ESSENTIAL ROLE OF AQUIFER FOR DRINKING WATER SUPPLY: A

CASE STUDY OF GUNUNG CIREMAI NATIONAL PARK, WEST JAVA,

INDONESIA

Abstract
Concerning about drinking water supply in particular region, water resources becomes

important considering water balance that regulates its sustainability. In hydrological process, soil

atmosphere and vegetation are naturally related in various ways of water balance in a watershed

that is contributed by both surface and groundwater fluxes. Water on a stream channel is supplied

by water fluxes from precipitation that transforms into overland flow, shallow subsurface flow and

groundwater. Considering both subsurface and groundwater flow, these tributaries may derive

from a productive aquifer though water springs in which transmits the groundwater to emerge to

the earth surface. Although the volume of water from aquifer depends on its productivity, there is

a soil, atmosphere and vegetation relationship that influence the water supply on stream channel.

In this project, more than 100 water springs identified contributing in five watersheds where

regulating the watershed services in residential area for clean and drinking water supply. As the

aquifer resides at the high density of residential area, however, the land cover change may also

influence the water balance in this region. Therefore, water balance and its terrestrial biosphere

relationships are interestingly to be investigated.

Introduction
The presence of protected areas provides essential needs for human well-being that

support people life through environmental services. These services are some providing direct

benefit like water while the others such as forest provides indirect benefit like carbon

sequestration. Particularly in the forest protected areas, hydrological cycle in this area may be

influenced by the land cover where the alteration amplifies water balance (Giambelluca, 2002).

In the forest ecosystem, water fluxes from the atmosphere through precipitation flows through
land surface as a runoff and some are stored in vegetation and litter which will release to the

atmosphere through evaporation (Hornberger, 2014). Therefore, water as one of the

environmental services can be influenced by the land cover where less vegetation may alter the

regional water balance.

Forest and Watershed are natural capital provide services in term of water resources

which is known as the Watershed services. Healthy forested watershed provides benefit to

beneficiaries or users on water quality improvement. Inexpensive water treatment provided by

healthy watersheds can be an effective investment of water purification when it compares to

build artificial water treatment. However, when the disturbances occur and tend to disrupt

ecosystem in the forested watershed, these services may also alter. Therefore, the healthy

forest in a watershed plays important role to sustainably provide services for beneficiaries.

Aquifer in water balance

In the natural formations, aquifers are classified from those hydraulic conditions and type

of material (Hornberger, 2014). There are two types of aquifers those are confined and

unconfined aquifer. According to their characteristic, the confined aquifer usually resides in the

near-surface. The second type of aquifer namely as the unconfined aquifer usually found under

the impermeable material that is overlain above the permeable material. In the permeable

material formations, there are geological factors that result in emergence water to surface

(Irawan and Puradimaja, 2006). First factor is the alteration of rock distribution from lava to

laharic breccias. The groundwater flow pattern is governed by morphological features in the

form of ridges and valleys. Second, the fractal lava flow systems continuously cerate conduits in

laharic breccias. Third factor is the rigorous weathering processes in the study area. The

process produces thick residual soil and high final infiltration rate that are result in very potential

for storing and transmitting water.

 Studying the water balance is important to understand role of the aquifer even it

contributes the small portion of water balance compare to runoff and evapotranspiration.

Although this subsurface water potential has small contribution, in some places, it can be

important if the atmospheric water flux and vegetation also involve in supplying water potential

due to high permeability of its soil. In volcanic aquifer, for example, the soil formation resembles

high permeability in which providing pathways for water to travel throughout subsurface to

supply the stream channel. Therefore, this subsurface saturated geological formation transmits

significant volume of water under normal conditions (Hornberger, 2014) that supplies water to

stream channel.

