Second Chapter

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

Increasing demands for water by competing users in semiarid regions pose new

challenge for water resources managers. Decision makers must understand the

interactions between surface water, groundwater and environmental system.

Additionally, the decisions made with regard to water transfer and allocation must take

into consideration the diverse objectives that include water supply, cost efficiency and

ecosystem protection. The literature review presented here includes various aspects of

the water resources development and management in canal irrigated areas.

Hydrological studies in irrigation command area includes study of the rainfall

patterns, estimation of crop evapotranspiration, impacts of water logging and soil

salinity, cropping pattern and agro-climatic conditions. In canal command area

conjunctive use of surface and groundwater resources is essential for sustainable

agricultural development. A conjunctive use policy is termed stable when the policy

results in a negligible change in the ground water storage over a normal year. The work

done by different researchers in the area of conjunctive water use is reviewed in this

chapter at length.

The spatial and temporal variations of groundwater levels in canal irrigated areas

are high, with few observation points in large area. Geostatistics based methods,

particularly Kriging, is considered as one of the robust methods in regional studies. The

geostatistical approach have been used by many researchers to generate groundwater

surfaces and other aquifer parameters like hydraulic conductivity, transmissivity etc.

Some of the studies are presented here in brief.

For the effective development and management of groundwater of a basin, it is

essential that a careful water balance study shall be carried out. A variety of studies have

been reported which dealt with the groundwater modeling to understand the subsurface

flow system and groundwater balance under different natural and man induced stresses.

The scarcity of water and the competition for freshwater demand from domestic,

industrial, navigational and recreational uses are also increasing and thus the share of

water in the irrigation sector is bound to reduce drastically. The management of water in

irrigation sector must be taken up on priority basis. The database management

capabilities of GIS have the potential to expedite the collection of information from

geographically diverse sources. The spatio-temporal attribute of water use data are

ideally suited for analysis using a GIS approach. The literature reported in the last two

decades indicates that the water resources planning and management problems can be

well addressed using GIS.

2.2 Hydrological Studies in Irrigation Command Area

Molden and Gates (1990) developed the performance measures that facilitate analysis of

irrigation‐water delivery systems in terms of adequacy, efficiency, dependability, and

equity of water delivery. The measures provide a quantitative assessment not only of

overall system performance, but also of contributions to performance from the structural

and management components of the system. The performance measures can be

incorporated in an irrigation system monitoring program and can provide a framework

for assessing system improvement alternatives. The usefulness of the measures in system

evaluation was discussed with the example applications to systems typical of Sri Lanka

and Egypt.

A less planned growth of irrigation intensity by canal systems, tube wells and

other schemes have led to undesirable effects of water logging, especially in the alluvial

regions of India. Serious repercussions of these effects involve loss of cultivable land,

reduction in the crop yield and contamination of aquifers. Sreenivas et al. (1992)

examined certain aspects of water logging problems in MRBC Command Area in central

Gujarat, India. The major causes for water logging are poor sub-soil drainage,

over/excess irrigation and the proposed measures are properly lining of canal, improved

drainage system and conjunctive water use.

Poor drainage and return flow from excess irrigation, along with continuous

seepage from canals is certainly responsible for the rising trend of water table and hence,

water-logging conditions in the command areas. The quantity of water being added to the

subsurface storage is required so that a conjunctive water management scheme involving

adequate ground water withdrawals may be used to control the rising trends. Rastogi and

Prasad (1992) carried out numerical (FEM) modeling to investigate seepage losses from

Nadiad branch canal in MRBC command area of Kheda district in Gujarat, India.

Water table depth, piezometric head, and precipitation were measured by Beke et

al. (1993) at nine sites in southern Alberta over a period of 28 years to determine the

effect of irrigation on long‐term groundwater levels. Irrigation and precipitation directly

recharge the unconfined aquifer. High water tables are most frequent during May–July,

when irrigation water is applied and precipitation is high. Highest levels generally

occurred in soils with glacial till at depths less than 1.50 m from the surface. It was

concluded that as increasing water table levels predominated at sites with till within 1.50

m of the surface, special management schemes need to be developed for these soils.

Gutwein and Lang (1993) carried out the study of irrigation water demand at the

field level and checked whether field‐level estimates can be applied to predict the water

usage of a region. They used the crop and water‐use data for a 30‐year time period to

analyze a 200,000 ha desert region in southern California. They attempted to correlate

water usage with crop acreage and climatic variables were using the Blaney‐Criddle

evapotranspiration method, but showed limited success.

Yamashita and Walker (1994) used the cumulative water demand (CWD) curve

to validate and calibrate the Unit Command Area (UCA) model, which predicts the

aggregate water demands of individual command areas for the entire crop season. The

logistic function with three parameters, namely management‐allowable depletion,

irrigation application uniformity, and initial soil moisture, was adopted for fitting the

CWD curve. High correlations were observed between the individual curve parameters

and the field variables. Effectiveness of the equation developed for a particular UCA

using the regression analysis was successfully demonstrated.

The ASCE Task Committee on Defining Irrigation Efficiency and Uniformity has

provided a comprehensive examination of various performance indices such as irrigation

efficiency, application efficiency, irrigation sagacity, distribution uniformity, and others.

Consistency is provided among different irrigation methods and different scales. Burt et

al. (1997) provided the clarification of common points of confusion and proposed the

methods whereby the accuracy of numerical values of the performance indicators can be

assessed.

Goyal and Chawla (1997) presented the solution for estimation of seepage from a

canal to symmetrically placed drainages founded on infinite pervious soil medium with

uniform infiltration from the free surface zone. They obtained the integral equations

using Zhukovsky's function and the Schwarz-Christoffel transformation and solved them

numerically to obtain the seepage losses. The problem was analysed for different

parameter values such as canal width, infiltration rate, the distance between the canal and

drainages. The effect of different parameters on the seepage discharge and the free

surface profile were presented in form of graphs and Nomographs were prepared for the

evaluation of canal seepages.

Sen (1998) suggested a percentage weighting (PW) method as an alternative to

the Thiessen polygon method to calculate the average areal precipitation (AAP) over a

catchment area. The basis of the method is to divide the catchment area into subareas by

considering the rainfall percentages considered at three adjacent station locations. The

method was found more reliable and flexible than the Thiessen polygon method where

the subareas remain the same independent of the recorded rainfall. In PW method, higher

precipitation values are attached with smaller subareas. It was observed that the PW

method yield relatively smaller error of estimate as compared to the other available

methods.

Ambast et al. (2000) presented a methodology to estimate the regional

evapotranspiration (RET). The methodology was based on surface energy balancing and

utilizes the digital data in visible and infrared region along with the ancillary

meteorological data to derive various fluxes involved in the computation. The FAO

Penman Monteith was selected as the standard method for comparison to evaluate the

other temperature based methods. The study revealed that among the different

temperature based methods, the Blaney-Criddle method gave estimate of RET closest to

the FAO Penman Monteith method.

Irrigation scheduling deals with two questions: when and how much to irrigate.

When adequate water supply is assured, irrigation can be scheduled to saturate the crop

root zone depth up to the field capacity and the timing of irrigation may be estimated by

the time it takes for the soil moisture to deplete to the critical level. Such an irrigation

schedule ensures that the crop will grow at its potential rate provided all other

agricultural inputs are supplied at optimal levels. Optimal resources allocation strategies

for a canal command in the semiarid region of Punjab, India were developed by Paul et

al. (2000) in a stochastic regime, considering the competition of the crops in a season,

both for irrigation water and area of cultivation. The proposed strategies were divided

into two modules using a multilevel approach. The first module determines the optimal

seasonal allocation of water as well as optimal cropping pattern. The stochastic dynamic

programming algorithm was used to determine the expected values at various risk levels.

The second module was a single crop stochastic dynamic programming intra-seasonal

model that took the output of the first module and gave the weekly irrigation allocation

for each crop by considering the stress sensitivity factors of crops.

The estimation of RET is of great importance for agricultural, hydrological,

atmospheric circulation and climatic change detection models. The estimation of ET at

regional scale in currently used models is based on point source information pertaining to

meteorological data. This is mainly due to difficulty involved in measuring it over a large

diverse areas or lack of spatial information to estimate it. Remote Sensing offers a

potential means of measuring outgoing fluxes, surface temperature and leaf area index.

Ambast et al. (2002) presented a methodology to estimate RET. The methodology is

based on surface energy balancing and utilizes the digital data in visible and infrared

region along with the ancillary meteorological data to derive various fluxes involved in

the computation. The developed methodology was utilized to estimate RET using

Landsat-TM data for a part of the Western Yamuna Canal (WYC) command in the state

of Haryana, India. The described methodology was found computationally stable and can

be used in practice for most real life applications without sacrificing much accuracy.

Arora and Goyal (2002) carried out a systematic study for the factors responsible

for water-logging and soil salinity in Hanumangarh and Sri-Ganganagar districts of

Rajasthan, India. They incorporated various meteorological, geological, hydrological and

environmental characteristics of the study area to arrive at the causes of water-logging

and soil salinity. It was concluded that a comprehensive socio-economic survey of the

affected villages shall be carried out for the assessment of the impact of water-logging.

They suggested that, incorporating the remote sensing data for the area, a mathematical

model may be developed to understand the environmental impacts of water-logging and

soil salinity.

Water and energy are two important resources for human development and have

inextricable inter-linkages between them. Gupta (2002) analyzed the demand-supply

situation of both sectors for Gujarat state and found the overexploitation of groundwater

in some parts of the state and also, the worsening water quality. The serious impact on

energy balance is due to the fact that more than 40% energy is consumed for extracting

groundwater. The feasible options available to meet the crisis i.e. development of mega

projects like Sardar Sarovar Project and Kalpsar project and micro water harvesting

structures, water pricing, consumer training etc. were reviewed by him.

Multi temporal remote sensing data based crop inventory, generation of

vegetation spectral index profiles and ETc estimation were carried out in MRBC

command area, Gujarat by Ray et al. (2002). Distributary-wise performance indices,

namely adequacy index, equity index and water use efficiency index, were computed. It

was found that water availability was in excess along main canal and branch canals

whereas it was less and crop condition was poor towards the tail ends of the command

area. The authors concluded that the integration of RS data and GIS tools to regularly

compute performance indices could provide irrigation managers with the means for

managing efficiently the irrigation system.

Suratgrah branch is a major canal system of Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojana

(IGNP). Water table in the Suratgrah branch command area is continuously rising,

causing more and more area covered under water logging. Water logging not only

results in depleted fresh water resources but also causes salinisation, health hazards,

ground water contamination and adverse environmental effects. Keeping in mind the

serious ill-effects of water logging, a socio-economic survey was conducted by Chahar

and Choudhary (2003) in six chaks in water logged command area of Suratgrah branch

canal of IGNP. The survey revealed that the income of the farmers increased after the

commencement of the canal, it reached to a maximum and then started to decline due to

water logging. Water logging in the study area may have resulted mainly due to seepage

from canals, return flow from irrigated fields and lack of natural drainage.

Sustainability relates to both physical as well as socioeconomic environment.

IGNP command area of Hanumangrah and Sriganganagar districts in Rajasthan are

facing problems of water logging and salinity. The ill-effects of water logging have not

only led to loss of agricultural land and properties, but also have resulted in

environmental degradation and change in socioeconomic pattern of affected households.

Arora et al. (2005) carried out the socioeconomic survey of the affected villages in the

study area. It was concluded that the social cost of water logging and salinity is much

more than the cost of submerged and degraded land and agriculture.

Gujarat, in western India is not endowed with plentiful of water resources. The

present utilization of water in North Gujarat already exceeds the assessed potential. The

assumption in present strategy of water resource development is that the technologies are

well known and/or are sufficiently developed and what is required is essentially a proper

management of the system. It is however felt that in addition to conventional remedies

suggested, there is a strong need for innovative technological solutions for the various

hydrology related problems of the state. Gupta and Deshpande (2005) identified some of

the specific areas of research that need to be pursued in the immediate future and

suggested the research strategies.

