Conservation of groundwater in Nglanggeran Area, Gunung Kidul District, Yogyakarta

As a fast growing tourism destination, Nglanggeran area needs a safe availability of groundwater. Nglanggeran area has been considered as a part of "non-groundwater basin" where the availabity of groundwater is commonly limited. The limited groundwater resource in Nglanggeran area should be capable to fulfill the necessity of local people and tourists that are increasing every year. This is the main reason of the present study to propose a groundwater conservation in Nglanggeran area. The methods applied consist of geological and hydrogeological mapping, and statistical analysis as well. We find that Nglanggeran Area has a unique groundwater system consisting of unconfined aquifer model (called as "Kedung Kandang" model) and fractured aquifer model (called as "Bendo" model). Both models can be found in southwestern part of Nglanggeran area. Both groundwater models are proved to support water necessity of inhabitants. We also found similar systems in other parts of study area. The analysis of demographic data indicates that groundwater utilization surpasses groundwater reserve. Therefore, groundwater conservation in the study area is urgent to be implemented to maintain groundwater sustainability.