Title: Spatial assessment of groundwater demand in Northwest Bangladesh

Authors: Shamsuddin Shahid

Addresses: Department of Geology, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract: Spatial assessment of groundwater demand has been carried out as a part of sustainable water resources management in Northwest Bangladesh. ASTER images are synthesised for extracting the extent of irrigated land. The Penman–Monteith method is used for the calculation of reference evapotranspiration from climate data. Soil information is used for the estimation of water requirement for land preparation and seepage loss. The domestic water demand is calculated from population census data. The study shows that the irrigation water demand in the study area varies between 839 mm and 1212 mm, which amounts to about 96.5% of total groundwater demand.

Keywords: groundwater demand calculation; irrigation water requirements; ASTER images; GIS; geographical information systems; domestic water demand; spatial assessment; sustainable development; sustainability; water resources; resource management; Bangladesh; evapotranspiration; land preparation; seepage loss; water managment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJW.2010.030590

International Journal of Water, 2010 Vol.5 No.3, pp.267 - 283

Published online: 24 Dec 2009 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article