| Summary: | Kathu is a district of Phuket Island in Thailand, and is the district with the largest number of communities in Phuket. Groundwater is the main water supply on Phuket. Urbanization is occurring very rapidly on Phuket and this has stimulated water demand at an accelerating rate. A lack of fresh water and the results of over-use of groundwater could be serious problems in Phuket in the near future. The study described in this paper simulated groundwater recharge flux in Kathu, using groundwater modelling to estimate groundwater recharge. The simulation was carried out across the locations in Kathu for the period, 2006-2016. Historical Groundwater well data were collected and used to create a groundwater model. The trial and error method was applied to the recharge flux to obtain matches between simulated and observed figures of groundwater heads or levels within acceptable ranges of error. Finally, it was concluded that the groundwater recharge in Kathu is currently able to maintain the groundwater level, although groundwater has been withdrawn at a highly accelerating rate, especially between 2012 and 2016. The positive trend in the recharge rate can be attributed to increasing efficiency in the use of water catchment areas, high rainfall, and rising sea levels. |
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