Delineation of groundwater potential zones in Samoda watershed, Chhattisgarh India, using Remote Sensing and GIS techniques

Abstract

The availability of resources and its demand made people select suitable places for the population’s growth. Rapid growth in population and urbanization lead to exploitation of the groundwater and its quantity. The Samoda watershed in the Durg District of Chhattisgarh state is also a growing urban area. It is essential to consider the existing groundwater scenario of the city and industrial area of Samoda watershed for the safe consumption, management, and also need to identify the groundwater prospect zones for further groundwater exploration. This can be easily done cost-effectively with the help of remote sensing and Geographical Information system (GIS) by integrating the different factors that support groundwater availability. This study carried out by the integration of data sets and maps such as satellite imagery, drainage, groundwater level, rainfall, land use land cover, slope, and existing maps of as geology, soil type, for the delineation of the groundwater prospect zone by the application of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) Multi-Criteria Decision Making method. The groundwater potential zones that are delineated from integrating each factor are categorized into five different zones: very low, low, moderate, high, and very high.