Artificial recharge of

groundwater

Presented by
Chandana wagle R.J
09wr02f

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Contents
1. Introduction
2. Why artificial recharge is adopted?
3. Basic requirement of artificial recharge project.
4. Planning of artificial recharge project

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 Introduction
 Artificial recharge is the process by which the ground
water is augmented at a rate much higher than those under
natural condition of replenishment.

 The main purpose is to store water for latter use and to

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Why artificial recharge is
adopted?
 To restore the supply from aquifers depleted due to
excessive draft.
 To store excess surface water supplies for subsequent use
or to alleviate flooding.
 To improve physical and chemical quality of groundwater.
 To remove sediment, bacteriological and other impurities
from sewage and other waste water effluents.
 To prevent saline water intrusion in costal aquifers
 For heat exchange in aquifers and obtaining cool waters
for relatively constant temperature.
 To reduce land subsidence by increasing hydrostatic
pressure conditions in artesian aquifer. 4
Basic requirement of artificial
recharge project
 Availability of surplus monsoon runoff in space and time.

 Identification of suitable hydro geological environment

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Planing of artificial recharge
project.
 Identification of area
 Hydro meteorological studies
 Hydrological studies
 Soil infiltration studies
 Hydro geological studies
 Aquifer geometry
 Geophysical studies
 Chemical quality of source water.

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Artificial recharge methods

Direct methods

Surface spreading techniques

Subsurface recharge techniques
Indirect methods

Induced Recharge from Surface Water Sources

Aquifer Modification
Combination methods

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Direct methods

Surface spreading techniques
• flooding
• Ditch and furrows
• Rechrge basins
• Runoff conservation structures
– Bench terracing
– Contour bunds
– Gully plugs, Nalah bunds, check dams
– Percolation ponds
– Stream modification/ augmentation

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Flodding
 Water is spread on ground surface as thin sheets.
 It requires a system of distribution channels for the supply
of water for flooding.
 To ensure proper water spread, embankments are provided
on two sides to guide the unutilized surface water to a
return canal to carry the excess water to the stream or
canal.

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Schematics of a Typical Flood Recharge System

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 Flooding method helps reduce the evaporation losses from
the surface water system.
 Is the least expensive of all artificial recharge methods
available.
 Has very low maintenance costs
 This technique is ideal for
 lands adjoining rivers or irrigation canals in which water
levels remain deep even after monsoons.
 Where land is relatively flat.
 Where sufficient non-committed surface water supplies are
available.

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Ditch and Furrows method
 This method involves construction of shallow, flat-
bottomed and closely spaced ditches or furrows
 The ditches should have adequate slope to maintain flow
velocity and minimum deposition of sediments.
 The widths of the ditches are typically in the range of 0.30
to .80 m.
 A collecting channel to convey the excess water back to
the source stream or canal should also be provided.

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Schematics of a Typical Ditch and Furrows Recharge System

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Recharge Basins
 Artificial recharge basins are commonly constructed
parallel to ephemeral or intermittent stream channels and
are either excavated or are enclosed by dykes and levees.
 They can also be constructed parallel to canals or surface
water sources.
 In alluvial areas, multiple recharge basins can be
constructed parallel to the streams with a view to increase
the water contact time, reduce suspended material as
water flows from one basin to another.
 Area selected for recharge should have gentle ground slope
and water released into the basins should be as sediment –
free as possible

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Schematics of a Typical Recharge Basin

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Runoff Conservation Structures
 These are normally multi-purpose measures, mutually
complementary and conducive to soil and water
conservation and increased agricultural productivity.
 They are suitable in areas receiving low to moderate
rainfall mostly during a single monsoon season and having
little or no scope for transfer of water from other areas.
 Different measures applicable to runoff zone, recharge
zone and discharge zone are available.
 The structures commonly used are bench terracing,
contour bunds, gully plugs, nalah bunds, check dams and
percolation ponds.
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Bench Terracing
 Bench terracing involves leveling of sloping lands with
surface gradients up to 8 percent and having adequate soil
cover for bringing them under irrigation.
 It helps in soil conservation and holding runoff water on
the terraced area for longer durations, leading to increased
infiltration and ground water recharge.
 the width of individual terrace should be greater less than
12 m.
 The upland slope between two terraces should not be more
than 1:10 and the terraces should be leveled

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 In areas where paddy is cultivated, water outlets of
adequate dimensions are to be provided to drain out excess
accumulated water and to maintain water circulation.
 The width of the outlets may vary from 0.60 m for
watersheds up to 2 ha to 3.0 m for watersheds of up to 8 ha
for rainfall intensity between 7.5 and 10 cm.
 All the outlets should be connected to natural drainage
channels.