Study Area

Located in the ring of fire, Indonesia is surrounded by volcanic belt with almost 128

volcanoes or 13-17% of total volcanoes in the world. These volcanoes remain in the one sixth of

Indonesia’s land with the total area of 33,000 km2 (Dept. of Mining and Energy of Indonesia,

1979). As the volcanic deposits remain, these perform as productive aquifer (Irawan et.al,

2009). In this study area, for example, at Ciremai volcano, there are at least 119 springs with

variable discharge, from 10 L/s to nearly 100 L/s (BAPEDA Kuningan, 2002) that shows such a

high productivity of emergence spring belt at the foot slopes with enormous discharge and

excellent quality (Irawan, et. Al, 2009). With a vast water resources and its uniqueness of

biodiversity, Ciremai volcano officially established as the protected area that known as Gunung

Ciremai National Park in October 19, 2004 as the 50th National Park in Indonesia.

Gunung Ciremai National Park (GCNP) is located in the administrative area of the

Kuningan and Majalengka district with an area of +15,500 Ha, which is directly adjacent to 25

villages in Kab. Kuningan and 20 villages in Kab. Majalengka. Forests in GCNP are mostly

primary natural forests (virgin forest) which are grouped into lowland rain forests, mountain

rainforests and sub alpine mountain forests. Mount Ciremai is a solitary volcano that has 3078
meters of peak, with a double crater (west and east) with a radius of 600 meters and a depth of

250 meters. This national park boundaries are shown in the Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. Gunung Ciremai National Park Zones

How environmental services become essential?

The population increases in Java Island, Indonesia, with more than 128 million people

inhabit to the 138,793 km2 with density more than 1000 people per sq. km (BAPEDA Kuningan,

2002) hence there is also enormous water demand for the clean water for drinking and other

necessities. In a traditional use, people obtain the water resources for drinking and clean water

supply that originally come from the springs in this park. However, this practice resulted in poor

management of water supply for the citizen that rely on the water resources from this aquifer.

Therefore, the authorities both central and local government decided to sustainably utilize the

water resources outside the protected areas which also regulate the utilization inside.

Considering the both water resource utilization, there is correlation between the

emergence springs in the upstream that may amplify the water budget downstream. Through
the flow accumulation analysis, this project will generate the correlation of water resource in the

upstream and downstream for the drinking water supply for three districts Cirebon, Kuningan

and Majalengka. Land cover change in these administrative regions also been used to identify

current terrestrial biosphere parameters that affects the water balance.

Objectives

This project aims to investigate how springs from the aquifer generate tributaries to large

streams in watersheds which could supply the drinking water of three districts around the Mt.

Ciremai such as Cirebon, Majalengka and Kuningan. Analysis of water balance will be used to

identify the fluxes which consists of Precipitation, Runoff and Evapotranspiration. In addition to

this project, land cover identification will also be used to enrich the analysis for water cycle in

this particular site. Some of the data might have anomaly in the application because there is

limitation to obtain current condition. However, in this project, the modeling data from legitimate

sources have been collected to enrich the analysis such as CGIAR (International Committee on

Agricultural Research) and Government Agencies in Indonesia.

Methodology

Delineation of the catchment and stream network could be done with terrain

preprocessing tools using ArcHydro 2.0 in ArcGIS platform. This is one of the many useful tools

in the ArcGIS application. There are 3 main processes employed in this project including terrain

preprocessing, network and stream distance analysis, and reclassification as shown in Figure 2

to delineate watersheds, estimating stream networks form springs and classifying land cover

within those delineated watersheds. First approach in this project employed terrain

preprocessing using ArcHydro 2.0 and subsequently analyze the longest flow path of stream

network within watersheds using HEC-GeoHMS. Second, the network and distance analysis

have been used to calculate the distance between streams and springs within specific
watersheds. In this analysis, there are few spring points that connect to the stream channel

depends on the stream definition. Third analysis is reclassifying the land cover data and relates

those into delineated watersheds. From these entire process, three maps are produced as the

output of watershed delineation.

In this project, the surface water analysis will be conducted to determine the flow

accumulation to larger streams that will be formed by upstream tributaries from the aquifer.

