Analysis of the balance of groundwater resources in order to study the stress on the aquifer in arid areas

In this study the recharge and discharge of Isfahan-borkhar aquifer was investigated. This leads to long-term management of the aquifer and will make appropriate decisions by planners. The results of this study showed that the water table was constantly decreasing over the selected statistical period. The water table level was reduced by 0.46m per year, which reflects the fact that the aquifer is in critical conditions. In the present study, the recharge rate was determined by three factors including leakage from the river, rainfall infiltration and agricultural wastewater by using MODFLOW and then the correlation coefficient above 0.97% indicated high accuracy of the simulation. According to the results, it was found that recharge by agricultural wastewater is more than recharge by rainfall (about 32% of total irrigation water), which is due to the type of irrigation in the area (check-basin irrigation) and after that the influence of rainfall (about 10% of the total rainfall), which is a low contribution to this area due to high evaporation rates in the region. Thus, it can be concluded that the most important source of aquifer recharge is agricultural wastewater, which is necessary to be accurately calculated according to the type of product, irrigation, soil characteristics and climatic conditions of the study area in hydrological modeling studies. In case study of Isfahan-Borkhar, there is no possibility of exploitation of the aquifer due to the continuous decrease of the water table of groundwater that is clearly evident in the aquifer hydrograph, as well as the negative balance of groundwater resources.