Groundwater potential mapping using analytical hierarchical process: a study on Md. Bazar Block of Birbhum District, West Bengal

Abstract

Delineation of groundwater potential zones based on the scientific technique is essential for the management of groundwater resource and landuse planning. In the present study groundwater potential map has been prepared using the analytical hierarchical process in GIS and remote sensing environment. The AHP method has used to determine the weights of various thematic layers. With the help of linear combination method these weights of thematic layers are added to identify the different groundwater potential zones in the study area, namely ‘very poor’, ‘poor’, ‘fair’, ‘good’ and ‘excellent’. However, the area having very poor, poor, fair, good and excellent groundwater potential is about 34.474, 75.216, 81.484, 81.484 and 40.742 km2 respectively. The groundwater potential zone map has finally validated using the ROC and trend surface analysis technique incorporating the well yield data of 25 pumping wells and groundwater depth data. ROC result shows the area under curve for the AHP model is 0.7776 which corresponds to the prediction accuracy of 77.76% and linear regression coefficient of groundwater depth and its corresponding groundwater potential index is 0.548. Taking together, it could be argued that the AHP model has performed good prediction accuracy.