Basin and inter-basin transfers of surface waters through major irrigation

networks and easy availability of tube well technology converted arid and semi-arid

regions of India into intensive agricultural areas. Farmers adopted new cropping patterns,

which include the water-loving crops such as rice and sugarcane over traditional crops

like pearl millet, maize, pulses and oil seeds. Adoption of intensive irrigated agriculture

without planned irrigation development disturbs the regional water and salt balances in

some parts. A one-dimensional water and solute transport UNSATCHEM model was

calibrated and validated by Kaledhonkar and Keshari (2006) with a saline water use

experiment for wheat and cotton crops. The model was further employed for regional

scale salinity modeling with distributed data on soil, irrigation water supply and its

quality from six locations in the Kheri command of the Bhakra irrigation system.

Guidelines for sustainable conjunctive water use planning were prepared for Kheri

command to get optimum agricultural production despite the use of saline water for

irrigation under prevailing scenarios of water availability and its quality.

Mohan and Sangeeta (2006) tested different infiltration models based on the soil

type and land use variations for the estimation of the groundwater recharge in a basin.

Green Ampt model, Modified Kostiakov model and Horton model were found to be fit to

the observed data to estimate infiltration rates and their parameters were determined

using least square method. The infiltration results were compared with standard Soil and

Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. It was concluded that Horton model is the most

appropriate infiltration model for estimating recharge in the study area.

Periodic monitoring of Agro climate of a given location is essential to verify the

apprehensions of the climate change affecting agro ecosystem. Roorkee is agriculturally

advanced revenue subdivision of Haridwar District in Uttarakhand state in India. A study

was taken up to assess the Agro climate variability of Roorkee by Tripathi et al. (2007).

The weather data was statistically analysed for standard deviation and coefficient of

variability. Reference crop evapotranspiration (ET0) was calculated using FAO

CROPWAT. The Agro climate was classified using Moisture Availability Index (MAI)

as recommended by Thornthwaite and Mather and it was found that Roorkee fall in Dry

Sub Humid class.

Kaledhonkar and Keshari (2007) employed models dealing with water and solute

transport under variably saturated conditions for regional scale modeling to understand

irrigation induced salinization processes in the command of Kheri distributory of Bhakra

irrigation system. The CROPWAT software was used to estimate ET values of the crops.

Considering the crop area and canal supplies, pumping of water was estimated.

Interpretations based on regional water balance and distributed modeling was used to

assess the sustainability of the prevalent conjunctive use policy of utilizing poor quality

ground water along with canal water. Ambast et al. (2008) presented a remote sensing

based procedure to estimate the sensible heat flux incorporating the local meteorological

conditions and in turn to determine the regional evapotranspiration. The model utilized

satellite-derived surface albedo, surface temperature, and leaf area index along with a

very few agro-meteorological data as inputs. The procedure was tested on a part of the

Western Yamuna Canal system, India, and was found to be computationally simple and

stable. Results revealed that the percentage change in mean sensible heat flux for the

image was less than 5% in all cases, thus indicating the acceptability of the model

against the uncertainties. The model was also applied to three sets of Landsat-TM data

covering the Sone Low Level Canal system, India, to demonstrate its usefulness in

evaluating water delivery performance.

Monitoring changes in wetland vegetation is a useful tool for detecting changes

to groundwater hydrology, as vegetation is a basic ecosystem feature able to reflect the

state of vitality and maturity of the system. Serrano et al. (2008) observed the changes in

hydrology in 6 temporary ponds in the Do-nana National Park, Huelva (Spain) over 17

years by recording the fluctuation of their shallow water table and the duration of their

wet phase during each hydrological cycle. The changes in vegetation cover and

distribution were also quantified using aerial photographs. The water table oscillations

were analyzed in relation to rainfall variability and groundwater extraction, and it was

shown that both pond hydro-period and plant community changes were useful tools for

monitoring hydrological changes.

Dhar and Datta (2010) developed a methodology based on an optimization model

solution for the design of groundwater quality monitoring network. Redundancy

reduction is an important issue in the optimal design of a monitoring network. The model

incorporated the inverse distance weighting method for spatial interpolation of

concentration data. The formulated logic-based mixed-integer linear optimization model

was solved using the branch-and-bound algorithm. Performance of the proposed

methodology was evaluated for different scenarios using available historical

concentration data. The results demonstrated the potential applicability of the proposed

methodology for groundwater contaminant monitoring network design, while

incorporating reduction in redundancy of monitoring locations.

Prats and Pico (2010) presented the study of the performance and uncertainty

associated with an irrigation scheduling method based on a soil-water balance. A Monte

Carlo simulation of the irrigation scheduling model was developed using a series of

actual daily weather data of evapotranspiration and precipitation. Performance evaluation

measurements and their uncertainty were studied by means of several parameters. Total

Available Water (TAW) is the most important hydraulic property of the soil as far as

irrigation scheduling performance is concerned. The statistical relationship between

evaluation performance measures and TAW was calculated. Soils with high values of

TAW perform better. It was found that the root zone depth and fraction of TAW that can

be depleted from the root zone before moisture stress are two variables that directly

affect the TAW.

Irrigated agriculture faces serious threats of water-logging and soil salinization in

the arid and semiarid regions. An integrated spatial-agro-hydro-salinity model

(SAHYSMOD) was used by Singh and Panda (2012) to analyze water and salt balances

of an irrigated semiarid area located in the Haryana State of India. The sensitivity

analysis revealed that hydraulic conductivity is the most sensitive model parameter for

both groundwater levels and salinities, followed by effective porosity of the aquifer. The

results showed a good agreement between the simulated and observed groundwater

levels and salinities during the calibration and validation periods.

Fischer et al. (2013) analyzed the hydrological long-term dry and wet periods for

the Xijiang River basin in South China. They evaluated the impact of long-term

precipitation pattern on the discharge of the Xijiang River. At a 24-month timescale, the

standardized precipitation index (SPI-24) for the six sub-basins of the River and the

standardized discharge index (SDI-24) for Gaoyao station were applied. The monthly

values of the SPI-24 averaged for the Xijiang River basin was found to correlate highly

with the monthly values of the SDI-24. It was concluded that the discharge of the Xijiang

River (SDI-24) is a direct response to the area weighted SPI-24 of the entire Xijiang

River basin. Hence, changes in precipitation are directly responsible for changes in

discharge.

American Society of Civil Engineers–Environmental and Water Resources

Institute had recommended the ASCE-EWRI Penman-Monteith (ASCE PM)

combination equation by as the standard equation for estimating ET0. The standardized

model was intended to simplify and clarify the presentation and application of the

method; however, it requires numerous inputs that frequently are not available at most

weather stations. Rojas and Sheffield (2013) provided the comparisons between

daily ET0 estimates from five different approaches using limited data to those computed

with the ASCE PM equation. The results revealed that the differences

between ET0 obtained with complete and limited data were influenced by the underlying

surface, the weather conditions during the study, and the application of empirical

methods to determine missing inputs.

2.3 Conjunctive Use of Water

The need for more efficient management of available water resources is gaining

increased recognition, particularly in regions where industrial, residential or agricultural

expansion causes present and future water demands exceed the natural supply. A

common characteristic of most regions is a space and time imbalance in water demands

and natural supplies. It is very common that the period of lowest natural water supplies

coincides with largest demand and vice versa. Any region deficient in surface water

supplies may be underlain by excessive groundwater reserves. Aron and Scott (1971)

stressed on the need and advantages of conjunctive operation of ground water and

surface water resources. They applied the technique of dynamic programming to the

study area for the purpose of developing an optimal policy of water-resources operation

to meet a given forecast demand.

In river basins where aquifers are intimately associated with streams, the

unrestricted development of groundwater can reduce stream-flows and jeopardize the

rights to the flow of surface water. A simulation model to aid in the solution of such

problems was developed by Young and Bredehoeft (1972). The model composed of (i) a

hydrologic model that represents the physical response of the stream-aquifer system to

changes in river flows, diversions and pumping, and treats stream-flow as a stochastic

input and (ii) an economic model that represents the response of irrigation water users to

variations in water supply and cost. These elements were incorporated into a decision

framework so that the net income to the water resource system associated with

alternative management schemes could be measured.

A complex problem of optimal conjunctive use of groundwater and surface water

resources was handled by Yu and Haimes (1974) by developing a general systems

analysis approach. A two-dimensional asymmetrical grid network model was chosen to

represent the aquifer system. A water resources management problem was considered for

a hypothetical region that was composed of several adjoining sub-regions over a

common aquifer basin. It was suggested that the regional water authority regulate

optimally the inter-sub-regional aquifer boundary conditions and impose a pumping tax

on the local water agencies of the sub-regions. The pumping tax would provide revenue

for the regional authority to recharge the aquifer basin.

Haimes and Dreizin (1977) developed a methodology for solving the problems of

conjunctive use of a large-scale complex ground water system, a network of streams, and

reservoirs all interacting with one another. Decomposing the model of a large-scale

aquifer system as well as that of a stream network into interacting sub-models provided

an improved mathematical model of the entire physical stream. A theorem was proved

that establishes the necessary condition for the existence of a solution to the optimal

control problem associated with the management of the groundwater system. A sample

problem was formulated in which the option of groundwater operations and surface

water supply are conjunctively utilized to meet the water needs of several water users in

a basin. The management problem was solved via decomposition and multilevel

approach.

Kashyap and Chandra (1982) developed a mathematical model for arriving at an

optimal conjunctive use policy incorporating (i) spatially and temporally distributed

ground water withdrawal for a predefined pattern of surface water availability and (ii)

spatially distributed cropping patterns. The groundwater withdrawals are constrained by

the need to keep the water table elevations over the entire area within an appropriate

range. The monthly ground water withdrawals and areas under seven feasible crops were

estimated for each zone by nonlinear programming.

Conjunctive use of surface water and ground water can usually increase yields at

lower costs than more dams and reservoirs operated separately. Implementation is more

difficult in countries where surface water development has historically dominated water

supply project formulation. Coe (1990) discussed the various constraints and advantages

of conjunctive use implementations and operations in the areas in California that have

experienced basin overdraft and increasing water demands.

In India, future demands for water cannot be met entirely from new surface

reservoirs and maximum groundwater development can only be obtained by conjunctive

use of groundwater and surface water reservoirs. Murty (1990) identified the

characteristics of conjunctive use systems and detailed the principles of planning based

on the past experiences for guidance in the actual planning process. He observed that for

conjunctive use practice, the planning process does not really envisage the

complementary use of surface and ground water systems.

Onta et al. (1991) used a three-step modeling approach for comprehensive

analysis of the planning problem involving integrated use of surface and groundwater in

irrigation. In the first step, a stochastic dynamic programming model was used to derive

the long-term operation policy guidelines for alternative plans. A lumped simulation

model was then used to evaluate the alternative plans and policies, considering a number

of mutually related synthetic sequences of stream flows and rainfall. Finally, a multi-

criteria decision-making method (compromise programming) was used to select the most

satisfactory alternative plan for indicating the system design capacities and water

allocation policies.

A conjunctive-use model was developed by Latif and James (1991) to maximize

water user’s return under limited and dynamic water supply for long-term conditions.

The main objective of the study was to find the optimal groundwater extraction for

stabilizing the water table at specific depths below land surface, while at the same time

supplementing the surface irrigation supply. Concepts of limited and stressed irrigation

were used to maximize net return.

A conjunctive use management model was presented by Matsukawa et al. (1992)

to develop planning and operational strategies for the Mad river basin in Northern

California. Operational constraints included hydropower production limits, water-quality

constraints on the blended surface water and ground water used to meet the municipal

demand, and minimum in-stream flow needs downstream of the water-supply abstraction

point. The optimization model was solved using MINOS, a large-scale non-linear

programming algorithm.

In conjunctive use of groundwater and surface water of a river system the main

points to be considered are (i) the availability of groundwater, (ii) the scope for recharge

and (iii) the quality of groundwater. In Krishna Delta, there is enough scope for

utilization of groundwater for agricultural purpose, subject to the quality considerations.

Viswanadh and Reddy (1994) examined the water quality in different regions of Krishna

Delta to adopt a suitable mix of groundwater and surface water in their conjunctive use.

