Application of isotopes techniques would hold the key to development and management of water resources, particularly in the backdrop of increasing water scarcity being caused by climate change and its contamination, Head of Isotope Hydrology Section in Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) Uday Kumar Sinha said here on Wednesday.
In an exclusive interactive session and lecture to senior engineers of Irrigation Department and senior officials of the Groundwater Department, he explained the application of stable and radioisotopes in hydrological investigations for water resources development and management.
The session was held following a specific request from the Irrigation Department, after a few of its engineers had attended a workshop last year under the National Hydrology Project.
Mr. Sinha said the task of management of water resources was highly challenging due to the diverse climatic and hydrological ecosystems in the country. He explained that isotope studies could be applied to a wide spectrum of hydrological problems related to both surface and groundwater resources and environmental studies in hydro-ecological systems.
Stating that the technology had become established scientific discipline often referred to as “Isotope Hydrology”, he said it was an emerging discipline with expanding investigation tools for many environmental problems. The BARC scientist explained that improved measurement of naturally occurring isotopic abundances – relative number of atoms of an element with different numbers of neutrons in the nucleus – in waters had immensely increased the utility of isotope techniques in the hydrological investigations.
Mr. Sinha stated that it was possible to utilise isotopes as conservative tracers of delineating groundwater flow paths, for estimating solute exchange from one phase of a system to another, for determining extents of chemical reactions in the subsurface, for identifying source regions in watersheds, for identifying recharge areas of aquifers and for estimating its subsurface residence times.
The BARC scientist told the irrigation and groundwater officials that isotope techniques could be applied in studies on leakages in dams, reservoirs, canals and tunnels, for investigation on hydrological processes and dynamics of lakes and wetlands, for quantification of various components in the stream flow – hydrograph separation and estimation of dilution and dispersion of wastewater discharges in surface water bodies.
Further, it was also useful for identification of source and origin of groundwater recharge, recharge area of springs, source, mechanism and pathways of groundwater contamination, the origin of geothermal waters and their flow dynamics, surface water-groundwater and aquifer-aquifer interconnections, estimation of residence time of groundwater and determination of groundwater velocity and flow direction.
Advisor (Irrigation) S.K, Joshi, Engineers-in-Chief C. Muralidhar, B. Nagender Rao, B. Hariram, G. Anil Kumar, OSD to Chief Minister Sridhar Rao Deshpande, Director of Groundwater Department Pandith Madhnure, several Chief Engineers, Superintending Engineers and others attended.
