Identification of Groundwater Potential Zone of Kasari Basin Using Gis Technique

Abstract Groundwater is the most important resource contributing significantly to in the total annual supply. The purpose of the present study is to use Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for determining the best areas having ground water potential zones in „Kasari River Basin". Assessing the potential zone of groundwater recharge is extremely important for the protection of water quality and the management of groundwater systems. Groundwater potential zones are demarked with the help of remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques, in which this present srudy a combination of Geographical Information System and Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) techniques is used. A composite map was generated using GIS tools. Accurate information to obtain the parameter that can be considered for identifying the groundwater potential zone, a total of eight thematic layers, such as Rainfall, Slope, Elevation, land use/land cover, Drainage Density, Lineament Density, Geomorphology, Geology, etc., are generated using the satellite data. A probability-weighted approach was applied during the AHP process, and for the various geomorphic units, weight factors were determined based on their capacity to store groundwater. This procedure is repeated for all other layers, and the resultant layers are classifed. The groundwater potential zones are classified into five categories: very low, low, moderate, high, and very high potential zones. The use of the suggested methodology is demonstrated for a selected study area, the Kasari River Basin, which lies in the Kolhapur district of Maharashtra. This Groundwater potential zone will be very useful for the effective identification of suitable locations for the extraction of water.