The groundwater and surface water samples were collected and examined under different

canal systems of Krishna Delta and an appropriate average mix of groundwater and

surface water of 28:72 was suggested. Working tables were prepared for Nagarjuna

Sagar reservoir with mean monthly inflows with and without groundwater utilization in

Krishna Delta ayacutt. It was found that 751.7 Mm3 of surface water can be conserved at

Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir with this policy.

Panda et al. (1996) developed three nonstructural management models and linked

together to aid in planning the optimum allocation of land and water resources to achieve

the objective of maximizing return in the command area of a canal distributor. A

groundwater simulation model simulated water table depths, the seasonal crop water

response model computed crop yields and inter seasonal irrigation system planning

model maximized net annual return through conjunctive use of surface and gypsum-

treated sodic ground water to achieve an optimal cropping pattern using LP algorithm.

The LP model was operated at five different mixing proportions of surface and poor

quality groundwater and seven probabilities of exceedence levels where rainfall, canal

water supply and crop water requirements were assumed supply.

Mohan and Jothiprakash (2000) formulated fuzzy linear programming (FLP)

model to derive optimal crop plans for an irrigation systems with the aim of conjunctive

utilization of water from surface reservoir and ground water aquifer. Considering the

fuzziness involved in the input variables such as inflows and ground water pumpage, the

FLP model maximizes the degree of satisfaction or truthness subject to objective

function, physical and economic constraints. It was found that the fuzziness in the

ground water pumpage plays a prominent role in deriving the optimal operational

strategies.

The irrigation water requirements of major crops and the total available water

through canal and groundwater in the command of Shahi distributory were estimated by

Singh et al. (2001). A linear programming model was formulated to suggest the optimal

cropping pattern giving the maximum net return at different water availability levels. The

model gave the optimal cropping pattern for a command area of 11818 ha at water

availability levels of 100%, 70% and 50%. It was found that the water available in the

command area may support optimally 4981, 3560, 1817, 632, 355, 87 and 3653 ha of

wheat, sugarcane, mustard, lentil, potato, chick pea and paddy crops, respectively, to get

a maximum net return of Rs. 185 million at 100% water availability. Wheat appeared to

provide most consistent profit in the command area.

Alluvial valley stream-aquifer systems are important sources of water supply in

many hydro-geologic regions and along many major river systems. Under natural

conditions, the aquifer is recharged by precipitation on the valley, groundwater moving

from adjacent aquifers, over-bank flooding, and infiltration from tributary streams.

Commonly, nearly all of the water pumped from these aquifers is derived from stream

flow depletion by the processes of captured groundwater discharge and induced

infiltration. Stream flow depletion by wells has become an environmental issue because

of the adverse effects that reductions in stream flow can have on aquatic and riparian

ecosystems. Barlow et al. (2003) developed conjunctive management models that couple

numerical simulation with linear optimization to evaluate trade-offs between

groundwater withdrawals and stream flow depletions for alluvial valley stream-aquifer

systems. They used the model to assess the effect of inter annual hydrologic variability

on minimum monthly stream flow requirements. It was found that increase in current

withdrawal from the aquifer by as much as 50% was possible by modifying the

withdrawal schedules, modifying the number and configuration of the wells in the supply

well network.

Jehangir et al. (2003) assessed the on-farm financial gains for paddy growing

farms through different models of irrigation and compared them with conjunctive use of

surface and groundwater. The problem of increased use of tube well water in the saline

groundwater zones that had resulted in the deterioration of the soils and groundwater

quality was highlighted. The SWAGMAN Farm Model had been used to evaluate the

financial and environmental trade-offs for effective conjunctive water management in the

Rechna Doab, Pakistan. The optimization results showed that it was possible to increase

the total gross margins while keeping the salinity levels and changes in depth to water

table in the acceptable limits through conjunctive water management.

Mohan and Jothiprakash (2003) noted that the conjunctive use of surface water

and ground water was practiced more by accident than by deliberate planning. They

found that no significant work have been carried out on applications of the conjunctive

use model for optimal water resources management in the context of controlling water-

logging in irrigation command area. A combined optimization-simulation approach was

used to develop and evaluate the alternate priority-based policies for operation of surface

and ground water systems. Three alternate priority-based policies differing in level of

ground water pumping and area of cultivation of rice crop were evaluated: (i) Irrigation

with surface water only, (ii) Irrigation with conjunctive use of surface and ground water,

without socio-economic constraints and (iii) Irrigation with conjunctive use operation

and with socio-economic constraints.

Karamouz et al. (2004) discussed a systematic approach to surface and

groundwater resources modeling in the Tehran metropolitan area. A dynamic

programming optimization model was developed for conjunctive use planning, with

objective function to supply the agricultural water demands, to reduce pumping costs and

to control groundwater table fluctuations. The mathematical model developed has the

flexibility to model different conditions and assumptions and can be used for future

planning and operation of water resources in the complex aquifer region.

Management of water resources in coastal and deltaic regions irrigated by the

river schemes involves primarily two issues: First, availability of water resources in

space and time, and second, seawater intrusion. Improper management arising out of

excessive irrigation or increased groundwater exploitation often leads to water-logging

or seawater intrusion problems, respectively. Any conjunctive use model must address

these two issues for application to coastal and deltaic regions. Rao et al. (2004)

developed a regional conjunctive use model for a near-real deltaic aquifer system,

irrigated from a diversion system with reference to hydro climatic conditions prevalent in

the east coastal delta of India. Surface water availability showed temporal fluctuations in

terms of floods and draughts and groundwater availability in terms of quality and

quantity due to hydro geologic setting, boundary conditions and aquifer properties. The

combined simulation-optimization model proposed in the study was solved as a

nonlinear problem using a simulated annealing algorithm and a sharp interface model.

In saline groundwater areas, optimal beneficial use of water resources can be

obtained by the conjunctive use. Optimal allocation of land and water resources to

different crops plays an important role for maximizing the net returns from the irrigated

area. The allocation of these precious resources is usually made based on applied water-

yield relationships of different crops. However, in saline groundwater areas, average

salinity of applied water-yield relationships of these crops should also be taken into

account. Srinivasulu and Satyanarayana (2005) developed a linear Programming model

for allocation of land and water resources to different crop activities in canal irrigated

saline groundwater areas. The model was run by LINDO software for maximizing the

net return. It was applied for irrigation water management at Agricultural College Farm,

Bapatla, India.

Vedula et al. (2005) developed a mathematical model to arrive at an optimal

conjunctive use policy for irrigation of multiple crops in a reservoir-canal-aquifer

system. The integration of the reservoir operation for canal release, groundwater

pumping and crop water allocation during different periods of crop season was achieved

through the objective of maximizing the sum of relative yields of crops over a year

considering three sets of constraints: mass balance at the reservoir, soil moisture balance

for individual crops and governing equations for groundwater flow. The conjunctive use

model was formulated with these constraints linked together by appropriate additional

constraints as a deterministic linear programming model. The applicability of the model

was demonstrated through a case study of an existing reservoir command area in

Chitradurga district, Karnataka, India. A conjunctive use policy was defined by

specifying the ratio of the annual allocation of surface water to that of groundwater

pumping at the crop level for the entire irrigated area.

Shortages of surface water supplies necessitate development of groundwater in

many commands. Khare et al. (2006) explored the potential and feasibility of conjunctive

use planning for Krishna-Pennar link canal. A simple economic engineering optimization

model was presented to explore the potential of conjunctive use of surface and

groundwater resources using linear programming with various hydrological and

management constraints and to arrive at an optimal cropping pattern for optimal use of

water resources for maximization of net benefits. The LINDO 6.1 optimization package

was used to arrive at optimal allocation plan of surface water and groundwater. The

results substantiated that conjunctive use planning is beneficial and feasible for the

proposed canal command.

As a non-structural measure to rapid drawdown of groundwater table in coastal

Balsor district in Orissa, India, Sethi et al. (2006) developed the deterministic linear

programming (DLP) and chance-constrained linear programming (CCLP) models to

allocate available land and water resources optimally on seasonal basis so as to maximize

the net annual return. They considered net irrigation requirement of crops as stochastic

variable. The quantitative system for business (QSB) software was used to solve the

models. Sensitivity analysis of the models was carried out by varying cropping scenarios

and combinations of surface water and ground water at various risk levels. The study

revealed that 40% deviation of the existing cropping pattern with conjunctive use of 20%

surface water availability and 30% ground water availability were optimal.

Jha and Singh (2008) focused on methodology for developing optimal allocation

of resources like land, crop and water of Kosi Irrigation System in Nepal. The system is

characterized by adequate water supply and distribution facilities with less utilization of

its resources due to lack of proper planning. A multi-objective model for irrigation

development was presented with integrated use of surface and ground water resources.

Alternative plans for irrigation development were identified by analyzing trade-offs

among the specified objectives of maximizing total net economic returns from

agriculture (economic efficiency), nutrition requirements of the area (health) and total

irrigated cropped area (balanced regional development) by using Goal programming.

In canal command area conjunctive use of surface and groundwater resources is

essential for sustainable agricultural development. A linear programming model was

formulated for the left Dadupur and its associated distributories and minors in

Bulandshahar district of Uttar Pradesh State, India by Mane et al (2010). The attempt

regarding the temporal conjunctive water use plan was demonstrated successfully in

terms of feasible solutions to the optimization problems for various scenarios.

Marques et al. (2010) applied the two stage stochastic quadratic programming to

optimize conjunctive use operations of groundwater pumping and artificial recharge with

farmer’s expected revenue and cropping decisions. The two-stage programming

approach allowed the modeling of water and permanent crop production decisions, with

recourse for uncertain conditions of hydrology and annual crops. The evaluation if the

results indicated potential gains in expected net benefits and reduction in income

variability from conjunctive use, with increase in high value permanent crops along with

more efficient irrigation technology.

Optimal crop planning and the conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater

resources are imperative for the sustainable management of water resources, especially in

semiarid regions. In recent years, considerable attention has been given to crop planning

and water resources management under uncertainties caused by climate changes that

affect irrigation planning. Safavi and Alijanian (2011) developed an optimal crop

planning and conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater for the Najafabad Plain,

in west-central Iran. The objective function of the optimization model was to minimize

shortages in supply of irrigation demands. The fuzzy inference system was used to

account for the experience and expert judgments of decision makers and farmers to

obtain optimal crop planning with a reliable water demand based on climate conditions.

Devi et al. (2012) carried out a study in Parambikula-Aliyar-Palar (PAP) basin,

Coimbatore, India where the command area is divided in two zones which receive the

canal supply in alternate years. The water demand and available water resources were

evaluated considering surface water, ground water and rainfall. The aquifer response and

recharge due to rainfall in PAP basin were examined. The efficiency of canal water

delivery system in a distributary was evaluated and the conjunctive use of available

water resources and its optimal allocation were arrived using an optimization model. The

model simulation resulted in a cropping pattern for the optimal utilization of the

available water resources.

Raul et al. (2012) developed an Irrigation Scheduling Model (ISM) and a Linear

programming Optimization Model (LPM) under hydrologic uncertainty with a view to

effectively manage the available land and water resources of the canal command. The

crop yield obtained by the ISM under different irrigation management strategies was

used in the LPM to optimize the land and water resources of the canal command. It was

found that the most beneficial crops with comparatively lower water requirements, like

pulses and vegetables, should be given priority, and the present practice of extensive rice

cultivation should be limited to minimum possible extent for sustainable protection

against global warming.

2.4 Geostatistical Analysis

Groundwater level and groundwater quality as well as quantity parameters can be

considered as regionalized variables with spatial distributional structures. The theory of

regionalized variables accounts for both the local randomness of variables as well as

their spatial structure. Semivariogram acts as summary information of all available

information on the structure of the variability of the phenomena at the site.

Semivariogram is a key function upon which the application of a branch of the

geostatistics is based. Various researchers have used different geostatistical methods in

their studies in the areas of groundwater, estimation of ET and rainfall, locations of the

rain gauge stations and monitoring wells, contaminant transport etc.

