An empirical method for estimation of groundwater unit draft of energized agricultural tube wells

Field methods for the estimation of groundwater unit draft are not fully reliable due to non-uniformity of draft in the time domain. In India, use of norm values recommended by the Groundwater Estimation Committee is in common practice. However, large-scale electri­fication in agricultural sector has drastically changed the agricultural pumping scenario. Conversion of diesel-powered pump sets to unmetered electrified pump sets and then to metered electrical pump sets has possibly invalidated the unit draft norms in many parts of the country. In this study, a computational method for groundwater unit draft estimation for energized agricultural tube wells is proposed. Availability of detailed minor irrigation census data is the key towards implementation of the method. The method involves utilization of several well-known empirical formulae for arriving at the desired numerical solution.