WELCOME HYDROLOGISTS FRIENDS. We all know that groundwater is the world's largest freshwater resource. About 70-80% of irrigated agriculture and hence for global food security depend upon water. Yet groundwater depletion is widespread in both semi-arid and humid regions of the world. Excessive extraction of groundwater not in balance with renewal is the main cause of the depletion, and climate change has the potential to exacerbate the problem in some regions. Food production in such regions can only be made sustainable in the long term if groundwater levels are stabilized. Approaches such as artificial groundwater recharge and efficient irrigation, etc have failed to balance regional groundwater budgets. Although the problem is global, solutions must be by more comprehensive strategies to specific to regional social, economic, political and environmental requirements. A regional picture of the groundwater age (The time since groundwater was recharged from the recharging zone) and the flow pathways of intermixing are lacking. Most of the efforts made so far are fragmented and location specific. The measured groundwater ages range from months to centuries to millions of years. Studies available in literature integrating geochemical, geologic, hydrologic and geospatial data sets with numerical simulations of groundwater and analysis of tritium ages suggests that less than 6% of the global groundwater in the uppermost portion of Earth’s landmass is modern. However, the region specific exact volume and distribution of groundwater less than 50 years old (i.e., the most recently recharged) and also the most vulnerable to depletion and degradation are unknown. My previous posting highlighted the significance of radioactive (3H, 14C) and stable (2H, 18O) isotopes to have detailed insight into and assess the mean groundwater recharge in river basins, regional groundwater flow velocity and residence time, contamination characteristics, flow-paths of intermixing, and identification and delineation of recharging zones and protection zones in the aquifer system. I welcome and invite all hydrologists friends interested in Isotope Hydrology to join this Group and provide there valuable inputs to further strengthen the Isotope Hydrology research and activities in order to help solve regional water scarcity problems.
Taxonomy
- Groundwater
- Freshwater
- Hydrology