Delineation of groundwater potential zone: An AHP/ANP approach

Abstract

The sustainable development and management of groundwater resource requires precise quantitative assessment based on scientific principle and modern techniques. In the present study, groundwater potential zone are delineated using remote sensing, geographical information system (GIS) and multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques in Unnao district, Uttar Pradesh. The analytical network process (ANP) is a method that makes it possible for one to deal systematically, and includes the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) as a special case. The AHP and ANP are used to determine the weights of various themes and their classes for identifying the groundwater potential zone. These weights are applied in a linear combination to obtain five different groundwater potential zone in the study area, namely ‘very poor’, ‘poor’, ‘moderate’, ‘good’ and ‘very good’. It has been concluded that about 153.39 km2 area has very good groundwater potential which is only 3.37% of the total study area. However, the area having very poor groundwater potential is about 850 km2 which is about 19.63% of the study area. The area having good, moderate and poor groundwater potential is about 540.25, 1135.5, 1868.6 km2, respectively. The groundwater potential zone map was finally verified using the well yield data of 37 pumping wells, and the result was found satisfactory.