Remote Sensing and GIS in Identification of Groundwater Potential Zones: A Study at Thirumullaivasal Village, Nagapattinam District, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract

The demand for need of groundwater goes with descending powers, when compared with the available natural resources to meet the expectations of Agricultural, Municipal and Industrial needs. Consequently, groundwater is being withdrawn from storage and water levels are declining resulting in crop failures, seawater intrusion in coastal aquifers, land subsidence etc. This urges the need of artificial recharge of groundwater by augmenting the natural infiltration of precipitation into subsurface formation by some suitable methods of recharge. This inturns expects the quantitative availability of groundwater in the area, at the earliest, to follow suitable recharge methods. This rapid determination is found possible only when Remote Sensing and GIS approaches are applied in addition to conventional methods, where time frame is lagging. In this study, Remote Sensing and GIS approaches were used to identify groundwater potential zones in Thirumullaivasal village of Nagapattinam district of Tamilnadu. Various thematic maps were prepared for the factors that influence groundwater such as rainfall, soil type, land use, slope and geology using satellite imageries, toposheets and data from Government and other organizations. Ranks and Weightages were assigned for different categories by devising criterion table and Cumulative Suitability Index (CSI) values were found out using Multi-criterion analysis of the prepared thematic maps through GIS. Based on CSI values, the area was prioritized into different groundwater potential zones for future investigation.