Title: Conjunctive use of flow modelling, entropy, and GIS to design the groundwater monitoring network in the complex aquifer system

Authors: Yashwant B. Katpatal; Chandan Kumar Singh

Addresses: Department of Civil Engineering, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, India ' Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Raipur, India

Abstract: The groundwater level monitoring network (GWLMN) provides a basis for management and planning of groundwater resources. The present study aims to assess and redesign the GWLMN for the Wainganga Basin, Central India. The study proposes a three-step method to redesign the GWLMN: 1) to simulate spatiotemporal distribution of groundwater levels (GWLs) using groundwater flow modelling (GWFM); 2) to analyse the uncertainty in GWL for each observation wells (OWs) using entropy theory; 3) to optimise GWLMN using hydrological and anthropogenic parameters. The study suggests that, a minimum of 116 OWs were significant for GWLMN. Incorporation of hydrological and anthropogenic parameters into the GIS environment is found to be important for designing GWLMN. The proposed method is useful for redesigning GWLMN in a complex aquifer system.

Keywords: groundwater monitoring; geographic information systems; entropy; MODFLOW; monitoring network; observation well.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHST.2023.127894

International Journal of Hydrology Science and Technology, 2023 Vol.15 No.1, pp.78 - 96

Received: 09 Dec 2020
Accepted: 31 May 2021
Published online: 21 Dec 2022 *