Estimating the rate of recharge to the groundwater table using environmental chloride as a tracer

Abstract

The use of environmental chloride as a tracer in the unsaturated soil zone to estimate groundwater recharge in dry climatic conditions is well documented. An evaluation of this method in estimating groundwater recharge to a sand aquifer in UK under temperate climatic conditions was carried out tfy comparing the estimates of recharge (from chloride profiling method) with that of a different method and with those by other workers. The results suggest that it is possible to use the unsaturated zone chloride profiling method to estimate recharge for the area studied. This result along with the documented information is analysed and discussed, and this discussion suggests a possibility of using the chloride profding method to estimate groundwater recharge in the tropics including dry zone of Sri Lanka.