ArcHydro 2.0 and HEC – HMS version 10.2 which have been installed on ArcGIS 10.5 platform

will be the main tools for the spatial analysis. This project combined the hydrological cycle data

in this area such as runoff, evapotranspiration and precipitation in order to identify the average

water balance for the aquifer. The following methodology for delineating watersheds and

calculating stream channel are represented in the Figure 2 below.

SRTM Digital Water

Elevation Springs Data
Model
Watershed
and Stream
Network and Networks
Watershed
delineation Arc Hydro Distance of
2.0 streams analysis
Join and Relates

Stream Channel
processing HEC- Reclassification
GeoHMS 10.2 analysis

Reclassified
Delineated
Land Cover Land Cover
watersheds
Data

Figure 2. Analysis procedures

Data Collection

Analytical approaches in this project are using the legitimate sources which are providing

open and free data such as climate, land cover and water data. The main sources data obtained

from the official report of Government Agencies in Indonesia (Ministry of Public Works, Ministry

of Environment and Forestry, Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics Agency). The other

open source data are employed for the analysis

1. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) elevation grid dataset will be used to

generate surface water fluxes. The type of DEM will be the 30x30 meters resolution

retrieved from https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ and http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/

2. Land cover spatial datasets obtained from the government official source (Ministry of

Environment and Forestry) http://webgis.dephut.go.id:8080/kemenhut/index.php/en/

3. Additionally, the climate data in this area will be presented for the analysis of water balance

that includes precipitation and evapotranspiration. These data obtained from Government

Agencies in Indonesia (Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics Agency)

https://dataonline.bmkg.go.id/home and several legitimate sources such as

https://www.ogimet.com/ , http://worldclim.org/ and https://cgiarcsi.community/data/global-

aridity-and-pet-database/

Result

Watershed delineation is a primary process to determine water balance in particular

region where the parameters such as precipitation, runoff, evapotranspiration and groundwater

are involved. Through this delineation, hydrological process can be investigated by knowing the

soil, water and atmosphere dynamics. From the analysis, the watershed delineation analysis

results in six watersheds in which water springs are connected to the stream channel. The

largest watershed identified has approximately 282,634 Ha of area and 447 Km of stream
channel whilst the smallest watershed is about 7,488 Ha and 96.1 Km of stream network as

shown on the Figure 3 below.

Figure 3. GCNP’s Watersheds

According to the Figure 3 above, the watersheds are flowing to the sea in which the

outlet of each watershed accumulates the water budget through hydrological process upstream.

Watersheds have an upstream area that centralized to the Gunung Ciremai National Park

(GCNP). As shown in the Figure 4 below, the watersheds are feed by the subsurface water from

the park also functioned as the aquifer. The shallow subsurface flow in these watersheds might

be influenced by the water springs upstream where the emerging springs are evenly located in

each watershed. The largest watershed (Watershed 6) has partial supply from 28 springs

originally come from the park supplying the north eastern part of the streams. The partial spring

supplies to watershed also identified in the Watershed 5 that approximately 19 springs tribute to

water supply on stream channel. The distribution of springs from the volcanic aquifer and the

average annual discharges of each watershed are shown in the Figure 4 and Table 1 below.
 Figure 4. GCNP’s Aquifer Water Springs