Smith (1981) checked the spatial variability of hydraulic conductivity in

predictive analysis of mass transport using kriging. A stochastic simulation of mass

transport was carried out using Monte Carlo simulation. Kriged estimates were

generated for the blocks in which hydraulic conductivity was not known. The results

showed that the spatial variation in hydraulic conductivity play a critical role in

controlling the contaminant transport in groundwater flow systems. The uncertainties

would have been better controlled if the measurement points were located along

pathways followed by contaminants.

Bastin et al. (1984) used statistical approach to the real time estimation of the

average rainfall over a catchment area of two river basins in Belgium. The average real

rainfall was computed by kriging using simple power function to fit the experimental

variogrm. The procedure also yielded a simple method for selection of the most

informative rain gauge amongst a set of existing ones and for selection of an optimal

location to install additional rain gauge stations. The work has a great significance in the

design of all types of monitoring networks.

The comparative study of spatial interpolation techniques was reported by Tabios

et al. (1985). The study area of about 52000 sq. km. consisted of 29 rain gauge stations in

north central Continental United States. The methods which were analyzed include

Thiessen polygon, the classical polynomial interpolation by least squares and the

Lagrange approach, the inverse distance technique, optimal interpolation and kriging

technique. The methods were compared in relation to estimating the annual precipitation

at five selected sites. Considering the various performance criteria, results indicated that

kriging and optimal interpolation techniques are the best among all other techniques.

Russo et al. (1987) examined the uncertainty of the estimation of correlation

scales of stationary fields using kriging. The study was carried out by generating

rehabilitation of a set of two dimensional isotropic second order stationarity function

with a given correlation scale. The results from 100 independent realizations showed that

the uncertainty about variogram values decreases as the number of sample points

increases. The coarser grid size results in the overestimation of the correlation scale.

Reasonable estimate could be obtained when the minimum distance between the

sampling points was smaller than half the range of the underlying process.

Texture analysis is a basic step in soil classification. Springer et al. (1987)

applied semivariogram and kriging algorithm for predicting hydraulic properties from

texture. The study compared the predicted hydraulic parameters from texture with field

measured ones. The field data for analysis was collected over a single field season on

agriculture field in north Utah. The parameters of the fitted exponential theoretical

semivariogram were identified using kriging in conjunction with the point suppression

method.

Cokriging could be a powerful tool to estimate water table in hilly terrain.

Hoeksma (1989) estimated water table elevation at unsampled locations with a water

table and ground elevation data measured at wells and points along flow streams using

cokriging. The exponential function was fitted to the experimental semivariogram and

validity of the fitted model was done by the cross validation method.

The concept of cumulative semivariogram could be useful to model

semivariogram when standard conditions of decreasing semivariogrems are not seen to

be valid. Subyani and Sen (1989) applied semivariogram approach in modeling and

mapping of hydrological parameters of Wasia aquifer in Saudi Arabia. When values of

variables were irregularly distributed and where data were scarce, inconsistency

increased and it was highly unreliable to fit non decreasing curve. It was found that

cumulative semivariogram possesses all the objective properties of classical

semivariogram. Gaussian model was fitted to the cumulative semivariograms and kriging

was used to estimate the variables at the locations other than the measurement points.

The krigged maps of transmissivity, storativity, porosity, TDS, piezometric level and

groundwater velocity were prepared.

Thangrajan and Shakeel (1989) applied universal kriging to estimate the water

levels in Vaippar basin in Southern India. More hypothetical locations were selected to

reduce the estimated variance near the boundaries. A bivariate interpolation technique

and the intrinsic random function of higher order were applied to compare the results.

Gaussian model was fitted to the experimental variogram. It was confirmed that

universal kriging using directional semivariograms could give better results to estimate

water levels. The kriging technique performed better than other two interpolation

techniques.

ASCE Task committee report on geostatistical techniques (ASCE, 1990a &

1990b) provide an extensive review of geostatistical applications in the area of civil

engineering. The report contains the basic concepts of geostatistics, characterization of

spatial variability of natural phenomena by semivariogram approach and various kriging

methods such as kriging, ordinary kriging, universal kriging, disjunctive kriging,

indicator kriging etc. It has reviewed the usefulness of geostatistical techniques in

mapping groundwater variables, conditional and unconditional simulation of geophysical

fields and local sampling design and geostatistical groundwater studies. The report has

also, explored the application areas as parameter uncertainty in ground water

management models. The concise report is very useful starting point for research work in

the field of geostatistics.

The semivariogram approach was applied by Shafer (1990) to characterize spatial

correlation for seasonal nitrate-nitrogen concentration in shallow groundwater in

northern Illinois. Monte Carlo simulation approach was used to verify the accuracy and

validity of the estimation. The confidence limits on sample variograms from different

time periods were used to evaluate the significance of temporal change in spatial

correlation. The average variations for spring and fall nitrate concentration appeared very

similar to visual inspection. It was concluded that the Jack-knife method of variogram

estimation resulting in calculation of confidence limits could be used as a part of

groundwater monitoring programs so that the sampling well network remains optimum.

McKinney and Loucks (1992) developed a network design algorithm for

improving the reliability of ground water simulation model predictions, using a network

design example. Kriging was used in first order uncertainty analysis to estimate model

parameters. The algorithm was to minimize the simulation model prediction variance by

choice of new locations for measurement of aquifer properties. It was found that

significant increase in the reliability of simulation model prediction could be achieved

measuring aquifer properties at locations selected by algorithm. The selection of

measurement locations was found to be greatly influenced by the type and extent of

boundary conditions existing in the aquifer.

To develop quantitative description of unsaturated water flow in spatially

variable porous materials, White and Sully (1992) used the semivariogram approach. A

grazed pasture area at the centre for environment mechanics field station, Prickle farm,

Bungenlore, New South Wales was chosen for the study. The soil at the site was loamy

sand. An exponential semivariogram was found to fit for porous material parameter. The

autocorrelation function revealed that autocorrelation was significant at the 90% level

only because of the small number of measurements. It was felt that the use of a single

parameter i.e. porous parameter was inadequate to describe the hydraulic conductivity.

A study was aimed to develop a set of appropriate models for point area rainfall

estimation in South Florida. Abtew et al. (1993) examined six methods to interpolate

point rainfall data and integrate area rainfall. Spatial correlation and variogram functions

were developed for study area using monthly rainfall data from 25 rain gauge stations.

The semivariogram was found best fitting to an exponential model. Mean, variance,

standard error, maximum absolute error and coefficient of determination were used to

compare the performance of various interpolation methods. The multi-quadratic

interpolation, kriging and optimal interpolation were found better methods for rainfall

interpolation.

Desbarats (1993) reported geostatistical analysis of steady state flow between an

injection well and a pumping well in a heterogeneous aquifer. A geostatistical conceptual

model for inter-well flow was obtained combining the deterministic spatial averaging

law for inter-well transmissivity with stochastic model for point-scale transmissivities. It

was reported that results may also be useful in the interpolation of the inter-well flow and

tracer tests for relating observations to statistical parameters of the transmissivity field.

Jemaa (1994) examined a multivariate approach based on the geostatistical

method of cokriging for the design of groundwater monitoring network. The

methodology was applied to a case study to design an optimal network to observe

transmissivity and specific capacity in California. The observations of the existing

sampling sites were used for estimation of variogram and cross variogram models

wherein the spherical model was best fitting. To generalize optimality, the branch and

bound algorithm with simultaneous search technique was used. The results were

compared with univariate kriging and it was reported that multivariate approach

improved the design by obtaining lower variance estimation.

The impact of various types of activities at the soil surface on the spatial

distribution of pore structure needs to be investigated. Such investigations, when

successful, could perhaps lead to predictions of modifications in hydraulic conductivity

due to various activities. Mohanty et al. (1994) used semivariogram approach to

determine spatial variability of surface hydraulic properties. The intrinsic and extrinsic

factors which contribute to spatial structure under different field conditions for

infiltration and runoff processes were differentiated. Infiltration rates were measured in

corn rows, no track inter rows and wheel track inter rows using automated disc

infiltrometer at the Agronomy and Agriculture Engineering Research Center near Boone

in Central Iowa.

Chang and Teoh (1995) selected thirteen wells in the Scioto river basin in Ohio to

study characteristics of groundwater droughts using kriging. Groundwater drought events

were derived by taking a truncation level through the time series of the daily

groundwater depths recorded as elevation difference between the water table and land

surface at a well site. Droughts of various levels were obtained. Conditional probabilities

from one level of drought to the next higher severity level estimated at all thirteen well

locations were treated as regionalized variable. Distances and directions were computed

between pairs of data for the semivariogram analysis and modeling. Cross validation of

the spatial estimator was conducted to check its capacity to represent spatial variability

and the validated estimator was used to obtain the regional estimates and their associated

errors. The estimator errors varied depending on the location and increased where data

points were sparse.

Assessment of rainfall is a key input in the planning of water resources projects.

Where the spatial variability of rainfall is quite high, event based and temporally

aggregated assessment is highly dependent on the location of rain gauge stations.

Rajaram and Gelhar (1995) examined the kriging theory to study spatial rainfall patterns

in basins of Japan for optimal selection of rain gauge stations. Three basins were selected

and heavy rainfall events were used to determine pattern of variogram. Power function

was fitted to the experimental variograms. Kriging was used to calculate variance at all

stations including hypothetical points. Points with minimum variance were selected as

rain gauge stations and the rainfall was estimated by the identified kriging model on the

basis of variogram.

Govindaraju et al. (1996) used semivariogram approach to determine the spatial

variability of soil hydraulic properties that governed infiltration. To understand the

influence of tillage operations on infiltration and surface runoff properties, the nature of

spatial variability of surface infiltration properties at two sites was investigated and

compared. It was found that variogram at the one site (agricultural site) differ from the

other site (plain site) in a distinct manner. The variogram for infiltration properties at the

agriculture site could be represented by spline function to bring out the periodic nature of

the soil infiltration properties. It was concluded that the spatial variability of the

infiltration properties have range of order of two to three meter over plain site while six

meter range would adequately represent the variability of the field study.

The use of variogram in the study of hydraulic head and the specific discharge

fluctuations was reported by Lent and Kitandis (1996). For the variogram analysis of

hydraulic head, Monte Carlo simulations tended to a much higher sill, indicative of the

higher overall total variance. A qualitative comparison of the variogram of the specific

discharge fluctuation perpendicular to the direction of flow from the Monte Carlo

simulations and Perturbation approximation were illustrated. It was concluded that the

large scale components of the transverse components of the specific discharge were not

correctly predictable by the small perturbation approximation, particularly for large scale

components of variability transverse to the direction of the flow.

Design of optimal networks in monitoring of contaminant transport is an

important area in environmental monitoring and geostatistics can be advantageously used

in this context. Mackey et al. (1996) demonstrated the use of geostatistics in the

probabilistic risk assessment of the potential hazards arising from the burial of waste

repository in Bedfordshire, U.K. The spatial structure of hydraulic conductivity was

characterized by variogram modeling by fitting a spherical variogram assuming zero

variance at the origin. Simulation of the pattern of contaminant migration was performed

using Monte Carlo experimental design involving geostatistical simulation of the

hydraulic properties principal conducting formation at the site. A sampling technique for

the quantification of uncertainty in the spatial and temporal distribution of the escapes of

contaminant to the biosphere was proposed.

The irregularity of sampling in space and the fact that groundwater levels exhibit

substantial variability with topography, make spatial estimation more difficult. Patel and

Remadevi (1996) used Kriging algorithm for spatial estimation of groundwater levels in

Thasara, Nadiad and Borsad regions in MRBC command area. The results showed that

the there exist a strong spatial correlation among different groundwater level

observations in the study area. It was found that Kriging gives better quality estimates in

comparison to other widely accepted methods and has the additional advantage in giving

the error variance at a point.

Different statistical approaches were examined for interpolating climatic data

over large regions of Maxico by Hartkamp et al. (1999). The paper provided a brief

introduction to interpolation techniques for climate variables of use in agricultural

research. Three approaches namely, Inverse distance weighted averaging, Thin plate

smoothing splines and Co-kriging, were evaluated for a 20,000 km2 area. Taking into

account valued error prediction, data assumptions, and computational simplicity, use of

thin-plate smoothing splines was recommend for interpolation of climate variables.

