How does the water table change during wet and dry seasons?

How does the water table change during wet and dry seasons?

When rainfall is less than normal for several weeks, months, or years, the flow of streams and rivers declines, water levels in lakes and reservoirs fall, and the depth to water in wells increases. If dry weather persists and water-supply problems develop, the dry period can become a drought.

Does the water table change seasonally?

The top of the subsurface ground-water body, the water table, is a surface, generally below the land surface, that fluctuates seasonally and from year to year in response to changes in recharge from precipitation and surface-water bodies. The depth to the water table varies.

How does the water table change?

The level of the water table can naturally change over time due to changes in weather cycles and precipitation patterns, streamflow and geologic changes, and even human-induced changes, such as the increase in impervious surfaces on the landscape.

Does the water table move down in dry weather?

In any one place the water table usually rises with increased recharge from precipitation and declines in response to seasonally dry weather, drought, or excessive pumping of ground water.

Why does the water table rise during the rainy season?

Answer: Water table rises during rainy season due to recharge received from rainfall and falls back during summer season due to lack of recharge and continuing extraction of groundwater. The prime cause of over-exploitation is the rising demand for groundwater.

How does rain affect the water table?

Fluctuations in the water table level are caused by changes in precipitation between seasons and years. During late winter and spring, when snow melts and precipitation is high, the water table rises. There is a lag, however, between when precipitation infiltrates the saturated zone and when the water table rises.

What is seasonal water table?

A seasonal high water table (SHWT) is the shallowest depth to free water that stands in an unlined borehole or where the soil moisture tension is zero for a significant period (more than a few weeks) – Watts and Hurt, 1991.

What is groundwater water table?

The water table is an underground boundary between the soil surface and the area where groundwater saturates spaces between sediments and cracks in rock. Springs are formed where the water table naturally meets the land surface, causing groundwater to flow from the surface and eventually into a stream, river, or lake.

What happens to a water table during a drought?

In most years, aquifers recharge as rainfall and streamflow seep into unpaved ground. But during drought the water table—the depth at which water is found below the surface—drops as water is pumped from the ground faster than it can recharge. And as aquifers are depleted, the land also begins to subside, or sink.

What is the effect of rainfall on water table?

Groundwater is dynamic natural resources that can be recharge most during the rainy season by the rainwater for the rest of the year. Over withdrawal of groundwater causes decline in the water table due to the stress and distorting the aquifer and may also leadadverse surface and subsurface environmental effect [2].

What happens to the water table in an extremely dry year?

What happens when there is a drought? Although groundwater levels do not rise and fall as rapidly as at the surface, over time the water table will rise during wet periods and fall during droughts. In dry regions, water seeps down from the stream into the aquifer. These streams are often dry much of the year.