ID Category Average Watershed ID Category Average Watershed ID Category Average Watershed ID Category Average Watershed ID Category Average Watershed ID Category Average Watershed
Discharge Name Discharge Name Discharge Name Discharge Name Discharge Name Discharge Name
(m3/s) (m3/s) (m3/s) (m3/s) (m3/s) (m3/s)
1 Springs 39.0 Watershed 1 33 Springs on Streams 11.0 Watershed 2 49 Springs 96.0 Watershed 3 56 Springs 15.0 Watershed 4 67 Springs 36.5 Watershed 5 86 Springs 242.9 Watershed 6
2 Springs 99.0 Watershed 1 34 Springs 900.5 Watershed 2 50 Springs 23.6 Watershed 3 57 Springs 13.6 Watershed 4 68 Springs 12.6 Watershed 5 87 Springs on Streams 1232.0 Watershed 6
3 Springs 27.0 Watershed 1 35 Springs 78.5 Watershed 2 51 Springs on Streams 59.1 Watershed 3 58 Springs 68.2 Watershed 4 69 Springs on Streams 76.5 Watershed 5 88 Springs on Streams 300.2 Watershed 6
4 Springs 96.3 Watershed 1 36 Springs 91.4 Watershed 2 52 Springs 22.5 Watershed 3 59 Springs 0.2 Watershed 4 70 Springs on Streams 263.0 Watershed 5 89 Springs on Streams 1.0 Watershed 6
5 Springs 204.2 Watershed 1 37 Springs 65.5 Watershed 2 53 Springs 75.0 Watershed 3 60 Springs 76.5 Watershed 4 71 Springs on Streams 179.6 Watershed 5 90 Springs on Streams 110.1 Watershed 6
6 Springs 260.3 Watershed 1 38 Springs 15.0 Watershed 2 54 Springs 0.9 Watershed 3 61 Springs 1.7 Watershed 4 72 Springs on Streams 48.0 Watershed 5 91 Springs 5.0 Watershed 6
7 Springs 23.6 Watershed 1 39 Springs 2.0 Watershed 2 55 Springs 56.3 Watershed 3 62 Springs 18.0 Watershed 4 73 Springs 32.9 Watershed 5 92 Springs 26.2 Watershed 6
8 Springs 83.7 Watershed 1 40 Springs 65.0 Watershed 2 63 Springs 1.0 Watershed 4 74 Springs 3.2 Watershed 5 93 Springs 27.0 Watershed 6
9 Springs 391.7 Watershed 1 41 Springs 23.9 Watershed 2 64 Springs 21.0 Watershed 4 75 Springs 48.8 Watershed 5 94 Springs 670.0 Watershed 6
10 Springs 39.0 Watershed 1 42 Springs 39.5 Watershed 2 65 Springs 52.9 Watershed 4 76 Springs 7.2 Watershed 5 95 Springs 7.2 Watershed 6
11 Springs and Lake 11.8 Watershed 1 43 Springs 289.7 Watershed 2 66 Springs 31.6 Watershed 4 77 Springs on Streams 253.0 Watershed 5 96 Springs 51.0 Watershed 6
12 Springs 20.5 Watershed 1 44 Springs 157.9 Watershed 2 78 Springs on Streams 12.6 Watershed 5 97 Springs 21.9 Watershed 6
13 Springs 29.7 Watershed 1 45 Springs 55.9 Watershed 2 79 Springs on Streams 1147.0 Watershed 5 98 Springs 35.0 Watershed 6
14 Springs 93.0 Watershed 1 46 Springs 119.8 Watershed 2 80 Springs on Streams 4.0 Watershed 5 99 Springs 186.0 Watershed 6
15 Springs 365.0 Watershed 1 47 Springs on Streams 10.9 Watershed 2 81 Springs 2.8 Watershed 5 100 Springs 39.0 Watershed 6
16 Springs 562.0 Watershed 1 48 Springs on Streams 15.3 Watershed 2 82 Springs 1.5 Watershed 5 101 Springs 130.0 Watershed 6
17 Springs 21.0 Watershed 1 83 Springs 26.2 Watershed 5 102 Springs 127.0 Watershed 6
18 Springs on Streams 24.1 Watershed 1 84 Springs 40.4 Watershed 5 103 Springs on Streams 275.0 Watershed 6
19 Springs on Streams 15.4 Watershed 1 85 Springs 27.2 Watershed 5 104 Springs on Streams 16.0 Watershed 6
20 Springs 0.3 Watershed 1 105 Springs on Streams 146.5 Watershed 6
21 Springs on Streams 319.1 Watershed 1 106 Springs on Streams 29.1 Watershed 6
22 Artesian Springs 1.8 Watershed 1 107 Springs 33.1 Watershed 6
23 Springs 3.9 Watershed 1 108 Springs on Streams 61.2 Watershed 6
24 Springs 1.5 Watershed 1 109 Springs 16.6 Watershed 6
25 Springs 12.2 Watershed 1 110 Springs 30.2 Watershed 6
26 Springs 15.9 Watershed 1 111 Springs 6.4 Watershed 6
27 Springs 4.5 Watershed 1 112 Springs 2.0 Watershed 6
28 Springs 9.8 Watershed 1 113 Springs 35.6 Watershed 6
29 Springs 15.6 Watershed 1
30 Springs 12.5 Watershed 1
31 Springs 7.5 Watershed 1
32 Springs 25.7 Watershed 1

