Abstract:
Groundwater recharge estimation is the critical importance for groundwater resources
evaluation and management. In the study area, there is lack of understanding the groundwater
recharge amount, rate, mechanism and spatial variability. Because the area has not been
studied previously in terms of groundwater recharge.
The main objective of this study was to estimate the groundwater recharge of the catchment.
To estimate the groundwater recharge, DEM, rainfall sample, and groundwater sample data
were collected. A set of hydro-meteorological data for the period of 2004 to 2019 years and
physical characteristics of the catchment such as land use/land cover, and soil type data were
collected from different sources.
There are several methods for estimating groundwater recharge. Among these, soil moisture
balance (SMB) and chloride mass balance (CMB) methods are used in this study. Using the
long-term mean monthly precipitation data, the mean annual rainfall of the catchment was
calculated at 1340 mm/year. Potential evapotranspiration (PET), actual evapotranspiration
(AET) and runoff were found to be 1097.6 mm/y, 721mm/y and 402mm/y, respectively. The
groundwater recharge rate for the catchment using soil moisture balance is 217 mm/y which
represents 16.3% of the mean annual rainfall of the catchment while using chloride mass
balance has given 240mm/y which accounts for 18.1% of the mean annual rainfall. The results
show that the recharge amount estimated by the two methods are compariable with the
average value of 228.5 mm/y.