GROUNDWATER MAPPING AND MANAGEMENT IN GIS ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

Groundwater is one of the most important natural resources. In India more than 90 percent of rural and nearly 40 percent of the urban population depend on groundwater for meeting their drinking and domestic requirements. In addition, it accounts for nearly 60 percent the total irrigation potential in the country, irrigating about 32.5 million hectares, as compared to 28.8 million hectares irrigated by all major and medium projects put together. Due to increasing dependence on groundwater, there is an urgent need for exploration and management of available groundwater resources. For exploration and exploitation of groundwater, there have been considerable advances in both the methodology and technology during the last two decades. In the present study, a Geographical Information System (GIS) based modelling approach has been developed for the delineation of groundwater potential areas in Dehradun District using weighted aggregation method. Remote sensing data provides much of the information that is required by GIS for groundwater exploration. In order to delineate groundwater potential zones of the study area, different thematic maps pertaining to landuse, soil,- slope, rainfall, drainage density, lineaments, geology etc. were prepared using remote sensing, topographic and ancillary data. All the thematic maps were integrated and analyzed in GIS for the delineation of groundwater potential zones. From the derived groundwater potential map, the groundwater prospect for each village in Dehradun District was identified. With the available information about rural and urban water supply, it is observed that most of the people depend on groundwater. So detailed investigation is required to be carried out in these villages considering the groundwater potential classes as well as existing surface water sources and water supply schemes so as to provide additional tube wells, bore wells and hand pumps. Drinking water quality indicates that all parameters are within the permissible limits set by the Bureau of Indian Standards, except in few villages where boiling of water and chlorination are required. In this study, a management strategy has also been developed using GIS to develop the poor and medium groundwater potential zones. The above study has demonstrated the capability of remote sensing data and GIS for the study of groundwater exploration and for the development of low potential areas.