Assessment of Groundwater Potential Zones in the Konkan Region Using Geospatial Techniques

Abstract

Groundwater is considered as the major and secure the source of water supply all over the world and it is a precious natural resource. As populations grow and surface water sources become increasingly strained or contaminated, the reliance on groundwater intensifies. This study was conducted to assess the groundwater potential zones across Konkan region, Maharashtra, India for the future sustainable water resource development in the region. To spatially identified the groundwater potential zones using integrated Remote Sensing (RS) and GIS with Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Several influencing factors such as geology, geomorphology, rainfall, soil, slope, groundwater depth, land use land cover and lineament density are assessed individually. All the factors and their features have been assigned weights according to their relative importance and their normalized weights were calculated using Analytical Hierarchy Process. Groundwater potential zone map has been prepared through weighted sum model in GIS environment after integrating all the thematic layers. The entire region has been classified into five different groundwater potential zones viz., Very Good, Good, Moderate, Poor and Very Poor. A major part of the region was found about 44.19% in moderate groundwater potential zones followed by poor groundwater potential zones 27.23%. The good zones also contribute 19.82% area of the region, as well as the very poor zones contributes 4.43% area of the region. Least area found in the very good potential zones which is about 4.33%. Therefore, the high area coverage of groundwater potential zones, ranging from moderate to very good, provides critical insights for sustainable groundwater management and planning in the Konkan region.