Dhiman and Keshari (2002) presented a methodology that utilizes GIS to

quantify the spatial geologic data and statistical analysis to determine the relation

between groundwater quality parameters and geological units. The areal extents of

geologic units in the study area in Western Indian Aquifer system were identified and

their spatial distributions were quantified using GIS. The spatial extents of identified

geological units were then correlated with the groundwater quality parameters using

statistical analysis. It was concluded that the study within GIS environment helps in

better understanding of the water-rock interactions and will prove useful in formulating

numerical models to study transport mechanisms of various chemical species in different

hydro-geologic and chemical environments.

The sustainable management of groundwater resources needs quantitative

information on its behavior in space and time. The spatial information of groundwater

levels at a grid pattern is necessary to obtain reliable results. Kumar and Remadevi

(2003) applied Kriging to incorporate spatial structure of the parameter and achieve

accuracy in estimation. Experimental semivariogram was constructed from the data

points in IGNP command area in Rajasthan and spherical, exponential and Gaussian

models were fitted to it. The Gaussian model which gave the minimum standard error

was used to finally develop the groundwater table contour map. The map was compared

with the similar map prepared using inverse square distance method. The results

suggested that Kriged map provide more regular gradient of groundwater table than the

inverse square distance method.

Asefa et al. (2004) presented a Support Vector Machines based methodology for

designing long-term groundwater head monitoring networks in order to reduce spatial

redundancy. It makes use of a uniquely solvable quadratic optimization problem that

minimizes the bound on generalized risk, rather than just the mean square error of

differences between measured and predicted groundwater head values. The nature of the

optimization problem results in sparse approximation of the function defining the

potentiometric surface that was utilized to select the number and locations of long-term

monitoring wells and guide future data collection efforts, which is a prerequisite in

building and calibrating regional flow and transport models.

Costa et al. (2008) presented a geostatistical analysis to provide an insight of the

geographic distribution of extreme precipitation events in the Southern region of

continental Portugal, as a basis for a future study of the relationships between extreme

rainfall patterns, both spatial and temporal, and desertification processes. They selected

three indices of extreme precipitation for an exploratory analysis: one index representing

dry conditions, another one representing extremely heavy precipitation events and

another index representing flood events. For each of these three indices, annual trends

and decadal space-time patterns were investigated. Ordinary Kriging was used to

estimate in space and time extreme precipitation indices and exponential model was

chosen that capture the major spatial features of each attribute under study by

subjectively fitting the model to the experimental semi-variogram values. The

geostatistical study concluded that the spatial patterns are more continuous in the last

decade than the other ones before.

Chatterjee and Purohit (2009) used the groundwater resources estimation

methodology1997 to estimatet the dynamic groundwater resourcesof India. They used

the water-level fluctuation technique and the norms for the recharge estimation. Based on

the stage of groundwater development and long-term water level trend, the assessment

units were categorised. The overall stage of groundwater development was calculated as

58% and about 70% of the assessmentunits were found in ‘safe’ category while the rest

fall under ‘semi-critical’ and ‘critical’ category. It was found that the over-exploitation

ofgroundwater prevails in northwestern, western and Penensular India: and eastern India

posseses good potential for future groundwater development. It was concluded that re-

assessment of groundwater resources at regular intervals is necessary because of the

changing groundwater scenario.

Eldeiry and Garcia (2010) conducted a study to compare Ordinary Kriging (OK),

Regression Kriging (RK) and CoKriging (CoK) techniques in an area in the southern part

of the Arkansas River Basin in Colorado. Six LANDSAT images in conjunction with

field data were used to estimate soil salinity. OK, RK and CoK were applied to 2,914 soil

salinity data points collected in alfalfa, cantaloupe, corn, and wheat fields in conjunction

with the selected LANDSAT image band combination subsets. The results showed that

the best band combinations for estimating soil salinity with different crops are as

follows: alfalfa [red, near infrared, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)];

cantaloupe (blue and green); corn (near, thermal, and NDVI); and wheat (blue and

thermal).

Eldeiry and Garcia (2011) presented a practical method to manage soil salinity

and yield in order to obtain maximum economic benefits. The method was applied to a

study area located in the southeastern part of the Arkansas River Basin in Colorado

where soil salinity is a problem in some areas. Soil salinity data were collected in the

fields using an EM-38 and the location of each soil salinity sample point was determined

using GPS. Different scenarios of crops and salinity levels were evaluated. Indicator

Kriging (IK) was applied to each scenario to generate maps that show the expected

percent yield potential areas and the corresponding zones of uncertainty for each of the

different classes. The results showed that IK can be used to generate guidance maps that

divide each field into areas of expected percent yield potential based on soil salinity

thresholds for different crops.

Disjunctive kriging (DK) is a nonlinear geostatistical model that provides

unbiased estimates of the conditional probability (CP) that the true value of the property

of interest does not exceed a defined threshold. It has important implications in aiding

management decisions by providing growers with a quantitative input that can be used

for evaluating the variability of the crop productivity at different zones in fields.

Eldeiry and Garcia (2012a) applied the DK technique to data from a project conducted in

the southeastern part of the Arkansas River Basin in Colorado to generate CP maps and

to evaluate the expected Yield Potential Percentage (YP%). The results of the study

showed that the CP maps generated by using the DK technique give an accurate

characterization and quantification of the different zones of the fields. On knowing the

YP% of different areas, a management decision action can be undertaken to manage the

productivity of a field by selecting another crop or adjusting inputs.

The performance of Ordinary Kriging (OK) is impacted by different factors that

characterize the data sets being interpolated. Eldeiry and Garcia (2012b) evaluated the

performance of the OK model against different factors influencing the interpolation. 36

different data sets were selected from data collected in a study area in the Lower

Arkansas River Valley in Colorado for the assessments of the OK model residuals. The

cross-validation techniques were used to evaluate the performance of the model. The

results showed that the model performance was accurate when using the field-scale data

sets and poor when using the sub-basin scale data sets. The performance of the model

was better when using random or aggregated data sets than when using regular data sets.

The model was found performing better using normally distributed data sets rather than

the skewed ones and also using homogeneous rather than heterogeneous data sets.

2.5 Groundwater Modeling

Water plays a vital role in the development of any activity in the area. Thus, the

availability of surface and groundwater governs the process of planning and

development. The surface water resources are inadequate to fulfill the water demand.

Productivity through groundwater is quite high as compared to surface water, but

groundwater resources have not yet been properly developed in many irrigation

command areas. There are different studies reported for the estimation and management

of the groundwater resources in irrigated areas.

Detailed knowledge of the aquifer characteristics and water table conditions is

most critical for the success of a groundwater management plan. Aguado et al. (1977)

presented a method for sensitivity analysis to determine how variations in parameters

and input data affect the optimal solution of a linear programming management model.

The model uses finite difference approximation of the groundwater equations as

constraints. The optimal locations and discharge rates of wells were determined for

dewatering a rectangular area to a specified level while minimizing steady state total

pumping rate. Sensitivity analysis showed that the optimal steady state solution is most

sensitive to hydraulic conductivity at and near the aquifer boundaries parallel to the

length of the dewatered area. It was concluded that field explorations and testing should

be concentrated on determination of hydraulic conductivity in the area.

The use of embedding technique as a mechanism for coupling the simulation

model of a particular groundwater system with an optimization model was extended to

multi-aquifer systems by Yazicicil and Rasheeduddin (1987). The combined

management model was used to determine the optimal groundwater management

schemes in a hypothetical multi-aquifer system under transient and steady state

conditions. The model enables the determination of optimal allocation of wells in

different aquifers and their pumping rates to achieve a system-wide maximum head

distribution while satisfying the water production targets, well capacity restrictions and

lower bounds on hydraulic heads at critical points. The generated trade-off curves may

enhance the decision maker’s ability to select the best development policy from a set of

alternative policies by considering other technological, financial and legal constraints.

In many surface irrigation projects, the potential for groundwater development

has increased significantly. The additional potential can be used to develop conjunctive

water management plans for augmenting canal water supplies and increasing agricultural

productivity in the project area, if its spatial distribution is known. Sondhi et al. (1989)

presented a methodology for determining the available additional groundwater potential

and its distribution in MRBC Project in Gujarat, India. They estimated groundwater

recharge from the water conveyance and distribution system and the annual water

balance of the project. The spatial distribution of groundwater potential was determined

by recharge distribution coefficients derived from a digital simulation model of the

groundwater basin of the project area.

To address the fundamental question of the ability of the aquifer to yield

sufficient quantity of water for public supply in Nassau County, New York, Maimone

(1991) used two approaches. (i) The hydrograph analysis of water levels over a 45-year

period. (ii) A three-dimensional finite element groundwater model. The results include

an analysis of the aquifer response to the stress of increased consumption and severe

drought. Water balances were developed for each aquifer under predevelopment and

present conditions. It was concluded that purely technical information is not sufficient to

reach a consensus on water issues. Education of the people and other participating

agencies, as well as consensus-building techniques and public relations, are needed to

develop an effective plan.

Excessive stress on aquifers has led to the lowering of water table levels, sea

water intrusion and land subsidence in many parts of the world. The system approach to

groundwater resources is used to investigate different groundwater flow issues. Rastogi

(1993) examined the techniques studying the response of system to various schemes of

groundwater withdrawals from the aquifers and discussed the advantages and limitations

of the techniques. It was concluded that though the development in the techniques of

solution must be kept in mind, however, due to the complexity of the real life problems,

the groundwater system’s approach alone was not enough to address the on-field issues.

In order to optimize well field design and analyze aquifer stress problems,

Richards et al. (1993) applied the USGS MODFLOW code to develop a numerical

model of the Floridian aquifer in the coastal area of Santa Rosa County, Florida. GIS is

the primary tool used in the development of the model grid, performance of the modeling

procedure and model analysis. From the grid coverage, pertinent information is queried

within the GIS environment and used to generate the input files for the MODFLOW

simulation. After MODFLOW execution, simulated heads and drawdown are imported

into the grid coverage where residual error and recharge rates are calculated and contour

surfaces are generated for simulated heads, drawdown, recharge rates and residual error.

Yu, F. and Singh, V. (1994) made a number of theoretical improvements to the

finite‐element formulation for modeling three‐dimensional steady and unsteady

ground‐water flow. The Galerkin method was combined with the collocation method to

handle the time‐derivative term of the governing equation and the resulting system of

ordinary differential equations was solved by using finite integration. More detailed

treatments to leaky boundaries, surface flux boundaries, non-homogeneous and

anisotropic aquifers, and sources/sinks were presented. It was found that the model is

stable, accurate, and numerically oscillation free if proper time‐step size is used.

A general solution scheme for determining ground-water levels for

channel/group-water systems with recharge was developed and verified by Ostfeld et al.

(1999). The analytical solution used the Laplace transform method to solve a linearized

form of the Boussinesq equation. To verify the analytical scheme, three one-dimensional

case studies of flow between two line sources in an unconfined aquifer were explored

through a base run and a set of sensitivity analyses. These runs involved comparisons to

MODFLOW and changes in the boundary conditions and dimensions. Results of the

proposed method matched very well with MODFLOW solutions for all times and

locations using an optimal linearization point.

Rastogi (2001) carried out the simulation of the groundwater flow behavior of the

water table aquifer of MRBC canal command area in Gujarat state, India. Considering

the aquifer recharge occurring from various sources and aquifer withdrawals due

evapotranspiration, pumping and outflow from the region, finite element solutions in

terms of aquifer heads were estimated for the entire flow domain using the technique of

recharge distribution coefficient. A close agreement was noted between the observed and

simulated groundwater head contours for the simulation period.

Hanumangarh and Sri-Ganganagar districts in IGNP command area are facing

severe water-logging and soil salinity problems. Goyal and Arora (2003) used the pre-

monsoon and post-monsoon images of IRS 1C LISS III to generate the maps of water-

logged area and land use/ land cover for the IGNP command in the districts. The analysis

of the generated maps found that 5.9% of the area was water-logged while 10.5% area

sensitive to water-logging. Based on the generated maps, they developed various GIS

data layers using AutoCAD Land Development Desktop (LDDT) software. The GIS data

layers were proposed to be used in the groundwater model MODFLOW to predict the

response of the aquifer to different stresses. It was concluded that RS data can be very

useful for the rapid and accurate assessment of the water-logged area.