Table 1. Water Springs recorded inside GCNP

Springs from the table 1 above are the record from the park authorities that majorly

connect to the stream network when performing the longest flow path analysis. There are spring

categories that are mixed with the stream flow. Therefore, these springs might contribute the
stream channel as represented on the Table 1. Moreover, the average discharge might also

influence the stream discharge at these watersheds that result in throughflow and streamflow.

This above discharge represents the hydraulic conductivity of ground water and the permeability

of the soil formations. Future research for the hydrogeological factor that influences hydraulic

conductivity in these springs.

Figure 4. Watershed’s Land Cover

From the Figure 4 above, the current land cover in these watersheds altered with the

highest land use are dominated by agricultural activities which means the water supply

dominantly used for irrigation instead of drinking water according to the land cover analysis.

Although this altered land cover is dominated by the agricultural area, there are forested land

that might still support the sustainability of water supply and regulation in this region.

Considering the unique relationships among terrestrial biosphere and hydrological process,

these watersheds might encounter the change in the hydrological process historically. This
 condition may also influence the water budget on the watersheds where there is also dynamic

climate condition from past decades as shown in the figures below.

AVERAGE PRECIPITATION AVERAGE PRECIPITATION

KUNINGAN DISTRICT MAJALENGKA DISTRICT

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
800
700 800
Precipitation (mm/month)

Precipitation (mm/month)
600 700
500 600
400 500

300 400
300
200
200
100
100
0
0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Figure 5. Average Precipitation Record (Kuningan District) Figure 6. Average Precipitation Record (Majalengka District)

AVERAGE PRECIPITATION
CIREBON DISTRICT

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

700
600
Precipitation (mm/month)

500
400
300
200
100
0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Figure 7. Average Precipitation Record (Cirebon District) Figure 8. Watershed in Administrative Districts

From above figures in which time series data obtained from 2008-2017, the average

precipitation in these districts are seasonally fluctuated where during the drought period (May –

October) there are low precipitation ranging from (0-200 mm/month), nonetheless, in the wet

period (November – April), precipitation is relatively high ranging from 200 – 750 mm/month).

According to the Figure 8 above, watersheds are in the three administrative districts which

means the climate factor are strongly related within the watersheds. Considering the average

precipitation in this region, the water balance might be influenced by the groundwater and

shallow subsurface flow where there is a relationship between the water spring discharges
(Table 1) and the Land Cover that is dominated by the rice fields and agricultural area.

Therefore, there may be a significance correlation between the ground water and shallow

subsurface discharge that contribute to the stream channel so that stochastic analysis might

need to be conducted.

Figure 9. Average Precipitation (Cirebon, Majalengka, Kuningan) year 1970-2000

Another records in climate from 1970 – 2000 in this region represents the longer drought

period starting from April to early November which might also influence the water balance in this

region. Comparing both data (Figures 5-7) and Figures 9, the precipitation trends are relatively

stable and there is slightly change in the drought period which might be influenced by the

Evapotranspiration. In this project, due to limitation to obtain net evapotranspiration, the water

balance model could not well present. However, from the land cover and precipitation maps,

there is an alteration on drought period between 1970-2000 data and 2008-2017 data that

indirectly affect the water supply in this region.

