Groundwater Recharge

Groundwater recharge or deep drainage or deep percolation is a hydrologic

process, where water moves downward from surface water to groundwater.
Recharge is the primary method through which water enters an aquifer. Recharge
occurs both naturally (through the water cycle) and through anthropogenic
processes (i.e., "artificial groundwater recharge"), where rainwater and or
reclaimed water is routed to the subsurface.
Natural process
Groundwater is recharged naturally by rain and melting of snow. Natural recharge
also can occur as surface-water leakage from rivers, streams, lakes, and wetlands.
Rainwater enters inside the soil through voids in this process.
The conditions favorable for natural recharge are:
1) Sandy or permeable soil
2) Rocky strata with fractures
3) Perennial rivers
4) Streams
5) Forest land
6) Comparatively level land with less slope

Artificial process
Artificial recharge can be done through injection of water through wells. This
method often is applied to recharge deep aquifers where application of water to
the land surface are not effective at recharging these aquifers. The rate much
higher than those under natural condition of percolation.
Benefits of artificial groundwater recharge
There are following advantages of artificial recharging of groundwater aquifers:
 Artificial groundwater recharge technology is very impressive technology to
increase water table and groundwater availability.
 It plays an important role in the reduction of surface runoff, increase
availability of water for irrigation, domestic and industrial sector, improve
the drainage, revival of springs and improvement of groundwater quality and
so on.
 Aquifers
Aquifer is an area of rock underneath the surface of the earth which absorbs and
holds water. It is a body of rock or unconsolidated sediment that has sufficient
permeability to allow water to flow through it. Unconsolidated materials like gravel,
sand, and even silt make relatively good aquifers, as do rocks like sandstone.

Confined and Unconfined Aquifers

A confined aquifer is an aquifer below the land surface that is saturated with water.
Layers of impermeable material are both above and below the aquifer, causing it
to be under pressure so that when the aquifer is penetrated by a well, the water
will rise above the top of the aquifer.

A water-table--or unconfined--aquifer is an aquifer whose upper water surface

(water table) is at atmospheric pressure, and thus is able to rise and fall. Water-
table aquifers are usually closer to the Earth's surface than confined aquifers are,
and as such are impacted by drought conditions sooner than confined aquifers.
 Confined Aquifers Unconfined Aquifers

A form of aquifers that happens to be An unconfined aquifer is comparatively

surrounded by certain rock pieces. exposed and not confined like a
confined aquifer.
It happens to be relatively distant from It happens to be relatively close to the
the surface of land due to being deep surface of the land as it is available just
below the land. below the surface.
It has more depth. It has less depth.

The water present in this aquifer
happens to be comparatively clean as
there is a very minimum fluctuation in
the purity of water.
The water in this aquifer happens to be
very old and serves long term uses
The water present in this aquifer
happens to be comparatively polluted
as it is very close to the pollution
present on the land
The water in this aquifer fluctuates a lot
and therefore serves short-term uses
only

Confined
A Confined Aquifer can be defined as a particular and specific water body that
happens to be present deep below the ground level. It is called a confined aquifer
because it happens to be found in confinement with many rock and clay
substances.
This aquifer is found deep below the ground surface, and therefore it sometimes
contains very old water. Old water here represents the amount of water that is
present in these water bodies for over 1000 years. It happens to be in this way
because of the minimum fluctuations that occur in this particular aquifer.

Unconfined
An unconfined aquifer is comparatively very distinct from any other kind of aquifer
as it is found just below the land and contains no hindrance due to rock pieces and
clay particles. The aquifer exists just a level above a confined aquifer and the level
below the land surface.

Because of being close to the land surface, the water stored in this particular
aquifer happens to be very polluted and contaminated because it receives all the
dust and dirt particles directly from the land.