The Study of Groundwater Level Fluctuations of Damodar River Basin, West Bengal, India

Abstract

Groundwater acts as a significant provider of required water in different sectors of India, like household, agriculture, and industry. A copious amount of water and food resources are needed in Damodar River Basin for the fast expansion of the population, leading to severe strain over the water resources. The analysis of the temporal trends of groundwater level is essential for preserving groundwater for further use. Hence, the principal objective of this work is to examine the temporal trends in the Damodar River Basin in the annual, seasonal time scale from 1996 through 2017, applying the Mann-Kendall (MK) and Sen 's slope estimator tests. The outcome of these analyses represents the positive trends and also the negative trends that have occurred in the case of groundwater depth of the study area. However, decreasing trends are much weaker than increasing trends. Compared with the monsoon season, strong increasing trends have been identified in pre-monsoon, post-monsoon Kharif, and post-monsoon Rabi seasons. The southern region of the Damodar River Basin, where paddy farming requires vast amounts of water, is where the significant positive developments were concentrated. The results of this research will assist policy makers and planners in maintaining a sufficient and consistent