Groundwater is a vital water resource in the Choushui River alluvial fan in

Tiwan. A significantly increased demand for water, resulting from rapid economic

development has led to large scale ground water extraction. Overdraft of groundwater

has considerably lowered the groundwater level, and caused seawater intrusion, land

subsidence and other environmental damage. For the sound groundwater management,

Chen (2004) presented a Decision Support System (DSS) for managing water resources

in the Choushui River alluvial fan. The DSS integrates geographic information,

groundwater simulation and expert systems. The GIS effectively analyses and displays

the spatially varied data and interfaces with the ground water simulation system to

compute the dynamic behavior of groundwater flow and solute transport in the aquifer.

Also, a groundwater model, MODFLOW-96 was used to determine the permissible yield

in the Choushui River alluvial fan. Additionally, an expert system of DSS employs the

determined aquifer permissible yield to assist local government agencies in issuing water

rights permits and managing groundwater resources.

McPhee and Yeh (2004) demonstrated the use of groundwater simulation and

optimization to construct a Decision Support System (DSS) for solving a groundwater

management problem associated with the Upper San Pedro River Basin, located in

southeastern Arizona. The case was treated as a multi-objective optimization problem in

which environmental objectives were explicitly considered by minimizing the magnitude

and extent of drawdown within a prescribed region. The proposed algorithm identified a

set of efficient solutions to assist decision makers in selecting a suitable policy.

Sambaiah et al. (2004) presented a study to analyse the impact of canal seepage

and groundwater pumping on groundwater fluctuations to predict the waterlogged area

inan irrigation command area of Indo-Gangetic plains of western Uttar Pradesh, India.

The spatial variation of groundwater heads were predicted using groundwater model

MODFLOW and it was found that post-monsoon groundwater table levels in 1994 had

gone up by 2 to 5 m as compared to those in the year 1990. The simulation results

revealed that the groundwater recharge from different sources, groundwater pumping and

outflow from the aquifer are more or less in equilibrium in the head and tail reaches of

the command area.

Accurate estimation of groundwater recharge is extremely important for proper

management of groundwater system especially in semi-arid regions. Many different

approaches exist for estimating recharge. Sekhar et al. (2004) dealt with groundwater

modeling for assessing the groundwater balance and estimating the recharge in the

Gundal sub-basin, which is located in a semi-arid portion of the Kabini river basin. A

two- dimensional fully distributed groundwater model on the concept of predominantly

lateral flow conceptualized as an unconfined aquifer was used in this study. The

modeling was supported through remote sensing data and GIS. The results of

groundwater modeling, further supported through the groundwater chemistry analysis,

showed the impact of pumping resulting in regional groundwater flows influencing the

hydro-geological regime in the recharge zone.

The Musi river sub-basin which is one of the main tributaries of the Krishna

River, located in Andhra Pradesh, India. The Musi sub-basin is mainly covered by

Archaean granites with Deccan Traps at the Eastern edge. As in a typical hard rock

aquifer region, the yield of the bores decreases with depth due to the reduction of the

fracture density. Hence the risk of water scarcity in case of a drought year is exacerbated.

In order to access aquifer renewable reserves and help groundwater management

authorities, Massuel et al. (2007) calibrated and validated a fully distributed physical

model of the aquifer for a transient state experienced during 1989-2004 by using

MODFLOW. The key variables such as aquifer storativity and transmissivity were

determined by inverse fitting of simulated and observed groundwater levels. The results

presented illustrate that at the sub-basin scale, groundwater modeling in a hard rock

semi-arid context can be a well suited tool for estimating general groundwater resource

evolution.

Groundwater management models are often applied to problems in which the

aquifer state is a mildly nonlinear function of managed stresses. Ahlfeld and Baro-

Montes (2008) used the successive linear programming algorithm to solve such

problems. The algorithm solves a series of linear programs, each assembled using a

response matrix. Stresses were used to estimate response coefficients. The algorithm was

tested on a water supply problem in Antelope Valley, California where large volumes of

water are injected and extracted each year producing a significant nonlinear response in

the unconfined aquifer. The algorithm was found to perform well under a variety of

settings.

Ashraf and Ahmad (2008) used a finite element model (FEFLOW) for regional

groundwater flow modeling in Indus Basin, Pakistan. They generated the thematic layers

of soils, land use, hydrology, infrastructure and climate GIS and developed the numerical

groundwater flow model to estimate the hydraulic heads and groundwater budget of the

aquifer. The model showed a gradual decline in water table from the year 1999. They

studied the impact of extreme climatic conditions i.e. drought and flood, and variable

groundwater abstraction on the regional groundwater system. The results provided the

vital information of the behavior of aquifer in order to organize management schemes on

local and regional basis to monitor future groundwater development in the area.

Due to increasing agricultural requirements, the abstraction of groundwater has

increased manifold in the last two-to-three decades in western Uttar Pradesh. For the

effective ground water management of a basin it is essential that a careful water balance

study should be carried out. Ahmed and Umar (2009) carried out the ground water

modeling to simulate the behavior of the flow system and evaluate the water balance for

the part of Yamuna-Krishni interfluves. The horizontal flows, seepage losses from

unlined canals, recharge from rainfall and irrigation return flows were applied using

different boundary packages available in Visual MODFLOW, Pro 4.1. The river-aquifer

interaction was simulated using the river boundary package. The sensitivity of the model

to input parameters was tested by varying the parameters of interest over a range of

values, monitoring the response of the model and determining the root mean square error

of the simulated groundwater heads to the measured heads. The analysis showed that the

model is most sensitive to hydraulic conductivity and recharge parameters. Three

scenarios were considered to predict aquifer responses under varied conditions of

groundwater abstraction.

Sunderrajan et al. (2009) presented a ground water quality scenario of alluvial

aquifer in central Gujarat, India to highlight the poor drinking water condition. High

salinity, fluoride, nitrite and pollution from industrial effluents have caused

contamination of aquifer. It was suggested that continuous monitoring of the aquifer

water quality is very much necessary along with proper water treatment before its use.

Large amount of groundwater in this aquifer is being used for irrigation.

The radial collector (RC) wells are often preferable to the installation of several

small diameter tube wells, for the withdrawal of large quantity of groundwater from the

alluvial aquifers near riverbeds. Due to the complexities of flow, no exact analytical

solution exists to provide steady state discharge-drawdown relationship for RC well.

Patel et al. (2010) developed a steady state simulation model based on Analytic Element

Method (AEM) to simulate the discharge-drawdown relation for RC well in an

unconfined riverbed aquifer. The Line-sink elements were used to represent stream and

radial laterals with specified conductance. The model was used to study the effects of

different lateral configurations, hydraulic conductivity of riverbed aquifer, radius of

influence and conductance of laterals on the well discharge and drawdown. The results of

simulations were used to arrive at an approximate empirical equation for the discharge of

RC well. The developed model was used for a field problem to obtain the results for

different plausible configurations of RC wells.

Chen et al. (2011) proposed a groundwater level forecasting model based on the

combination of the back-propagation network (BPN) and the Self Organizing map

(SOM). In the proposed model, named as improved multisite SOM-BPN model, the

SOM was used to determine the number of hidden layer neurons, and the Auto-

Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model and semivariogram were used

to determine the number of input neurons. It was found that the single-site and multisite

BPN models can forecast more precisely than the ARIMA model. Moreover, the results

showed that the multisite model is more competent in forecasting groundwater level as

compared to the single-site model.

In order to avert the adverse effects of groundwater overexploitation and also for

developing the groundwater resource potential, it is necessary to augment the

groundwater resource by some artificial means. Provision of percolation tanks in the

ground water basin is one of the best methods of artificial recharge. Venugopal and Lal

(2011) used a finite element based digital simulation model of a groundwater basin for a

hard rock aquifer basin BM 58-59 in Maharashtra, India. The finite element based

numerical groundwater model was used to simulate the groundwater levels for assessing

the performance of percolation tanks for artificial recharge to augment groundwater

resource.

Subsurface drainage models can contribute to the selection of a proper drainage

system and its proper placement in the field. Mirlas (2013) used the groundwater flow

modeling program MODFLOW to simulate groundwater levels in a date palm orchard in

Argaman, in the Jordan Valley, Israel. Using a three-layer groundwater flow model, the

most efficient drainage system was installed at a different spacing between drains.

Installation of the drainage system would cost approximately 30% less than the initially

proposed project. It was concluded that a spatially distributed groundwater flow model

such as MODFLOW can provide more reliable information than different analytical

solutions for planning an effective subsurface drainage system.

2.6 Applications of GIS in Water Resources Management

The collection, analysis and reporting of water use data is a time consuming and

multifaceted process. The inherent complexity of managing a large and diverse database

presents a number of logistical problems that contribute to the lag-time between when

the information is gathered and when it can be used in the planning process. The

database management capabilities of GIS have the potential to expedite the collection of

information from geographically diverse sources. The spatio-temporal attribute of water

use data are ideally suited for analysis using a GIS approach.

The use of GIS can make the task of compiling necessary spatial data and the

required hydrologic parameters for modeling watersheds runoff relatively easy.

Furthermore, recent advances in hydrologic modeling of watersheds have favored the use

of physically based methods such as the geo-morphological instantaneous unit

hydrograph for simulating watershed runoff. The application of this concept in

hydrology can be facilitated by using a GIS to compile the required data base, composed

of various geomorphic and other hydrologic characteristics as spatial data input. Bhaskar

et al. (1992) demonstrated this process for select watersheds within the Big Sandy River

basin in northeastern Jentucky using ARC/INFO.

Schoolmaster and Marr (1992) analyzed Texas water use data for selected

categories in ARC/INFO to demonstrate the utility of GIS for water resources

information management. Examples of data analysis and display were presented to

illustrate the effectiveness of cartographic representation to communicate water use data.

The water resources management is a very complex problem. Any approach in

solving this problem should take into account its wide range of physical, administrative

and land planning components. Jemma (1993) reported a new methodological approach

to water resources management, at basin scale, achieved using GIS data processing

scheme and characterized by a complexity increase with a contemporary synthesis level

increment of the information.

The GIS implementation process starts with the initial decision to use a GIS;

proceeds through system selection, installation and training; and up to data-base

development and product generation. Leipnik et al. (1993) discussed considerations

related to each phase and focuses on other facets of GIS pertinent to water resources

planning and management. Many of these considerations involve critical choices that can

pose significant challenges and impose substantial costs. Understandings of these

challenges can expedite the GIS implementation process.

The sand and gravel aquifer is the sole source of potable water in Escambia

County, Florida. In order to better understand the hydraulics of the aquifer, a numerical

computer model of the aquifer was developed by Roaza et al. (1993). The model applied

a finite element technique which allowed for density-dependent transport and flow in

three dimensions. The model grids were generated by the GIS where nodal and element

sequencing were recorded. The grid topology was stored in the GIS environment with

the element numbers, node numbers and related hydro-geologic attributes. Triangulated

Irregular Network (TIN) allowed a fit of the model grid to the physical dimensions of the

aquifer and for interpolating boundary values for telescopically refined grids. Model

calibration was conducted in GIS through a combination of visual and relational

querying. Thus, the modeling technique was integrated with GIS to develop a system for

optimal management of the resources.

Increasing public awareness, stricter measures and spread of new laws in the area

of water resources have made the use of advanced technologies indispensable. The

application of GIS in water resources is constantly on the rise. Vassilios et al. (1996)

addressed and evaluated the use of GIS in water resources management to stress its

importance for efficient future research and development. They presented and reviewed

different GIS applications including surface hydrologic and groundwater modeling,

water supply and sewer system modeling, storm water and nonpoint source pollution

modeling for urban and agricultural areas, and other related applications. Based on the

reviews, future research and development needs were presented. It was suggested that,

because of the spatial nature of the required data GIS can be utilized effectively in water

resources modeling.

