Climate-resilient groundwater rationing in the mining environment: an operational framework of India

摘要

A precise, climate-resilient rationing/budgeting of groundwater resources is essential for planning its judicious utilization and development. This study undertakes a pioneering scientific assessment for incorporating the ArcGIS integrated with GEC-2015 guidelines into groundwater budgeting computations for the mining environ. The dynamic groundwater resource has been computed for a 10 km buffer study area of Batura opencast mine, Sohagpur coalfield, India, by applying the modified safe-yield approach cum lumped-parameter water balance method on the inflow and outflow components, to derive the change in storage. The results reveal that: the annual gross groundwater extraction is estimated at 17.41x10(6) m(3) while the annual extractable groundwater resource is estimated at 51.82x10(6) m(3). The recharge component of nearly twofold the extraction component indicates dominant diffuse (natural) recharge and only a minor need of managed (focussed) recharge measures like an artificial recharge in the study area. This amounts to a 16.87% stage of groundwater extraction value indicating that the study area falls in the safe category. Around 90% of the recharge in the study area is found to be natural replenishment through monsoon rainfall, which, coupled with the occurrence of cyclic fluctuation in the water-level in aquifers, establishes that mining in such areas is a climate-resilient activity vis-a-vis groundwater. Besides, the biological reclamation and afforestation of the mined-out area trigger the reversal of land-use pattern caused by the mining activity, minimizing its disruptive effect on the climate-driven water cycle, while upholding ecologically sustainable industrial development (ESID) principles in the mining areas.