Flood-Driven Groundwater Recharge for India

Rapid groundwater depletion, driven by intensive pumping and growing climate variability, poses a critical threat to water security across India. Concurrently, climate change is intensifying the frequency and magnitude of flood events, generating episodic but potentially significant opportunities for natural aquifer replenishment. However, the contribution of floods to groundwater in India remains poorly quantified. In this study, we systematically quantify flood‐driven groundwater recharge across the major river basins of India. Using the integrated, physically based ParFlow-CLM hydrological model, we evaluate three fundamental attributes of flood recharge: (i) the contribution of flood runoff to total groundwater recharge, (ii) the temporal lag between flood peaks and aquifer response, and (iii) the persistence of flood‐induced recharge signals following an event. These metrics are evaluated across diverse hydrogeological settings to identify where floodwaters are most effectively captured and retained within aquifers. Our results show strong spatial contrasts in flood recharge efficiency. The highly permeable alluvial aquifers of the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra basins exhibit the highest flood-to-recharge contribution and the longest persistence, indicating a strong capacity to capture and retain floodwater. In contrast, less permeable and fractured hard-rock aquifers in large parts of central and southern India show weaker and shorter-lived recharge responses to floods. By explicitly linking flood dynamics to subsurface hydrologic response, this study provides a framework for identifying priority regions for flood‐based groundwater management. The results demonstrate how increasing flood extremes under climate change can be strategically harnessed to enhance the resilience of India’s groundwater resources.