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Dimensions of Output Channels for Different Watershed Areas

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Dimensions of Terraces in Different Soil Types

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Contour Bunds
 Contour bunding, which is a watershed management
practice aimed at building up soil moisture storage involve
construction of small embankments or bunds across
theslope of the land.
 They derive their names from the construction of bunds
along contours of equal land elevation.
 This technique is generally adopted in low rainfall areas
(normally less than 800 mm) where gently sloping
agricultural lands with very long slope lengths are
available and the soils are permeable.
 They are not recommended for soils with poor internal
drainage e.g. clayey soils.
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 Contour bunding involves construction of narrow-based
trapezoidal embankments (bunds) along contours to
impound water behind them, which infiltrates into the
soiland ultimately augment ground water recharge.
 Spacing of contour bunds is normally calculated using the
formula
Vertical Interval (V.I) = 0.305 (XS+Y), where
 X is the rainfall factor,
 S is the land slope (%) and
 Y is the factor based on soil infiltration and crop cover
during the erosive period of rains
 The rainfall factor ‘X’ is taken as 0.80 for scanty rainfall
regions with annual rainfall below 625 mm, as 0.60 for
moderate rainfall regions with annual rainfall in the range
of 625 to 875 mm and as 0.40 for areas receiving annual 22
rainfall in excess of 875 mm.
 The factor ‘Y’ is taken as 1.0 for soils having poor
infiltration with low crop cover during erosive rains and as
2.0 for soils of medium to good infiltration and good crop
cover during erosive rains.
 When only one of these factors is favorable, the value of Y
is taken as 1.50. Vertical spacing can be increased by 10
percent or 15 cm to provide better location, alignment or to
avoid obstacles.
 The horizontal interval between two bunds is calculated
using the formula
 Horizontal Interval (H.I) = V.I x 100/Slope

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Recommended Contour Bund Specifications for Different Soil Depths

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 Strict adherence to contours while constructing bunds is a
necessary prerequisite for ensuring maximum conservation
of moisture and soil.
 However, to avoid excessive curvature of bunds, which
makes agricultural operations difficult, the following
deviations are permitted
a) a maximum of 15 cm while cutting across a narrow ridge,
b) a maximum of 30 cm while crossing a gully or depression
and
c) a maximum of 1.5 m while crossing a sharp, narrow
depression not exceeding 5 m in width.

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Contour Trenches
 Contour trenches are rainwater harvesting structures,
which can be constructed on hill slopes as well as on
degraded and barren waste lands in both high- and low-
rainfall areas.
 The trenches break the slope at intervals and reduce the
velocity of surface runoff.
 The water retained in the trench will help in conserving the
soil moisture and groundwater recharge.
 The size of the contour trench depends on the soil depth
and normally 1000 to 2500 sq. cm cross sections are
adopted.
 The size and number of trenches are worked out on the
basis of the rainfall proposed to be retained in the trenches.
 The trenches may be continuous or interrupted and should26
be constructed along the contours
 Trenches are used for moisture conservation in low rainfall
area whereas intermittentrenches are preferred in high
rainfall area.
 The horizontal and vertical intervals between the trenches
depend on rainfall, slopeand soil depth.
 In steeply sloping areas, the horizontal distance between
the two trenches will be less compared to gently sloping
areas.
 In areas where soil cover isthin, depth of trenching is
restricted and more trenches at closer intervals need to be
constructed.
 In general, the horizontal interval may vary from 10 m in
steep slopes to about 25 m in gentle slopes.

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Gully Plugs, Nalah Bunds and Check
Dams
 These structures are constructed across gullies, nalahs or
streams to check the flow of surface water in the stream
channel and to retain water for longer durations in the
pervious soil or rock surface.
 gully plugs, which are normally
 constructed across 1st order streams, nalah bunds and
check dams are constructed across bigger streams and in
areas having gentler slopes.
 These may be temporary structures such as brush wood
dams, loose / dry stone masonry check dams, an woven
wire dams constructed with locally available material or
 permanent structures constructed using stones, brick and
cement. 28
 The site selected for check dam should have sufficient
thickness of permeable soils or weathered material to
facilitate recharge of stored water within a short span of
time.
 The water stored in these structures is mostly confined to
the stream course and the height is normally less than 2 m.
These are designed based on stream width and
 excess water is allowed to flow over the wall
 Check dams / Nalah bunds are normally 10 to 15 m long, 1
to 3 m wide and 2 to 3 m high, generally constructed in a
trapezoidal form.

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Percolation Tanks
 Artificially created surface water body submerging a
highly permeable land area.
 The surface runoff is made to percolate and recharge the
ground water storage.
 Have larger reservoir areas.

