Delineation of groundwater potential zones in Karha river basin, Maharashtra, India, using AHP and geospatial techniques

Groundwater is a life-sustaining resource catering the daily water requirements of mankind, aids in industrial development, influences agricultural activity, and maintains the ecological balance. The present study was carried out in the Karha river basin, Maharashtra State, having an area of 1314.98 km(2). In hydro-geological research, for the exploration of groundwater resources, the integration of remote sensing data and GIS plays a remarkable role in monitoring, assessing, and conserving groundwater resources for water resource management and development. A total ten thematic layers such as geomorphology, geology, land use/land cover, drainage density, slope angle, lineament density, rainfall distribution map, curvature, topographical wetness index, and soil map were integrated into a GIS platform, using the spatial analyst tool in Arc GIS 10.0 to delineate the Ground Water Potential Zones in Karha river basin area. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) technique is used to determine the weighted value for each parameter and their sub-parameters, based on their relative importance of influencing factors for groundwater recharge. The final groundwater potential zonation map of the study area was categorized into four classes namely, poor, moderate, good, and excellent potential zones. The western part of the basin, particularly in Ghorawadi, Garade, and Saswad regions, have been identified as excellent potential zones for groundwater exploration. The result has shown about 21.96% (285.43 km(2)) and 28.82% (374.49 km(2)) of the study area falls under "excellent" and "good" groundwater potential zone, respectively, whereas about 10.81% (140.46 km(2)) area falls under the poor potential zone.