Spatio-Temporal Variations of Ground Water and Quality Analysis: A Case Study of Indus Basin Aquifer System (IBAS) Lahore Region

Abstract

Ground water depletion is one of the alarming perspective of this century. It has become collective issue of the whole world with South Asian Region standing at top of the list. Its effects have been clearly observed in the urban areas of the region as well as rural area are also being suffered from this inappropriate change. In the context of ground water depletion in Lahore city, which is part of Indus basin aquifer System(IBAS) this study has been carried out by considering GIS and Remote Sensing techniques for precise outcome. This study encompasses land use change detection and its impacts on ground water resources in Lahore region. The built-up area of Lahore district was 395.53 sq.km in 2000 and it has increased to 556.95 sq.km in 2014, which reflects major change in land use during this period. Increase in built-up area was in south-east, south and south-west directions while in northern side it was bounded by River Ravi. Increase in population, migration of masses from rural area to urban area and change in land use have disastrous effect on groundwater resource of the region. The water table was dropped from 15 meter to 35 meters during last three decades. The future stress of ground water was assessed by using first order Markove chain model. The results of water quality and its spatial aspects were also evaluated for resource planning. Results of this study depicts that TDS (143.358 to 368.141), PH (ranges between 7.23-8.033), Temperature (30.734 to 34.698), EC (160.235 to 1039.99) and Turbidity (0.048 to 1.872 NTU) were rigorous in nature in the north-east and north-west directions of the Lahore region.Over exploitation of ground water has been practiced continuously to meet the consumption requirements. It predominantly depleted the resource as well as ground water quality is suffered due to imbalance between exploration and recharge rate.