Geospatial analysis of groundwater potential zones using GIS-based multi-criteria decision-making AHP approach

Kusumi block is a chronically drought-prone and economically backward region of Mayurbhanj district of Odisha. The study area is mostly underlain by pre-cambrian hard crystalline rocks characterized by poor ground water condition. Drought has a negative impact on agricultural fields which are largely rain-fed, resulting in crop loss. Because of the vagaries of monsoon rainfall, surface water irrigation is extremely restricted and unreliable. During the summer, most of the wells go dry, making drinking water insecurity a major issue. With this in mind, the study sought to identify site-specific artificial recharge structures for groundwater resource conservation and augmentation in hard rock terrain. Numerous factors like lineament density, geomorphology, geology, drainage density, soil, slope, and LU/LC were considered to identify of groundwater potential sites. The occurrence of groundwater is impacted by several factors, including soil permeability, porosity, and topographic expression. Survey of India (SoI) toposheets at a scale of 1:50,000 and various resolutions of satellite data, including IRS-ID-LISS-III, ware used in the development of various thematic map layers for Arc-GIS analysis. Four groundwater potential zones have been demarcated in Kusumi block, such as poor, moderate, good and very good using integrated approach of the Geographic Information System (GIS) and AHP method. This result was validated with well inventory data collected during field study and confirmed with the ground water potential zones.