Review on Groundwater Flow and Solute Transport Modelling in India: Recent Advances and Future Directions

The declining groundwater level, deteriorating groundwater quality and decreasing well yield necessitate the need to have an informed understanding of the aquifer system vis-a-vis the natural and anthropogenic stresses. The groundwater modelling research has gained momentum in the last 30 years, and the advent of fast computing platform coupled with Graphical User Interface (GUI) based user-friendly software have provided further stimulus. It is being used as an effective tool for groundwater development and management encompassing a wide range of applications in different areas like agriculture, mining and environment. This article is intended to review the efficacy of applications of groundwater flow and solute transport modelling in India over the last 22 years (1997 to 2019) attempted by researchers, research institutes and groundwater agencies. An attempt is made to examine the strength and weakness of the groundwater modelling efforts,gaps in our knowledge and the future research directions. The literature review attests that the groundwater models developed in India are mostly with the help of commercial software namely Visual MODFLOW, GMS and Groundwater Vista. Different aspects in groundwater modelling like conceptualization of the model, steady state and transient calibration, sensitivity analysis and prediction scenario attempted in the model are reported and the research areas for future are identified. The literature review suggests that the modelling efforts need to be strengthened and capability be developed by attempting modelling the migration of heavy metals, nitrate and pesticides. The sensitivity analysis need to be addressed and future efforts should be on Global Sensitivity Index. The modelling efforts need to incorporate the climate change scenario.