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Stream Channel Modification /
Augmentation
 Natural drainage channel can be modified with a view to
increase the infiltration by detaining stream flow and
increasing the streambed area in contact with water.
 The channel is so modified that the flow gets spread over a
wider area resulting in increased contact with the
streambed.
 Stream channel modification can be employed in areas
having influent streams that are mostly located in
piedmont regions and areas with deep water table
 The methods commonly used include a) widening,
leveling, scarifying or construction of ditches in the stream
channel, b) construction of L – shaped finger levees or
hook levees in the river bed at the end of high stream flow
season and c) Low head check dams which allow flood 31
waters to pass over them safely.
Subsurface Techniques
 Injection wells or recharge wells,
 Recharge pits and shafts,
 Dug well recharge,
 Borehole flooding
 Recharge through natural openings and cavities.

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Injection wells or recharge wells
 Injection wells or recharge wells are structures similar to
bore/tube wells but constructed for augmenting the ground
water storage in deeper aquifers through supply of water
either under gravity or under pressure.
 The following considerations are important in the design
of an injection well
 The permissible pressure head of hydraulic injection in
terms of water column may be worked out as 1.2 times the
depth to the top of the confined aquifer,
 Usually, pipes with nominal diameters of 100mm, 150mm,
200mm and 250mm can handle flows up to 50 Cum/hr,
150 Cu m/hr, 250 Cu m/hr and 400 Cu m/hr respectively.
 The casing material used for the well must be similar to
the one used for production wells and should have
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adequate tensile strength and collapsing pressure.
 The recharge well should be designed to fully penetrate the
aquifer to avoid additional head losses due to partial
penetration.
 In hard rocks, the top casing should be adequate to cover
the unconfined zone.
 Artificial gravel packs should be provided around screens
in case of screened wells in unconsolidated and semi-
consolidated formations.
 The gravel pack should be so designed to arrest the inflow
of aquifer particles into the well.
 Injection wells may be designed to recharge a single
aquifer or multiple aquifers.
 In addition to specially designed injection wells, existing
dug wells and tube/bore wells may also be alternatively
used as recharge wells, as and when source water becomes
available 34
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Recharge Pits and Shafts
 Recharge pits are excavated pits, which are sufficiently
deep to penetrate the low-permeability layers overlying the
unconfined aquifers.
 They are similar to recharge basins in principle, with the
only difference being that they are deeper and have
restricted bottom area.
 In many such structures, most of the infiltration occurs
laterally through the walls of the pit.
 The recharging capacity of the pit increase with its area of
cross section. Hence, it is always advisable to construct as
large a pit as possible.
 The side slopes of recharge pits should be 2:1 as steep
slopes reduce clogging and sedimentation on the walls of
the pit.
 the source water being used for recharge should be as silt- 37
free as possible.
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Recharge Shafts
 Recharge Shafts are similar to recharge pits but are
constructed to augment recharge into phreatic aquifers
where water levels are much deeper.
 They are much smaller in cross section when compared to
recharge pit. Recharge shafts may be dug manually in non-
caving strata.
 For construction of deeper shafts, drilling by direct rotary
or reverse circulation may be required.
 The shafts may be about 2m in diameter at the bottom if
manually dug. In case of drilled shafts, the diameter may
not exceed 1m.
 Unlined shafts may be back-filled with an inverse filter,
comprising boulders/cobbles at the bottom, followed by
gravel and sand.
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Induced recharge
 Induced recharge involves pumping water from an aquifer,
which is hydraulically connected with surface water to
induce recharge to the ground water reservoir.
 Once hydraulic connection gets established by the
interception of the cone of depression and the river
recharge boundary, the surface water sources starts
providing part of the pumping yield.
 For implementation of successful induced recharge
schemes from stream channels, pumping wells should be
selected at sites where water in the streams has sufficient
velocity to prevent silt deposition.
 For wells constructed in unconfined alluvial strata for
induced recharge, the lower one-third of the wells may be
screened to have optimum drawdown. 41
Aquifer Modification Techniques
 These techniques modify the aquifer characteristics to
increase its capacity to store and transmit water through
artificial means.
 The most important techniques under this category are
bore blasting techniques and hydrofracturing techniques.
 Though they are yield augmentation techniques rather than
artificial recharge structures.
 they are also being considered as artificial recharge
structures owing to the resultant increase in the storage of
ground water in the aquifers.

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Combination Methods
 Various combinations of surface and sub-surface recharge
methods may be used in conjunction under favorable
hydro geological conditions for optimum recharge of
ground water reservoir
 Commonly adopted combination methods include
• A recharge basin with shafts
• Percolation ponds with recharge pits or shafts
• Induced recharge with wells tapping multiple aquifers
permitting water to flow from upper to lower aquifer zones
through the annular space between the walls and casing
etc.
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