalating rate of groundwater
withdrawal.
The depth to water levels (DTWL), in 34 key dugwells,
were monitored on quarterly basis i.e., for the month of
January, May (pre-monsoon), August and November (post-
monsoon) from January 2007 to November 2010. Shallow
DTWL (up to 5 m bgl) is observed in northern part of the
watershed and small patch in south-western part of the
watershed. The deeper DTWL zones (15m bgl and more) are
encountered in central and southern part of the watershed,
while rest of the area has DTWL less than 15 m bgl.
 Groundwater Management Using Modflow Modeling 3

Conceptual Model are decided based on the hydro-geological studies, as recharge

from rainfall, return flow of irrigation and recharge due to
In order to build a model for the present study, computer existing recharge structures, groundwater draft, hydraulic
software designed for groundwater flow modeling viz. conductivity, specific yield and evapo-transpiration (Tables 2
Processing MODFLOW for Windows (PMWIN) Version and 3). The aquifer parameters for Deccan trap basalts and
5.3.2 is used (Chiang and Kinzelbach, 1998). The finite- alluvium have been considered within the range of established
difference computer code MODFLOW, which numerically values. Moreover, as the DTWL is deeper (> 10 m bgl), evapo-
approximates the equations, is used to simulate the transpiration has not been taken into account.
groundwater flow (McDonald and Harbaugh, 1988). The
partial differential equations of the anisotropic and Model Calibration
heterogeneous three-dimensional groundwater flow (Rushton
and Redshaw, 1979) are assumed and used to model the The strategy applied for calibration of model during the
groundwater flow. study, is based on the logic that 'vary the best-known
dd h dd h dd h dh + parameters as little as possible and vary the poorly known or
Kxx + Kyy + Kzz = Ss _ W unknown values the most'. This was done by sequential
x
d dx y
d dy dz d z dt
adjustment of the model parameters until a closed match was
Where,
found between the observed and calculated heads (Anderson
Kxx, Kyy, Kzz = hydraulic conductivity along x, y
and Woessner, 1992; Senthilkumar and Elango, 2001; Singh
and z coordinates that are assumed
and Woolhiser, 2002; Abdulla and Al-Assa'Tamer, 2006).
to be parallel to the major axes of
hydraulic conductivity (LT-1)
Steady State Calibration
h = potentiometric head (L)
_W
+ = volumetric flux per unit volume
During the steady state calibration a single stress period
that represents sources and/or
of one day has been considered and all the parameters are
sinks of water (T-1)
assumed to be constant throughout the period. Strongly
Ss = the specific storage of the porous
Implicit Procedure Package (SIP) has been used as solver for
material (L-1)
the groundwater flow equations. At the end of calibration the
T = time (T)
variance of residual has reduced to 19.25, which is found
In the study area, the top layer of lithology comprises of reasonably acceptable for the hard rock basaltic aquifer
detrital mantle of weathered basalt that forms an unconfined (Fig.2). The water level contour based on the calculated head
aquifer. It spreads over the entire watershed with an average
aquifer thickness of 30 m. Hence, a single layer model is Table 1: Layer specifications in the conceptual model
conceptualised in the present study, based on the Parameters Layer-I
hydrogeology of the watershed. A model representing Formations The top layer covering entire
unconfined aquifer is given in Table 1. watershed is divided into 3 zones
Zone-I: Weathered Basalt
Model Formulation (Deccan Trap)
Zone-II: Bazada formation
Zone-III: Wardha River Alluvium
The study area of 36.50 km x 32.50 km is considered for
Layer Type Unconfined, Type-1
the model and discretised into 4745 cells (65 columns x 73
Top elevation (m above msl) 340.465 to 502.621
rows) having cell dimension of 500 m x 500 m each (Fig.1).
Bottom elevation (m. above msl) 310.465 to 472.621
The cells outside the watershed were marked as inactive cells. Layer thickness (m) 30
The study area thus discretised into 1967 active cells and 2778 Initial heads (m above msl) 338.009 to 494.221
inactive cells. Towards south of the study area Wardha river is
simulated as constant head boundary, as backwater of Upper Table 2: Zone wise input parameters for steady state calibration
Wardha Dam exist throughout the year in this river. Rest of the
Parameters Zone - I Zone - II Zone - III
boundaries including hilly area in the north of the watershed Deccan Trap Bazada Alluvium
are treated as inactive, as it is a topographic high (Fig.1). The
Horizontal Hydraulic 0.30 0.40 0.95
aquifer condition of January 2008 is assumed to be the initial
Conductivity (K) (m/day)
condition for the model calibration.
Recharge flux(m/day/cell) 0.00015 0.00018 0.00012
W.r.t. normal rainfall (%) (6%) (7%) (5%)
Input Parameters
Draft (m3/day/cell) 40 50 40
Time 1 day
During the present modeling study, the input parameters
4 B.R. Lamsoge et al.

