Hydrological effects of ground water utilization for public water supply and sprinkler irrigation
1981
Lanen, H.A.J. van (Rijksinstituut voor Drinkwatervoorziening, Voorburg (Netherlands))
Until recently in the Netherlands groundwater has mainly been extracted for domestic and industrial water supply. In the last ten years, however, there has been an increasing agricultural demand for groundwater. For instance in 1973 about 4% of the annual aquifer yield was used for sprinkler irrigation, while this figure had reached 40% in 1976. Groundwater extraction causes a drawdown of the groundwater table, often harming other interests such as nature conservation, agriculture without sprinkler irrigation, etc. This article shows that the hydrological effects (drawdowns, reduction of evapotranspiration, etc.) due to the extraction of a certain amount of groundwater also depend on the extraction method. Up to the present agriculture in the Netherlands uses a different extraction method from the public water supply companies (more extraction wells, smaller extraction rates, etc.). Therefore one should not add the annual extraction amounts of agriculture and the public water supply companies in order to get the total hydrological effects in a region. These differences have to be taken into account in planning regional water resources
Show more [+] Less [-]Bibliographic information
This bibliographic record has been provided by European Union