2020 Theses Master's

Exploring correlations between Groundwater level change and settlement planning in National Capital Territory of Delhi

Pendharkar, Anish

Groundwater in Delhi has been decreasing continuously over the past two decades, with many parts of the state designated as over-exploited or critically exploited. The depletion of groundwater is often attributed to the widespread and mostly illegal extraction through tube wells. Various case studies on water access in Delhi, point toward several factors which lead people to use tube wells, such as the absence of piped water supply, absence of private sources of water, inability to afford the high price of a legal connection and insecurity of tenure. These factors result in a different level of groundwater dependence in planned and unplanned settlements.

This is a novel exploratory study with two objectives: to develop a quantifiable relationship between these factors and change in groundwater levels and to observe if these relationships vary between planned and unplanned settlements. Such an empirical relationship would help understand primary reasons for groundwater depletion, and would help in nuanced estimation of groundwater draft, leading to realistic estimations of future demands and potential of groundwater development. Two kinds of regression analysis are used, one global (OLS) and another local (GWR). Results show that most relationships between these factors and groundwater change are as expected, with some exceptions. Though no significant difference was found in these relationships between planned and unplanned settlements. Future studies with better data availability can help establish conclusive empirical relationships and tools like GWR can help define spatial regimes for groundwater management in Delhi