Table 3: Zone wise input parameters for transient state calibration

Zone I Deccan Trap Zone II Bazada Zone III Alluvium
Recharge Recharge Recharge
Year Period SP TS Days Draft Flux Draft
Flux Draft Flux 3
(m /day) (m/day) (m3/day)
(m/day) (m3/day) (m/day)
2008 Jan-May 1 4 120 0 40 0 50 040
Jun-Aug 2 3 90 0.00015 0 0.00016 0 0.00012 0
Sept-Nov 3 3 90 0.00009 20 0.00011 40 0.00007 20
Dec-Jan 4 2 65 0 20 0 30 0 20
2009 Jan-May 5 4 120 0 40 0 50 0 40
Jun-Aug 6 3 90 0.00013 0 0.00016 0 0.00011 0
Sept-Nov 7 3 90 0.00015 20 0.00018 30 0.00012 20
Dec-Jan 8 2 65 0 20 0 30 0 20
2010 Jan-May 9 4 120 0 40 0 50 0 40
Jun-Aug 10 3 90 0.00015 0 0.00016 0 0.00012 0
Sept-Nov 11 3 90 0.00015 20 0.00018 30 0.00012 20

Fig.2. Comparison of calculated and observed heads in m above msl, January 2008 (steady state) and
after 365 days (SP-4/TS-2, Jan 2009) (transient state)
 Groundwater Management Using Modflow Modeling
Fig.3. Hydrographs of Well No. 11, 12 and 34
values in the cells matches with the observed head contours
except at one or two places. Thus, the model was successfully
calibrated for steady state condition as the variance and water
budget is appreciably acceptable with -8.84% discrepancy of
the whole model domain.
Transient State Calibration
During transient state calibration, initial head values
were taken similar as the initial head for the steady-state
calibration and the entire period from 2008 to 2010 has been
considered. Each year (365 days) has been divided into 4 stress
periods. Thus, the calibration period was divided into 11 stress
periods (SP) and 34 time steps (TS) of 1030 days. After
assigning all the input parameters for each stress period the
model was run for the transient state calibration (Table 3).
Several computer runs were performed until acceptable
matches were obtained between the observed and calculated
water levels. It has been observed that almost all the wells
show an appreciable variance ranges from 3.12 to 5.87 with an
average variance of 4.0194 and a good match between water
level contours of simulated heads and observed heads for the
period of 365 days (Fig.2). Some hydrographs of the
representative wells are presented as Fig.3. During sensitivity
analysis of the model, it is observed that the present model is
very sensitive for recharge to aquifer system followed by
ground water draft.
Result and Discussion
In the study area, as there is no surplus non-committed
runoff available for recharge to the groundwater, therefore, for
predictive scenario, only the groundwater draft component
was considered. Thus, two scenarios were considered to
predict the future groundwater conditions assuming the future
stress.
Scenario-1: Continuation of Groundwater Stress at Present
Rate
To predict the future groundwater scenario, the model
was run for 40 stress periods (10 years) with the present rate of
5
pumping, keeping all the other parameters constant. The
simulated head contours for prediction after 10 years (2020)
were drawn and presented as Fig. 4. The inferred results show
that the groundwater level would decline at a rate ranging from
0.01 to 0.12 m/y. It was also simulated that some of the wells
would become dry if this declining rate prevails. In the year
2020, almost 50 % of total model area i.e. ~ 242.93 km2 area,
would be experiencing deeper DTWL of more than 15m bgl.
The simulation indicates that the northern, central, western
parts and considerable part at the southern boundary of WR-2
watershed would be falling in this zone. The dug wells in 24.75
km2 area would be dry as represented by 99 dry cells (Fig. 4).
Scenario-2: Decrease in Groundwater Draft by 20% of
Present Rate
To arrest the declining water level, the groundwater draft
has to be reduced as there is no surplus non-committed runoff
available for recharge to groundwater in the WR-2 watershed.
The current groundwater draft for irrigation is estimated from
12,879 irrigation wells including 2,945 wells in command area
and 9934 wells in non-command area, which comes out to be
155.24 Mm3/year (CGWB and GSDA, 2007; 2009). The
model was run for 40 stress period (at 10 year) with 20%
decrease in groundwater draft with respect to the current
groundwater draft, i.e., draft reduced to 125.65 Mm3/year. It
