Development of a Model for Calculation of Sustainability Index of Groundwater Resources

Nowadays, one of the most important concerns in many countries is water supply for sustainable development. So for efficient management of groundwater resources, on the one hand, we need an appropriate tools for modeling, on the other hand, we need measure sustainability to check the performance of scenarios. This paper analyzes the sustainability condition using an integrated modeling framework that consists in sequentially a watershed agriculturally based hydrological model (Soil and Water Assessment Tool, SWAT) with a groundwater flow model developed in MODFLOW, and with a TDS mass-transport model in MT3DMS in Esfahan-Borkhar in Iran. SWAT model outputs are used as MODFLOW inputs to simulate changes in groundwater flow and storage and impacts on stream–aquifer interaction. MODFLOW output (groundwater velocity field from MODFLOW) are used as MT3DMS inputs for assessing the fate and transport of TDS. Heads and concentrations of each cell of model (MODFLOW and MT3DMS) are used to calculate the developed Sustainability Index (whith 3 performance criteria, Reliability, Resilience and Vulnerability) under three scenarios. The results indicate that SI in simulation period is 0.052 and under first, second and third scenarios are respectively 0.040, 0.033 and 0.050.