Drought Analysis and Its Implication in Sustainable Water Resource Management in Barind Area, Bangladesh (original) (raw)
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Groundwater drought assessment for Barind Irrigation Project in Northwestern Bangladesh
Natural droughts are recurring phenomena that usually affect nearly all components of the hydrological cycle. Groundwater (GW) drought is a particular type of hydrological drought. It is generally caused when the GW heads in an aquifer fall below a critical or threshold level over a certain period of time due to natural and/or human induced causes and interventions. In the recent past, there was increased frequency of droughts in Bangladesh. Particularly, the northwestern region of the country was severely affected by the occurrence of droughts and high variability in rainfall. The country's largest groundwater-fed irrigation project, Barind irrigation project is located in this region, wherein about 75% of irrigation water comes from the GW source. The national water policy of Bangladesh has also suggested the GW development for irrigation in both the public and private sectors. Therefore, it is essential to investigate the occurrence and distribution of GW drought severity for the effective GW resource management of the Barind Irrigation Project in the northwestern Bangladesh.
Spatial Assessment of Groundwater Drought in Godagari Upazilla of Northwestern Region, Bangladesh
The declining trend of groundwater (GW) table below the operating range of shallow tube-wells during the dry period is a frequent and recurrent phenomenon in the northwestern region of Bangladesh. It highly affects the GW-based irrigation system in the Godagari Upazilla (sub-district) of Rajshahi District in this region and consequently GW scarcity increases day by day. Thus, the main objective of this study is to investigate the groundwater scarcity as well as the spatial and temporal distributions of GW droughts in Godagari Upazilla. The well-known cumulative deficit approach from a threshold GW level has been applied for computing the severity of GW droughts. Another well-established approach, standardized precipitation index (SPI) has been used to quantify the meteorological droughts for developing appropriate correlations between the two drought types. Weekly GW level fluctuation data obtained from twelve monitoring stations as well as monthly rainfall and temperature data collected from one meteorological station are used for GW drought and meteorological drought analysis, respectively. The study shows that GW scarcity in 30% area is a common event almost in every year. Analysis of GW hydrographs demonstrates that there is a significant increase in the declining trend of both minimum and maximum GW level. The estimated SPI values reveal that GW drought is directly related to the meteorological drought and high deficiency of rainfall in the dry period is an every year phenomenon in the study area. Based on the analysis of GW hydrographs and precipitation time series, the study finally concludes that extensive withdrawal of GW for dry season irrigation activities and recurrent drought events are the major causes of continuous declining of GW level in the northwestern region of Bangladesh.
Groundwater Drought in the Northwestern Districts of Bangladesh
Water Resources Management, 2010
Prolonged absence of groundwater within the operating range of shallow tube-wells during dry season is a common problem in the northwestern districts of Bangladesh in the recent years. In this paper, groundwater scarcity and drought in three northwestern districts of Bangladesh have been investigated. The Cumulative Deficit approach from a threshold groundwater level has been used for the computation of severity of groundwater droughts.
Journal of Environmental Science and Natural Resources, 2018
Drought is an extended period when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) method was used in this study to analyze drought. Northern region of Bangladesh was the area of study. Monthly rainfall data of northern region of Bangladesh was obtained from the Meteorological Department of Bangladesh. Obtained rainfall data was from 1991 to 2011 and values from 2012 to 2026 were generated using Markov model. Then SPI values from 1991 to 2026 were calculated by using SPI formula for analyzing drought. Analysis with SPI method showed that droughts in northern region of Bangladesh varied from moderately dry to severely dry conditions and it may vary from moderately dry to severely dry conditions normally in future but in some cases extreme drought may also take place. From the study, it is observed that the northern region of Bangladesh has already experienced severe drought in 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009...
Water insufficiency during the pre-monsoon season and rapidly falling underground freshwater levels is a common scenario in the towns and cities of Bangladesh. The objective of the study is to investigate the spatiotemporal depletion of groundwater levels (GWL) in a drought-prone Rangpur district, northern region of Bangladesh. Groundwater observation well data from 1980 to 2019 was used for this purpose. Rainfall, temperature, irrigation, and land use/land cover datasets are used to assess the factors influencing groundwater level depletion. Linear regression, and the least square regression model were used to identify the trend of GWL depletion. Results show that GWL in drought-prone regions is declining rapidly because of the excessive withdrawal of groundwater and land-based reservoirs for irrigation and household needs. The declining GWL is alarming during the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons due to some disproportional mismanagement in the study area. Among the rates of de...