was observed that about 0.75 km2 area show dry cells in bazada
area of the WR-2 watershed. The time vs. predicted head show
stable water level trend (Fig. 5). Thus, it can be concluded that
the groundwater regime in the WR-2 watershed might not be
restored 100% or in-totality, even though the draft would be
reduced by 20%. This indicates the necessity of a strong
intervention for management of groundwater, especially for
irrigation sector.
Groundwater Management
This groundwater scenario of WR-2 watershed demands
immediate attention. It is utmost essential to adopt a
systematic, economically viable and realistic framework for
groundwater management in the WR-2 watershed. However,
technical, institutional and socio-economic factors that govern
6 B.R. Lamsoge et al.
Fig.4. Prediction of current scenario, after 10th year (2020), SP-40, with
dry cells (simulated heads in m above msl
the occurrence, availability, development and management of
groundwater resources make the process of groundwater
management relatively complex. During the present study,
following key areas were identified for intervention in the
WR-2 watershed.
1. Development of realistic hydro-geological model for
aquifer mapping to know the regional aspects of
geology, hydrogeology and geochemistry of major
aquifer systems
2. Community-based groundwater management
3. Technical and political solutions to agricultural power
pricing and water pricing
4. Targeted regulation of groundwater use
5. Improving water use efficiency in all sectors including
water audit
6. Promoting co-operative agriculture
7. Integrating groundwater in urban water supply planning
8. Sector policy interventions and coordination
9. Mass awareness programme and capacity building of
the stakeholders at various levels for ensuring effective
and sustainable management of groundwater resources.
The above said interventions may take long time for
implementation and requires willingness of people and
politician to adopt the groundwater management policies in
this area. In view of the results of groundwater modeling and
interventions to be implemented, following actions are
Fig.5. Predicted water level contour after 10 years (2020) (40 stress
period), with 20% decrease in rate of pumping, with dry cells
immediately required for better groundwater management
plan.
Adopting Modern Irrigation Techniques like Drip and
Sprinkler for Irrigation
During fieldwork in WR-2 watershed, it was observed
that most of groundwater is being utilised for irrigating orange
orchard by using traditional water spread method. If modern
irrigation practices like drip irrigation, sprinkler etc. are used
then there will be considerable reduction in the groundwater
draft (PKV, 2009). Presently there are about 84,53,349 orange
trees in the study area of WR-2 watershed that are irrigated
mostly by groundwater (TAO, 2010). The estimated ground-
water draft for all purposes is 157.06 Mm3/year including
current groundwater draft for irrigation of 155.24 Mm3/year
(CGWB and GSDA, 2007; 2009). If entire orange orchards in
WR-2 watershed are irrigated through drip and or sprinkler
method, then 108.67 Mm3/year groundwater will be utilised for
irrigation. Thus, there will be reduction in groundwater draft by
46.37 Mm3/year, which is about 30%. It has been observed that
using drip irrigation, the average rate of water utilisation for
the irrigation decreases to about 87 liter/day/tree showing
progressive rise with maximum utilization during the months
of March, April, May and June (Figs. 6 and 7) (PKV, 2009).
Optimal utilization of irrigation water.
 Groundwater Management Using Modflow Modeling 7

200
Water Requirement
180 1st year 2nd year
1100 Trend of Water requirement/year/tree
160 3rd year 4th year 1000

Water requirement (lit/day/tree)

Water requirement (lit/day/tree)

140 5th year 6th year 900

120 800
7th year 8th year
700
100
9th year 10th year
600
80 y = 87.097x + 202.87
500
60
400
40
300
20 200

0 100
September

November

December
June
May
March

July
January

October
February

April

August

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Month Year

Fig.6. Month wise water requirement for an orange tree (after PKV, 2009) Fig.7. Year wise water requirement for an orange tree (after PKV,
2009)

