A review of groundwater resources in the Upper Luni River Basin: Trends, quality, and potential: A comprehensive review

Abstract

The resource of groundwater plays a very crucial role in ensuring water security in the arid and semi arid areas, particularly in the Upper Luni River Basin of western Rajasthan in India. Studies in this basin have basically been on three major points which are the analysis of the long term ground trends, water quality, and ground water potential zones (GWPZs). It has been determined that groundwater availability and recharge are dependant on numerous hydrogeological factors that include slope, land cover/land use (LULC), geology, lineament density, lineament density, drainage density, elevation, rainfall, and soil type. The mostly used GIS-based methods such as Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and weighted overlay analysis (WOA) have been used to combine such factors in cumulative GWPZ maps. The Mann Kendall test had been the standard evaluation used in groundwater trend analysis, and shows that a steady decrease in groundwater is present in most parts of the basin, caused by over extraction and under-recharge. According to the quality analysis tests, the total dissolved solid, fluoride, and nitrate contents are high and this limits the use of the groundwater as drinking and irrigation water. GWPZ mapping have revealed that the terrains with low gradient, alluvial geology, moderate topography, high lineament and drainage densities, well-draining soils and rainfall enough to recharge the groundwaters are the most suitable to be used as locations to carry out the groundwater recharges. The review focuses on the efficacy of the combination of remote sensing, GIS, and statistical procedures such as the Mann- Kendall test in the analysis of groundwater and urges better monitoring, modeling and participatory measures of groundwater management.