Many regional groundwater models require large, unwieldy data sets and

calibrating them has been a trial-and error, hit-or-miss process. GIS provides automatic

data collection, systematic model parameter assignment, spatial statistics generation and

the visual display of model results, all of which can improve and facilitate modeling.

Researchers and practitioners have achieved this interface in three ways: (i) linking a

GIS to a groundwater model through data-transfer programs; (ii) integrating a model

with a GIS database: and (iii) embedding modeling capabilities within a GIS. Watkins et

al. (1996) emphasized the usefulness of GIS in ground water modeling and evaluated

these three methods of GIS-model interfacing. The current needs were identified and the

suggestions for future work were made.

Lohani et al. (1999) presented a study for water-logged area mapping of Mokama

Group of Tals in Bihar state, India using RS and GIS. IRS 1A LISS II data for pre-

monsoon and post-monsoon conditions were used for identification and delineation of

the water-logged area. The post-monsoon water-logged area map generated using

ArcInfo GIS software was compared with the available submergence data, matching to

the satisfactory level.

India is amongst the largest irrigator countries in the world today. There is,

however, increasing concern about some of the irrigation potential created not brought

into the functional system, low operating efficiency, less crop productivity etc. System

performance monitoring, evaluation and diagnostic analysis are keys to appreciate the

improvement or inefficiency in our irrigation projects. Irrigated lands’ baseline inventory

in spatial and time domains using spatial information technologies provides an array of

performance evaluation matrices to address this issue. Chakraborty et al. (2002) cited a

case study of Nagarjunasagar irrigation project in Andhra Pradesh, India as a realization

of this modern information technology tool. They highlighted how Satellite Remote

Sensing, Digital Image Processing, GIS and GPS help in performance evaluation of an

irrigation project.

Dhiman and Keshari (2002) observed that increasing amount of multiple data sets

available from various sources has created a need for efficient capture, storage,

management, retrieval and analysis of geo-environmental data to address various

groundwater pollution problems of varying nature, dimension and complexity, cropping

at local, regional and basin scale worldwide. They presented a methodology that utilizes

GIS to quantify the spatial geologic data and statistical analysis to determine the relation

between groundwater quality parameters and geological units.

Singh et al. (2002) attempted to select suitable location for groundwater

exploration in hard rock areas using an integrated approach of RS, geoelectrical and GIS.

They assessed the groundwater potentiality of the area through integration of the relevant

layers which include hydro-geomorphology, lineament, slope, aquifer thickness and clay

thickness, in Arc/Info grid environment.

Garcia et al. (2006) introduced a model that utilized GIS to predict relative

reductions in crop yield due to salinity and water-logging at a field scale by

incorporating spatially and temporally variable crops, climatic, and irrigation data to

simulate crop yields. The model utilized soil and water data collected in field scale

studies. The model algorithms were integrated into a GIS as an extension. The resulting

model did not require extraordinary data collection but provided practical insight into the

spatial effects of salinity and water-logging on crop yields.

Indian agriculture is prone to climatic extremes such as flood and drought. Arid

and semi-arid regions, practicing largely rain-fed agriculture are drought prone. Under

such situations, resources conservation for drought proofing can be achieved through

successful implementation of watershed management programs. It accommodates the

interest of the widest possible number of people. Watershed management serves to

conserve and sustain water availability for conjunctive use, food, fodder and fuel, and

livestock production to bring sustainability in livelihood and to improve socio-economic

condition of the people. An over-view of watershed management programs and

experiences in a selected watershed are presented by Khan (2006). Institutional and

policy considerations are discussed to place watershed management into a proper

perspective.

A conjunctive use model was developed by Sarwar and Eggers (2006) to evaluate

alternate management options for surface and groundwater resources. A simple water

balance approach was used to estimate net recharge to the aquifer. The groundwater

model FEFLOW takes net recharge as an input for the water balance calculation and

simulates flow in the groundwater under all boundary stresses. GIS was used to assemble

various types of spatial data. The study revealed that an increase in pumping would

further strain the scarce water resources. Lining of watercourses and adjustment in

cropping pattern could be adopted as alternatives for better management of surface and

groundwater resources.

An understanding of regional groundwater dynamics is required to implement

land and water management strategies. Khan et al. (2007) quantified the impact of flood

and rain events on spatial scales using GIS in the Wakool irrigation district located in the

Murray. Piezometric data were interpolated to generate a water table surface for each

event by applying the Kriging method. Spatial and temporal analysis of major flood

events over the last four decades was conducted using calculated water-table surfaces to

quantify the change in groundwater storage and shallow water table levels. The results

showed that flooding and local rainfall have a significant impact on shallow

groundwater. The study also found that post-flood climatic conditions play a significant

role in the groundwater dynamics of the area. The spatial visualization of the net

recharge in the GIS environment can help prioritize management actions by local

communities.

The United Nations International Decade for Action (2005-2015) of 'Water for

Life’ seeks to prioritize groundwater conservation, possible through remediation and

groundwater engineering. Geospatial technique is fast emerging as the castle of

documentation for effective planning and management. Deogawanka (2011) examined

the various Geospatial applications in groundwater management for effective policy

implementation. It was emphasized that there is a need for the paradigm shift from a

quantitative approach of broad-based aquifer systems or groundwater reservoirs to

localized thematic information mapping, modeled towards native problem resolution and

vulnerability assessment. The paper highlighted the need for groundwater mapping in an

urban environment, where the data can be analyzed for effective rainwater harvesting,

urban flash-flood controls and water engineering decisions.

Groundwater is known as an important source of water supply due to its

relatively low susceptibility to pollution in comparison to surface water, and its large

storage capacity. Moayedi et al. (2011) observed various water quality parameters from

the different monitoring wells through the Labuan Island, Malaysia. The maps of the

different water quality parameters were prepared using GIS. The maps were classified

based on the Malaysia water quality standard. The results clearly showed the different

parts of the study area which are susceptible to groundwater contamination.

Application of GIS provides an accurate and manageable way of estimating

model input parameters, integration of different data layers, conceptualization of model

recharge and discharge sources and visualization of the model output. Ashraf and Ahmad

(2012) presented a numerical groundwater modeling approach integrating RS and GIS

for Indus basin, Pakistan to provide insight in controlling groundwater behavior. They

generated maps for different data layers in ILWIS 3.1GIS software to simulate the

groundwater flow in the basin. Six different scenarios of groundwater recharge/pumping

were simulated in the model to predict the water table behavior. They concluded that the

developed model would provide a decision support tool for evaluating better

management options for sustainable development of land, surface and groundwater

resources on micro as well as on macro levels in future.

Growing demands of water resources along with increasing quality and quantity

issues as a result of rapid urbanization have made water resource management imperative

in India. As the management of water resources and their allocation among competing

demands assumes vital importance due to increasing opportunity costs of water, the

demand management must receive preference over traditional supply management.

Integrated water resource management (IWRM) with multi sectoral convergence is a

very big challenge and is a long procedure for organizing various processes in a single

domain. Nayar and Kavitha (2012) used GIS for integrating the spatially referenced data

in a problem-solving environment. They carried out a study in upper vellar sub basin

located in the Vellar river basin in Tamilnadu state of India and demonstrated the use of

GIS as a powerful planning, implementation, evaluation and monitoring tool for IWRM

and enhance the transparency and accountability of the water Governance. The spatial

database of 25 layers on 8 major themes covering 10187 hectares comprising 150

villages and 500 individual farmers was analyzed in GIS for ensuring transparency and

future service delivery for an effective way. It was concluded that the technology can be

used for linking the spatial data with Aadhaar card or Kissan card, which might become

a reality in future.

Saeed et al. (2012) conducted a study to determine the groundwater quality of

Mardan salinity control and reclamation project (SCARP) area and its suitability for

irrigation purposes. Spatial data of the locations of the water sample wells were taken by

Magellan GPS Receiver. The samples were analyzed in the laboratory and then

compared with the irrigation water quality guidelines suggested by Water and Power

Development Authority Pakistan and FAO. They generated maps for different data

layers in ILWIS 3.1GIS software to simulate the groundwater flow in the basin. The

results indicated that majority of the ground water samples were in the range of marginal

fit category of irrigation water quality. It was concluded that the groundwater at certain

locations get polluted due to seepage and percolation losses from surface.

The long-term sustainability of irrigated agriculture is contingent on application

of cost-effective water conservation measures and improved management in the face of

intense competition for limited freshwater resources from municipal, industrial, and

environmental/ecological interests. A GIS based DSS was presented by Triana

and Labadie (2012) to maximize water savings from efficiency improvements and

conservation measures through integrated management of large scale irrigation systems.

The simulated system predicted the substantial water savings from mixtures of strategies

of varying cost for improved water management and increased delivery system

efficiency and on-farm water conservation.

2.7 Irrigation Water Management and Management Strategies

Irrigation water to the crops is an effective means of enhancing agricultural production

and productivity. Over the past few decades, increase in food production has been

attributed mainly to the expansion of irrigated areas. In addition, irrigation provides the

basis for a better and more diversified cropping pattern and growing of high-value crops,

and thus facilitates overall improvement in socio-economic conditions of the farming

community. Biswas (1990) have highlighted various issues related to water resources

management. He concluded that in spite of the increasing awareness regarding

performance improvement of the irrigation system it may be difficult to identify any

irrigation project that has been monitored and evaluated properly and regularly and

where results of monitoring and evaluation are used to improve the management of

irrigation projects.

Paudyal and Gupta (1990) solved the complex problem of irrigation management

in a large heterogeneous basin by using a multilevel optimization technique. The real

problem consisted of determining the optimal cropping patterns in various subareas of

the basin, the optimal design capacities of irrigation facilities including both the surface

and ground water resources, and the optimal water allocation policies for the conjunctive

use. Various alternative activities, such as surface water diversion and pumpage, ground

water withdrawal and recharge, and alternative future operational scenarios, were

analyzed. A computationally efficient algorithm was developed to solve the multilevel

linear programming model by an iterative procedure.

Karajagi (1991) reviewed the state of the art in water management in India and

presented different methods for its up-gradation. He discussed the basic concepts of

sound water management. It was emphasized that the command area development

programmes and irrigation management and training projects should be implemented

simultaneously in the command area. It was concluded that continuous up-gradation of

the techniques in better water management should be the aim in Five Years Plans to

derive the optimal benefits from the irrigation facilities created.

Mizyed et al. (1991) analyzed the improvements in performance of a water

storage and water distribution system in response to improved monitoring of irrigation

demands. They simulated Mahaweli system in Sri Lanka using a regression model

obtained through implicit stochastic optimization. Spatially independent,

cross‐correlated, and systematic errors in irrigation demands were considered. When the

Mahaweli system was operated optimally, both energy shortages and irrigation shortages

decreased with decreasing standard deviations of error. This indicates that improving the

measurements of irrigation demand would be beneficial to both farmers and hydropower

recipients.

A linear programming model was developed by Afzal et al. (1992) to optimize

the use of different quality waters by alternative irrigations. In a situation of poor‐quality

ground water and limited good quality canal water, the model decided how much land to

put under each crop and how much ground water to abstract and apply to each crop in

each time period. The irrigation system, based on an area in Pakistan, was modeled to

maximize the net returns. To overcome the difficulties of nonlinearity and therefore

greatly reducing computation time, a number of irrigation strategies were identified for

each crop. The developed model presented a solution procedure wherever low rainfall

and limited and different quality waters are the basic parameters governing the irrigation

system.

Steiner and Keller (1992) developed the Irrigation Land Management (ILM)

model to simulate the demand and response of a multiple‐field multi-crop irrigation

system in a variety of environments to assist managers in exploring strategies to improve

system performance. It determined the aggregate irrigation water requirement for a

command area represented by multiple landowners, cropping patterns, and

water‐management schemes. Once the water is delivered, the model simulates the

response of the command area to the water supply. The model was validated using field

data from a large irrigation system in Utah and used to analyze its current management

program.

A software package called Command Area Decision Support Model (CADSM)

was developed by Prajamwong et al. (1997) to estimate aggregate crop-water

requirements and to study management options for irrigated areas. They simulated daily

water and salt balances for individual fields based on crop type and stage of

development, field characteristics, soil properties, possible ground-water contribution

and salinity level. A queuing system was used to allocate available water to command

areas and fields. Average crop yield response was predicted considering root-zone water

deficit, salinity concentration, and water logging. Model verification and calibration

studies were conducted using various climatological data, cropping patterns, and

simulated field conditions.