In WR-2 watershed area, water from the Nagthana-II MI developed by IARI, to reduce the groundwater draft by
Project is distributed through Canal Distribution Network 20%.
(CDN), it is proposed to use the Pipe Distribution Network
(PDN) design, instead of CDN, and then the same quantum of Possibilities of Artificial Recharge to Groundwater
water could irrigate about 12 Km2 more area. The farmers in
Nagthana command area have shown overwhelming response In any area, it is essential to assess the availability of
to the concept of volumetric basis, which would provide surplus runoff water against the available storage potential of
option of adopting cropping pattern to suit market demand the aquifer before projecting any new recharge structure. In
especially for orange cultivation (Kolhe, 2012). Hence, to WR-2 watershed, there are 16 minor irrigation tanks, 31 KT
improve the efficiency of water usage, it is recommended to weirs, 14 percolation tanks, 10 diversion dams and one lift
use the PDN instead of CDN in command area of irrigation irrigation scheme constructed by the Govt. of Maharashtra.
projects. By virtue of PDN, the water use efficiency can be Apart from these schemes, large number of water conservation
improved to 70 to 80% from existing efficiency of 25 to 40%. structures like check dams, percolation tanks, KT weirs,
Thus there will be 2-3 times increase in water use efficiency underground bandharas, diversion dams, farm ponds,
for irrigation and about 55 to 65% improvement in overall continuous contour trenches and village tanks have been
water use efficiency. constructed in WR-2 watershed by various Central/State Govt.
departments and NGO's. Thus, about 50.728 Mm3 of surface
Water Management Technologies water is conserved by the existing water conservation and
artificial recharge structures. About 48.43 Mm3 of recharge
The Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI), New potential is available in the sub-surface aquifers of WR-2
Delhi experimented that the advance technologies in water watershed, which requires 64.58 Mm3 of water to recharge the
managements can improve the crop yields by 17 to 47% and underground aquifers. However, the proportionate availability
saving about 11 to 43% irrigation water, irrigation time, of surplus runoff for WR-2 watershed is 14.13 Mm3, which
irrigation cost and electric energy (Chhillar et al., 2012). The means that there is no surplus water/runoff available for
results of these technologies are presented in Table 4. It is recharging the groundwater resources of this watershed.
proposed that the farmers in WR-2 watershed should utilize Furthermore, most of the existing water conservation and
these state of the art water management technologies artificial recharge structures are filled with silt deposited over

Table 4: Use of water management technologies (after Chhillar et al., 2012)

S. Operational cost Saving in irrigation water, Increase in
Name of Technology
No per ha (Rs.) time, cost and electric energy yield
1 Aqua-ferti Seed Drill 43,000 14% to 27% 6% to 27%
2 Raised bed technology 45,000 42% 14.5%
3 Laser Leveling 5,000 30% Drastic increase
4 Biogas Slurry No extra cost 11% to 43% Upton 4%
5 System of Rice Intensification (SRI) 5,000 24% 5% to 8%
6 Combination of above techniques Variable 11% to 43% 17% to 47%
8 B.R. Lamsoge et al.
the period, causing decrease in its recharge potential. Hence it
is proposed to have regular de-silting of all the existing water
conservation and artificial recharge structures, to increase
their recharge potential, preferably before the onset of
monsoon every year. This will improve vertical infiltration of
surface water into the underground aquifers.
Villagewise Aquifer Management Plan by Participatory
Groundwater Management Approach
The entire WR-2 watershed area falls under Deccan trap
basaltic terrain except a strip of alluvium deposit along the
Wardha river. The village wise demarcation of aquifer
boundaries has not been done, hence it is proposed to
demarcate the depth, thickness and yield potential of the
basaltic aquifer for each village. Thus, the village wise
availability of groundwater will help to plan the cropping
pattern and irrigation practices in the study area of WR-2
watershed. The success of participatory groundwater
management is well known and it is necessary to obtain the
participation of local populace for groundwater management
plan in which priority may be given to irrigation sector in the
WR-2 watershed (cf. Steenbergen, 2006; Gajbhiye, 2007;
2011). Besides this, activities related to skill development,
income generation and extension are also incorporated in the
plan to enrich the knowledge and skill of the local community
and encourage them for sustainable living. To obtain this
objective, the Information, Education and Communication
(IEC) of the local populace is an extremely important
component of the participatory groundwater management
programme that lays the base for its successful
implementation. IEC play a very critical role in bringing
awareness on various aspects of safe drinking water, its
usage, creating demand, protection and maintenance of
water sources to all the stakeholders. IEC campaign has to
inform, educate and persuade people to realize their roles and
responsibilities and benefits accruing from investing in right
practices. IEC strategy needs to prepare the PRIs and rural
community at the village level plan, implement, manage,
operate and maintain water resources, which should be a
continuous process.
Conclusions
Groundwater management in an overexploited
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3
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irrigation techniques like drip and sprinkler instead of
traditional flood irrigation which is currently being used for
irrigating orange orchards. This will save up to 30%
groundwater utilization. Apart from this, it is suggested to use
of PDN design instead of CDN in canal command area as the
water use efficiency can be improved to 70 to 80% as observed
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Acknowledgement
This work is a part of doctoral research work of Bhushan
R. Lamsoge and he is thankful to the Chairman, CGWB,
Faridabad and Regional Director, CGWB, Nagpur for
permitting to carry out this work.
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