There is an urgent need for artificial recharge of groundwater by augmenting the natural infiltration of precipitation into subsurface formation by some suitable method of recharge. Artificial recharge is one method of modifying the hydrological cycle and thereby providing groundwater in excess of that available by process. Keeping this in mind to avoid fast decline in groundwater levels in various parts of Tamil Nadu, a study has been undertaken to identify the favourable areas for artificial recharge and suggest suitable recharge structures to augment the aquifer system. The analysis was carried out blockwise for the entire state of Tamil Nadu using Remote Sensing data and GIS techniques. This study was carried out for the entire state of Tamil Nadu to improve the overall groundwater level so as to prevent the wells extracting groundwater to a larger extent.
Special thrust is given for the wells extracting water for drinking water.
The Tamil Nadu has a geographical area of 1,30,000 sq.km. Majority of the area of Tamil Nadu was covered by the two major domains of geological formations namely hardrock and sedimentary. The sedimentary formations occurs all along the coastal zones consists of coastal sandy zones, river alluvial sandy formations. The average annual rainfall is around 1000mm. In this project, it was contemplated to harness the excess surface water and allowed to recharge the aquifer.