Water, 2019
This study aims to assess the spatiotemporal characteristics of agricultural droughts in Bangladesh during 1981-2015 using the Effective Drought Index (EDI). Monthly precipitation data for 36 years (1980-2015) obtained from 27 metrological stations, were used in this study. The EDI performance was evaluated for four sub-regions over the country through comparisons with historical drought records identified by regional analysis. Analysis at a regional level showed that EDI could reasonably detect the drought years/events during the study period. The study also presented that the overall drought severity had increased during the past 35 years. The characteristics (severity and duration) of drought were also analyzed in terms of the spatiotemporal evolution of the frequency of drought events. It was found that the western and central regions of the country are comparatively more vulnerable to drought. Moreover, the southwestern region is more prone to extreme drought, whereas the central region is more prone to severe droughts. Besides, the central region was more prone to extra-long-term droughts, while the coastal areas in the southwestern as well as in the central and northwestern regions were more prone to long-term droughts. The frequency of droughts in all categories significantly increased during the last quinquennial period (2011 to 2015). The seasonal analysis showed that the northwestern areas were prone to extreme droughts during the Kharif (wet) and Rabi (dry) seasons. The central and northern regions were affected by recurring severe droughts in all cropping seasons. Further, the most significant increasing trend of the drought-affected area was observed within the central region, especially during the pre-monsoon (March-May) season. The results of this study can aid policymakers in the development of drought mitigation strategies in the future.
2022
The lack of precipitation for an extended period is what meteorologists call a drought, and it results in low soil moisture and crop water stress. Drought has become one of the most important global challenges due to inadequate water supplies. Drought monitoring is frequently conducted using the SPI (standardized precipitation index) and the SPEI (standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index). The goal of this work is to use SPI and SPEI to investigate the differences in drought characteristics across different physiognomy types in Bangladesh and to highlight how drought characteristics change over time and spatial scales when considering different geomorphologies. This study used monthly precipitation and temperature data from 29 metrological stations for 39 years (1980–2018) for calculating SPI and SPEI values. To determine the significance of drought characteristic trends over different temporal and spatial scales, the modified Mann–Kendall trend test and multivariable lin...
Modeling on climate induced drought of north-western region, Bangladesh
Modeling Earth Systems and Environment, 2016
Climate change has occurred naturally over time due to conditional drift, cosmological cycle and changes in volcanic activity and solar energy. Industrial revolutions have changed the balance of natural equilibrium of earth's climate constituent, making atmosphere warmer than its natural rhythm eventually causing catastrophic consequences on geographically vulnerable countries, which is an established fact by several international organizations including IPCC. Among the vulnerable countries, Bangladesh is facing increasing trend of climatic hazard along with extreme super event. Northwestern region of Bangladesh is mostly vulnerable to drought. Within the last two decades (1994-2013), annual average maximum temperature has increased by 0.16°C and the average minimum temperature is forecasted to be increased by 1.3°C at the end of this century considering the four decadal (1964-2013) trend. Over the last two decades i.e. 1994-2003 and 2004-2013, the annual average rainfall has calculated 151.50 and 138.09 mm, respectively. Rainfall has decreased quite significantly in the last decade. From 1995 humidity level is found to be static in nature. Northwestern region is an important agricultural hub of Bangladesh. Decrease in rainfall and its seasonal variability have made the region more dependent on ground water for irrigation. Spatial and trend analysis shows groundwater depletion trend is getting steeper in this region. On the other hand, surface water level for every district, except for Pabna, shows negative skewedness. Increasing trend in maximum temperature stimulating high evaporation as well as uncertainty of trans-boundary water movement is found to be strongly influencing the depletion of surface water level. These circumstances are making Northwestern region more vulnerable towards drought.
Journal of the Geological Society of India, 2016
In Bangladesh, agriculture plays a major role in the national economy. In the drought prone Barind area in NW Bangladesh, cropping intensity has increased almost double since late eighties of last century (from 1985) because of the introduction of groundwater irrigation. Long-term behavior of groundwater table (GWT) in the drought prone Barind area has been studied using MAKESENS model in the wake of massive installation of tube-wells. The study reveals that the maximum and minimum depths to GWT during 1991-2010 show on average declining trend of 4.51 m and 4.73 m. The long-term prediction for the period of 2020-50 assuming the current rate of groundwater withdrawal is that the declining trend will be 1.16 to 1.59 and 1.07 to 1.82 times more for maximum and minimum groundwater depths respectively in comparison to the present. The rigorous exploitation of groundwater for irrigation, decreasing rainfall and surface geological attributes lead towards declining trend of GWT. This will hamper the country's food security and ultimately threaten its socioeconomic sustainability. So the appropriate strategies for the management of groundwater resource on a sustainable basis should be the priority for maintaining agricultural productivity.
Assessing Environmental and Health Impact of Drought in the Northwest Bangladesh
Journal of Environmental Science and Natural Resources, 2012
Drought, the result of regional climatic variability is one of the dominant threats to environment. This study focuses on the biophysical, environmental and health issues concerning drought occurrence in northwest region of Bangladesh. Using both primary and secondary data, the analysis revealed that, during the drought period, rainfall as the dominant factor of supplying surface water and normalizing the dryness of the nature was almost 46% lower than the previous (normal) years. Similarly, average monthly sunshine hours in the drought year was about 7% higher compared to that of the normal year. On an average, groundwater level declined more than one meter compared to the previous years. Thus, many of the tubewells turned dry or failed to supply the required quantity of water for household and irrigation purposes. A significant number of surface water bodies including ponds, ditches, canals and streams had little volume of low quality water. In normal years, almost all households ...