Hydrogeological Mapping and Identification of Groundwater Recharge Potential Zone of Reamal Block Deogarh District, Odisha - A Geospatial Technology Approach

Abstract

Assessment of potential zone of groundwater recharge is extremely important for the protection of water quality and the management of groundwater systems. Groundwater Potential Zones (GPZ) are demarcated with the help of geospatial techniques. The parameters, considered for identifying the GPZ such as geology, geomorphology, slope, drainage density, lineament density, rainfall, soil maps and LULC are generated using the satellite data and toposheet. Later they are integrated with each other applying weighted overlay in ArcGIS. Suitable ranks are assigned for each category of these parameters. For the various geomorphic units, weight factors are decided based on their capability to store groundwater. This procedure is repeated for all the other layers and resultant layers are reclassified. The groundwater potential zones are classified into three categories like poor, good and excellent. The use of aforesaid methodology is demonstrated in a selected study area in Reamal Block of Deogarh District, Odisha. The thematic layers were first digitized from satellite imagery, supported by ancillary data such as toposheet, finally all thematic layers were integrated using ArcGIS software to identify the groundwater recharge potential zones for the study area and generate a map showing these groundwater recharge potential zones namely ‘poorly suitable’, to ‘most suitable’ on knowledge based weightage factors.