Conclusion and Discussion
This project presents a network and watershed delineation process using ArcHydro and

HEC-GeoHMS software to analyze connection between stream channel and emergence spring

from an aquifer. The HEC Geo-HMS provides excellent practical result in developing stream

network and connection from the springs to the stream channel. This analysis may need to be

improved to generate a model to calculate contribution of ground water and shallow subsurface

flow to stream channel, specifically for the volcanic aquifer. Statistical analysis using these

platforms (ArcHydro and HEC-GeoHMS), in the future, can be employed in to estimate the

ground water flow throughout soil formations and residence time of water potential in the

aquifer. In a nutshell, ArcHydro and HEC-GeoHMS are considerably reliable program and

compatible with other programs such as ArcGIS program for stream network analysis.

Aquifer in the natural formations stores and transmits water from its saturated zone with

capillary force through porous medium. The hydrogeological formations of an aquifer induced

the hydraulic conductivity from saturated zone and recharges the water table and stream

channel. This groundwater potential contributes the water balance to stream channel that

significantly amplify the water balance downstream. Subsequently, the weathering process in

particular watershed, where abundance volume of water stored in an aquifer, stimulates the soil

formation to be more porous with high permeability in which provides pathways for water to

travel. Furthermore, vegetation and soil organism support to make the soil more porous that

also store the water on its roots and leaves. Therefore, the water balance can be described as

the relationship between soil, atmosphere and vegetation on hydrological process where the

aquifer plays important role to store and transmit water depends on their hydrogeological

characteristics.

From the analysis conducted in this project, upstream area and its water fluxes

characteristics influence the water balance downstream for various utilization such as irrigation
and drinking water supply. Upstream area in this study site are the volcanic aquifer that

transmits water on a surface and creates stream channel. The advantages of this geological

formations are giving the abundance volume of water that continuously supply even though the

drought period comes. The geological formations create conduits that can slowly release the

water downstream through shallow subsurface flow, groundwater flow or emerges to surface as

a base flow to stream channel. This analysis using longest flow path network identified the

connection between springs and stream channel. Therefore, the aquifer in this study site

regulates the water supply for many functions such as watering the agricultural land, clean

water and drinking water for the residential area.

Future investigation might still need to be conducted in the perspective of the capability

of an aquifer to store water. This is to analyze the residence time of water that is stored in

perennial formation under the impermeable geological formations. As numerous users are

utilizing or even extracting the water from this aquifer, the impact of this practice might be

significant. Although the atmospheric water fluxes is relatively constant, the terrestrial water flux

might alter due to various factors such as population density, land cover change and geological

formation. Therefore, the future research and thorough investigation can support to comprehend

the role of an aquifer for human well-being.

References
Bapeda Kuningan, 2002. Inventarisasi Mata Air Kab. Kuningan, Bapeda Kuningan. Government
Report
Giambelluca, T. W. (2002). Hydrology of altered tropical forest. Wiley InterScience
(www.interscience.wiley.com).
Hornberger, G. M., Wilberg, P. L., Raffensperger, J. P., & D’Odorico, P. (2014). Elements of
Physical Hydrology - Second Edition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Tahir, W., Abu Bakar, S. H., Wahid, M. A., & Nasir, S. R. M. (2015). Proceedings of the
International Symposium on Flood Research and Management 2015 (ISFRAM 2015). Malaysia:
Springers.
Irawan, D.E., Puradimaja, D.J., 2006. The hydrogeology of the volcanic spring belt,east slope of
Gunung Ciremai. In: Proceeding of IAEG Conference. West Java, Indonesia.
Irawan, D. E., Puradimaja, D. J., Notosiswoyo, S., & Soemintadiredja, P. (2009).
Hydrogeochemistry of volcanic hydrogeology based on cluster analysis of Mount Ciremai, West
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