Identification of Groundwater Potential Zones in Mahanadi Delta, India using Remote Sensing, GIS and AHP Techniques

Asha Vaggela; Harikrishna Sanapala; Jagannadha Rao Mokka

Abstract

The present study was carried out to identify of the groundwater potential zones (GWPZ) in the Mahanadi River delta of Odisha, India using Remote Sensing (RS), Geographical information system (GIS) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) approaches. In this study, various thematic maps categorized viz. geology, geomorphology (GM), lineament density (LD), slope, landuse/landcover (LULC), and soils for assessment of GWPZs, which is generated using RS and GIS approach. Further, the relative weights were allocated to various thematic maps using the AHP matrix method and the relative rank assigned to each sub-criterion based on expert advice. Finally, the GWPZ map was prepared by integrating into all these parameters and their respective weights in the GIS software and the study area were categorized into four GWPZs types, i.e. poor, moderate, good, and very good. About 7.12% of area is categorised in the class ‘poor’, 75.66% in ‘moderate’, 9.03% in ‘good’ and 8.19% in ‘very good’ category. The acquired outcomes were validated with the area under well data. The results show that there is a strong positive correlation between the GWPZs with 82% validation high performance and decreases to the low yield potential with poor areas. This study concludes that the AHP model will be a more reliable for the assessment of the GWP. Any groundwater management project carried out in these favourable regions would benefit the stack holders.