Carvallo et al. (1998) developed a nonlinear optimization model to determine the

optimal cropping patterns in irrigated agriculture. The objective function of the model

was based on crop-water production functions, irrigation technology used, and costs and

prices of the products. The model was solved using the GAMS-MINOS package and

gave the optimal distribution of areas and crops, irrigation water needs, labour

requirements, and total profit. Sensitivity of the optimal solution to land, labour, and

water resources was examined. Results of the model showed that changes in the prices of

exportable products and water cost have a large impact on the cropping patterns and

profit.

Monitoring and evaluation of the performance of irrigation systems have seldom

been carried out properly and effectively probably because of the reason that the

conventional methods of data collection through field observation are difficult, time-

consuming and cannot be carried out at the same time particularly in large irrigated

commands. Remote sensing techniques are the powerful tools for efficient management

of irrigation systems on large irrigated areas. Ambast et al. (2002) presented the state of

the art on applications of satellite remote sensing that support management of irrigation

systems. They briefly reviewed different approaches being utilized for management of

irrigation systems and also discussed the future perspectives of remote sensing

applications in quantifying irrigation system performance indicators for better

management of water use in irrigated agriculture.

Most of the water resources researchers are sure that the climate changes (natural

and anthropogenic) are likely and they are essentially unpredictable on a local scale,

therefore water resources management should be flexible so as to be able to cope with

changes in availability and demand for water. Bouwer (2002) have discussed at length

various aspects of handling the water related issues which poses threats for the water

availability for different purposes in the 21st century. He emphasized on integrated water

management where all pertinent factors are considered in the decision making process.

Such a holistic approach requires not only supply management but also demand

management (e.g. water conservation and transfer of water to uses with higher economic

returns), water quality management, recycling and reuse of water, economics, conflict

resolution, public involvement, public health, environmental and ecological aspects,

socio-cultural aspect, water storage, conjunctive use of water, water pollution control,

regional approaches and sustainability.

A fundamental shift in irrigation practice is likely to evolve over the next few

decades. Economic pressures on farms, increasing competition for water and the adverse

environmental impacts of irrigation will inactivate new approach to irrigation based on

economic efficiency rather than crop water demand. This new approach which may be

described as optimization has been characterized as a new paradigm by English et al.

(2002). As originally conceived and as generally practiced, irrigation scheduling is

practiced on maximizing yield, hence current scheduling procedures do not explicitly

account for costs and revenues. Optimization, on the other hand, explicitly accounts for

these economic factors.

The water resources problems require the integration of technical, economic,

environmental, social, and legal aspects into a coherent analytical framework. Cai et

al. (2003) presented the development of an integrated hydrologic-agronomic-economic

model for a river basin with major water use in irrigation sector. The irrigation-induced

salinity was a major environmental problem. The main advantage of the model was its

ability to reflect the interrelationships between essential hydrologic, agronomic, and

economic components and to explore both economic and environmental consequences of

various policy choices. The model components were incorporated into a single consistent

model, which was solved by a simple and effective decomposition approach.

Water resources planning involve institutions/groups with different objectives,

responsibilities and interests, and it requires collaboration for resolution of the conflicts.

Cai et al. (2004) discussed the characteristics and modeling requirements of conflict

resolution in water resources planning. They proposed a method based on compound

models for regional water resources planning involving multiple decision makers. It

combines modeling techniques such as multi-objective analysis and multi-participant

decision methods, and supports plan generation and evaluation, preference elicitation,

and negotiation. They concluded that computer models can be effective and useful for

group decisions in water resources planning by facilitating information sharing,

participative model development, and learning processes.

The planning for irrigation water management in an irrigation scheme consists of

the preparation of an allocation plan for distribution of land and water resources to

different crops up to farm level. Optimum land and water allocation to different crops

grown in different regions of an irrigation scheme is a complex process, especially when

these irrigation schemes are characterized by different soils and environment and large

network of canals. At the same time if the water supply in the irrigation schemes is

limited, there is a need to allocate water both efficiently and equitably. Gorantiwar et al.

(2006) described the approach to include productivity (efficiency) and equity in the

allocation process and to develop the allocation plans for optimum productivity and/or

maximum equity for such irrigation schemes. The simulation-optimization technique was

used for optimum allocation of land and water resources to different crops grown in

different allocation units of the irrigation schemes.

Sample and Heaney (2006) presented an approach that incorporated decentralized

options for management of both storm water and urban water supply. The approach can

evaluate the management options of restrictive irrigation policies and rainwater

harvesting. Based upon Soil Conservation Service hydrology, a model was calibrated to

the more complex model using a nonlinear optimizer. They also presented a method for

the comparison of costs and benefits of the selected options.

Smout et al. (2006) presented a case study on Nazare medium irrigation scheme

in India. The allocation plans were developed for optimization of different performance

parameters (productivity and equity) for different management strategies based on

irrigation amount and irrigation interval and cropping distribution strategies of free and

fixed cropping. The results showed that the two performance objectives conflict with

each other and in this case, equitable water distribution may be preferred over free water

distribution at the cost of a small loss in productivity.

Zoltay et al. (2010) developed a generic integrated watershed management

optimization model to select the optimal combination of management strategies and

associated water allocations for designing a sustainable watershed management plan. The

watershed management model integrated both natural and human elements of a

watershed system including the management of ground and surface water sources, water

treatment and distribution systems, human demands, wastewater treatment, water reuse

facilities, aquifer storage and recharge facilities, storm water, and land use. The model

was formulated as a linear program and applied to the upper Ipswich River Basin in

Massachusetts. The results demonstrated the merits of integrated watershed management.

The management of the resource is lagging behind the pace of development, and

often, very little control is exercised in its exploitation in Nigeria. With the rapid growth

in population, urbanization, industrialization and competition for economic development,

groundwater resource has become vulnerable to depletion and degradation. Management

of this valuable resource is determined by its acceptability and utilizability in terms of

quantity and quality. Nwankwoala (2011) emphasized upon the needs of an urgent

overhauling of the machinery of groundwater resources development and management

with the aim of streamlining the overlapping functions of the various agencies that have

operated the system up till now. He suggested the integrated approaches for sustainable

management as well as offered some relevant policy recommendations for groundwater

management.

Raul et al. (2011) observed that the present cropping system in the Hirakud canal

command area in Orissa state, India is under threat due to imbalance between irrigation

water supply and demand. The canal water supply meets merely 54% of the irrigation

demand. They carried out a Quasi-three-dimensional groundwater flow simulation

modeling by using Visual MODFLOW to detect the change in hydraulic head due to

transient pumping stresses. The enhanced pumping scenarios showed that groundwater

extraction can be increased up to 50 times of the existing pumping without causing any

adverse effect to the aquifer but the aquifer does not permit to exploit water in order to

fulfill the irrigation water demand. Hence, it was suggested to develop an optimal land

and water resources management plan for the command area.

Groundwater is a treasured earth resource that will continue to be the most

important sources of fresh water in future. Rejani et al. (2011) discussed a case study of

the coastal groundwater basin of Balasor district in the state of Orissa, India. They

determined the optimal cropping pattern and net annual returns for different seasons

(monsoon and non-monsoon), soils (saline and non-saline) and irrigation practices

(rainfed and irrigated) in three administrative blocks of the basin by considering the safe

yield of the aquifer and the maximum permissible pumpage of the wells as the major

constraints. The results of the study revealed that by adopting cropping pattern

corresponding to wet, normal and dry years, the net return of the basin can increase by

257%, 167% and 112% respectively. The sensitivity analysis showed that the market

price of the high valued crops, availability of land and water resources and the cost of

cultivation are the most sensitive factors affecting the net profit of the basin. The

adoption of optimal cropping patterns, coupled with on-farm rainwater harvesting is

strongly recommended for the study area for the sustainable management of vital

groundwater resources.

Integrated water resources management (IWRM) is considered a path to bring

many elements within the development schemes together toward a unified land-water

planning and management process. An IWRM model was developed by Ahmadi et al.

(2012) to connect three groups of decision makers in pollution control, agricultural

planning, and water resources allocation with economic, environmental, and social

objectives. They developed a genetic algorithm–based optimization model for providing

desirable water quality and quantity while maximizing agricultural production in the

upstream region, mitigating the unemployment impacts of land use changes, and

providing reliable water supply to the downstream region. The study presented a

practical mean of integrating water quality and quantity management and land use

planning on a watershed scale.

The climate change is likely to have impact on the hydrological cycle and

consequently on the available water resources and agricultural water demand, there are

concerns about the effects of climate change on agricultural productivity. Karamouz et

al. (2013) developed an agricultural planning model in order to optimize the cultivated

area, crop pattern, and irrigation efficiency based on the estimations of crop water

requirements, water availability, and water allocation to irrigation. The Aharchay

watershed located in the northwestern part of Iran was selected as the case study. For

crop water requirement estimation, the output of an atmosphere- ocean general

circulation model was statistically downscaled and used as inputs to a computer model.

The results of the study showed the significance of using different tools and methods in

assessing and allocating water resource in regions with scarce water resources.

Liu et al. (2013) described a coupled modeling approach to analyze sustainable

management strategies in surface–groundwater conjunctive use irrigation districts in the

lower Yellow River Basin. An appropriate irrigation schedule and an optimal range of

groundwater levels were first established using the soil water atmosphere plant (SWAP)

model. The integrated surface water and groundwater model was then set up using

modified SWAT2000 and MODFLOW models. The two models were connected through

standardized simulation grids and calibrated using field measurements. Five scenarios

that were designed according to different well-canal irrigation supply ratios and the

irrigation schedule determined by SWAP were tested using the integrated modeling

approach. It was proved that conjunctive management strategies of canal diversions and

tube-well pumps can effectively reduce phreatic evaporation losses, increase water use

efficiency, and sustain groundwater levels while maintaining crop yields at current

levels.

Karamouz et al. (2014) presented an economic framework of all potential benefits

and costs arising from present activities and implementation of policies. It included the

crop production costs, capital and operating costs of development projects, pumping

costs, and costs imposed by reduced crop production. The water supply and demand

system of the Rafsanjani Plain, in the central part of Iran was simulated into two

different models. The management scenarios were generated considering different

strategies including the inter basin water transfer, improvements in irrigation techniques,

limiting future expansion of cultivated area, and restricting withdrawal from

groundwater. The study demonstrated how combining multiple tools and techniques

along with an economic framework could effectively assist decision makers to

understand the consequences of a taken strategy in a specific region.

2.8 Concluding Remarks

The water resources problems encounters a unique set of physical condition to which it

must confirm, hence standard solution can rarely be possible. It is imperative to

formulate a sustainable, self-reliant and integrated water resources development plan for

the future keeping in mind the hydrological, climatological and socio-economic

constraints of the region. Conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater in the

irrigation command area has been recommended by the researchers since long back. The

review of the geostatistical studies carried out in the past reveals that most of the

researchers in the area related to groundwater seem to have worked with Kriging. As

perhaps the best estimation technique, Kriging provide results that can be used as

reference in comparative performance evaluation.

In order to take advantage of GIS in improving water resources planning and

management, it needs to be linked with traditional mathematical models. GIS based

groundwater modeling is found to be the ultimate choice of the researchers in the present

time. Different researchers have contributed to address the issues of water resources

management in the canal command areas considering various aspects such as:

hydrological conditions, geostatistical modeling of groundwater levels, conjunctive use

of water, groundwater modeling and irrigation water management. Different researchers

have worked for the irrigation related problems in the MRBC command area in the past.

The branch canal command level issues appeared to remain less addressed in the studies

comprising the large canal command area of MRBC. The present research is taken up

with the idea of a comprehensive study for the Matar branch canal command area,

incorporating hydrological aspects, geostatistical analysis, groundwater modeling and

budgeting, future predictions for groundwater levels and estimation of safe aquifer yields

under various uncertainties of the rainfall; and to identify the water resources

management options for the Matar branch canal command area of MRBC.