Abstract
Groundwater prospect evaluation in the interfluves of the Rivers Brahmaputra and Kolong, Assam has been studied by considering the geomorphology, lithology, drainage pattern and drainage density, slope and land use/land cover (LU/LC) of the area. The major geomorphic, lithologic and land use/land cover units of the area have been identified and delineated from satellite imageries. Slope map and drainage map of the study area were generated from the SOI toposheets as well as from the satellite imageries. The drainage density map was generated from drainage network of the interfluves using GIS. To demarcate the different groundwater prospect zones of the study area, all the thematic layers are integrated by raster index overlay technique in GIS. Weights are assigned to different thematic layers and ranks are assigned to different categories/classes of the thematic layers for the overlay analysis in GIS. The resultant map was classified into groundwater prospect zones as very good, good, moderate and poor. The groundwater prospect zone map indicates that the most part of the area is having well to very good groundwater prospect zones.
Highlights
Groundwater is an essential component of the environment and economy
The various terrain parameters considered in the present study, i.e., geomorphology, lithology, slope, drainage density, land use/land cover etc. are believed to be the controlling factor of the precipitation, flow and storage of water in the area and, influence the groundwater storage potential of the area
It has been found that out of the total study area, 80.75% of the area belongs to very good groundwater prospect zones whereas 17.65% of the area belongs to good category, 0.48% of the area categorized as moderate and only 1.12% of the area belongs to poor category
Summary
Groundwater is an essential component of the environment and economy It sustains the flow in our rivers and plays an important role in maintaining the fragile ecosystems (Sedhuraman et al, 2014). Geomorphic settings of an area plays an increasingly important role in hydrogeological studies as it can provide valuable supplementary information regarding groundwater recharge and their occurrence and distribution, initiating a recent trend in hydrogeomorphological studies (Goswami et al, 2002). Sensed data and GIS techniques are vital tools for delineation and evaluation of groundwater potential zones of an area (Krishnamurthy and Srinivas, 1995; Khan and Moharan, 2002; Sankar, 2002). Different geomorphic units that characterize the landform of the drainage basin contribute significantly to the recharge capability and groundwater prospect of specific areas of drainage basins. In this study an attempt has been made to demarcate the groundwater prospect zones in the study area by considering the important geomorphic as well as hydrogeologic features of the area
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