Hydrology Journal

Groundwater is being exploited indiscriminately to meet the ever increasing demand of water in different parts of the country. As a result severe problem of groundwater table declination has taken place causing threat to future availability of water. Keeping it in view, the present study was undertaken in Ramganga-Bahgul interbasin of Uttar Pradesh to study the groundwater behavior, stage of groundwater development, causes of water table decline and to develop groundwater models using multiple regression analysis for predicting water table depth in the study area. The groundwater inventory for the year 2002 indicated that out of 25 blocks in the study area, only 5 blocks were under safe category, 6 blocks under semi critical category, 7 blocks under critical category and as many as 7 blocks under overexploited category. The proposed statistical model for the study area was based on regression analysis. Six multiple regression equations with different recharge and discharge parameters as independent variables and water table depth (Y) as dependent variable, were tested for their performance. The Coefficient of determination (R²) and Performance Index (PI) for the best fit statistical model were found to be 0.9669 and 0.001873, respectively. The model could predict the water table depth of the study area with good accuracy.