Analytical Hierarchy process and geospatial techniques for Delineation of Groundwater potential zones in Bundelkhand Craton Region, India

Abstract

Groundwater is considered to be the most reliable source of fresh water. Groundwater supplies are under grave danger due to a number of factors, including an increasing population, urbanization, and industry. Finding groundwater with reasonable precision is frequently a difficult task. In this work, the groundwater potential zones (GWPZs) in the Bundelkhand Craton region of India are mapped out with the help of analytical hierarchy processes (AHP) that are based on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) techniques. Various groundwater affecting elements has been generated with the remote sensing data in GIS environment. The AHP method was used to determine the weights that should be allocated to each affecting elements and their sub-features as well. In order to determine the GWPZs of the research region, each of these thematic layers was combined on top of the previous one after the appropriate weights were assigned. As a result, the GWPZs that were acquired were divided into five distinct classes, which were respectively designated as “very low”, “low”, “moderate”, “high”, and “very high” GWPZs. The findings of this study showed that "very high" GWPZ comprises 1.42% (380.55 km2), "high" GWPZ comprises 12.48% (3340.63 km2), "moderate" GWPZ comprises 67.83% (18152.1 km2), "low" GWPZ comprises 17.26 (4619.64 km2), and "very low" GWPZ comprises 1% (267.85 Km2) of the overall studied region. The result that was achieved is verified with the assistance of well discharge rate data. Overall, this research provides a technique to delineate groundwater potentiality, which will be very helpful for managing groundwater resources.