Integrated Geospatial Technique for Potential Groundwater Zone (PGZ) Identification

Abstract

—A groundwater development program requires a large volume of data from various sources. An integrated remote sensing, MCDA and GIS study can provide the appropriate platform for convergent analysis of large volumes of multidisciplinary data and decision making for groundwater studies. Geospatial technologies have become an important tool in water studies due to their capability in developing spatio-temporal information and effectiveness in spatial data analysis and prediction. The sustainable development and management of groundwater resource needs quantitative assessment, based on scientific principle and recent techniques. The analysis of PGZs can use the parameters such as drainage density, elevation, geology, geomorphology, land use and land cover, lineaments-dykes, rainfall, slope and soil pattern etc. and can assign weightage by using Analytical Hierarchical Process etc.; then weighted overlay analysis in ArcGIS will accurately find the zone for groundwater distribution. The overall assessment as presented in this study highlight that mapping of groundwater potential using integrated RS/GIS/MCDA/AHP/WLC approach could be an effective means of characterization of groundwater potential zones as well as serving as a useful tool and guide in groundwater exploration and development could serve as a base line study for future water management projects in the area. This Integrated geospatial techniques could serve as a base line study for future water management projects in order to ensure sustainable ground water utilization.