Identification of Groundwater Potential Zones Using Multi-influencing Factors (MIF) Technique: A Geospatial Study on Purba Bardhaman District of India

Abstract

In the present era, the resource crisis and the deterioration of quality of resources is the primary concern of the geographical study. Groundwater resource is the primary depleted resource today due to massive population pressure and indiscriminate use in agriculture. Hence, proper planning and strategies are needed to facilitate groundwater recharge. Therefore, a study, like the delineation of potential groundwater zones, is one of the prime tasks of the geographer, the environmentalist, and the scientist also. Present research involves the assessment of potential groundwater recharge zone by using a popular statistical method, i.e., multi-influencing factors (MIF) along with the application of GIS. Based on the study, three major potential zones have been identified viz. high potential zone, which comprises 20.65% area, moderate potential zone with 45.61% area, and low potential zone covering 33.74% area out of the total geographical area of the Purba Bardhaman district of West Bengal, India. High potential zones are predominantly observed in the extreme west and east of the test area as well as along the river course. Moreover, low potential zones are found in the middle and the southern part of this concerned region. In the end, validation of these potential zones has been made by taking actual yield from the field observation and comparing it with the prepared potential model. Therefore, this kind of study for the delineation of potential groundwater zones is very much relevant for the improvement of groundwater status in the era of the water crisis. The validation of this model proves that this model is 73.17% accurate for the identification of the potential groundwater zones.