Artificial intelligence-based approach to study the impact of climate change and human interventions on groundwater fluctuations

Water resource management is highly impacted by variations in rainfall, maximum and minimum temperature, and potential evapotranspiration. The rice area is also a key aspect for groundwater declination due to high-water consuming crop. Groundwater in Central Punjab is declining at an alarming rate from last two decades. The decisions regarding water resource management need accurate information for the groundwater level. Therefore, to explore the main reason for the depletion of groundwater, it is essential that the most influential factors responsible for groundwater depletion should be addressed. A study was conducted in Central Punjab by using artificial neural network (ANN) and multiple linear regression (MLR) model during 1998–2018 to forecast the groundwater depth. ANN performed better than MLR. The sensitivity analysis showed that tubewell density, rice area, and rainfall are highly responsible for groundwater fluctuation.