Groundwater suitability recharge zones modelling – A GIS application

Abstract. Groundwater quality in Gujarat state is highly variable and due to multiplicity of factors viz. influenced by direct sea water encroachment, inherent sediment salinity, water logging, overexploitation leading to overall deterioration in ground water quality, coupled with domestic and industrial pollution etc. The groundwater scenario in the state is not very encouraging due to imbalance between recharge and groundwater exploitation. Further, the demand for water has increased manifold owing to agricultural, industrial and domestic requirement and this has led to water scarcity in many parts of the state, which is likely to become more severe in coming future due to both natural and manmade factors. Therefore, sustainable development of groundwater resource requires precise quantitative assessment based on reasonably valid scientific principles. Hence, delineation of groundwater potential zones (GWPZ), has acquired great significance.

The present study focuses on the integrated Geospatial and Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques to determine the most important contributing factors that affect the groundwater resources and also to delineate the potential zones for groundwater recharge. The multiple thematic layers of influencing parameters viz. geology, geomorphology, soil, slope, drainage density and land use, weightages were assigned to the each factor according to their relative importance as per subject experts opinion owing to the natural setup of the region. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied to these factors and potential recharge zones were identified. The study area for the assessment of groundwater recharge potential zones is Mahi-Narmada inter-stream region of Gujarat state. The study shows that around 28 % region has the excellent suitability of the ground water recharge.