An Integrated GIS Approach for Assessment of Ground Water Potential Zone: A case Study on the Upper Catchment Area of Subarnarekha River

Abstract

In the present study, Remote Sensing and GIS techniques have been used to perceive the Ground water Prospect sites in the upper catchment area of Subarnarekha River, Jharkhand. The studied area is the part of the Chota Nagpur Plateau and mainly named as Ranchi Plateau. A GIS integrated method is considered to delineate the ground water potential zone in this plateau region. This study is a systematic application and it has been considered five major controlling factors such as land use / land cover, geological structure, soil taxonomy, drainage density and surface steepness to detect the ground water potentiality.The weighted overlay method has been stimulated to demarcate the final ground water potential zone on the basis of weighted value. Each scheming factors are reclassified based on their assigning weighted value which are as certained from the prioritization of each class from all thematic layers according to their influence on ground water recharge. The result shows that more than 88% of the study area is under moderate to high potential zone of ground water. Among which 45% of area is under moderate potential zone, 38% under high potential zone and 4% is very high potential zone.