Sustainable development: agricultural management and groundwater recharge

Case studies in Iran shows that all agriculture management cases based on sustainable development, resulted in increased yield. Researchers in India show the integrated use of geophysical techniques for sustainable management of ground water

Title: The role of sustainable agricultural management in the prevention of land degradation in Iran

Authors: Gholam Reza Taleghani1, Gholam Reza Zehtabian2and Farshad Amiraslani3
1 Associate Professor of Faculty of Management University of Tehran; 2Professor of Faculty of Natural Resources University of Tehran; 3Researcher of International Research Center for Living with Desert, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Nearly 33 million hectares in Iran are covered by deserts and 120 million hectares are facing desertification. Unfortunately, mismanagement, improper irrigation systems, first and second degree salinization and human factors all have been causing desertification. Over-exploitation of land and water resources has resulted in yield decline, loss of soil fertility and water pollution. Of 16 million hectares of lands under cultivation in Iran 6 million hectares are irrigated and the rest are under dry farming. As a result of inappropriate agricultural land use, the lands are left and infertile ones are cultivated. This research, reviewing agricultural management status in some case studies, intends to show that in all cases in which agriculture has been based on sustainable development principles, it has resulted not only in reclamation of land but also increased the yield.

Title: Integrated techniques for sustainable development: a boon for ground water recharge in hard rock terrain

Authors: E. Peters and R.N. Yadava
Water Resources Management Group, Regional Research Laboratory (CSIR), Hoshangabad Road, Bhopal – 462 026 M.P., India

Continuous declining trend in ground water all over the world has bounded the scientific communities to adopt suitable advanced techniques for ground water recharge. Any conventional and non conventional technique alone can not provide the whole information to the planner because of its own limitation but combining the various techniques certainly gives information helpful to propose suitable sites for water conservation structure. The detail hydro-geological study, including geological, geomorphological, slope, lineaments, soil type, runoff and water quality data, generate sets of information in the initial stage. Further integrated Remote Sensing, GIS, GPS and GPR data play a vital role in presenting the spatial and tabular surface and subsurface information. Rock fracture, its nature and depth, porosity and permeability play a vital role in recharging ground water. The multi-electrode resistivity imaging is one of the best techniques, where the multi-electrode arrays led to an important imaging showing the layers representing the low, medium and high resistivity which is helpful to locate clay permeable sand, gravel layers and also the bedrock. The imaging represents the changes in the rock type and water bearing zone. In Basaltic terrain it is helpful to distinguish the different type of flows also. Radon test is also one of the best recognition tests, where the higher anomalies give an idea about the fracture pattern, soil porosity and permeability of the ground surface. It gives the idea about the nature and distribution of the aquifer. Integration of all those techniques fulfills the gap of information and the final data is very helpful for the planner for the development and management of surface and ground water in dry land area.

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© International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), 2006

Published: 06 Jun 2006

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