A new approach to delineate the groundwater recharge zone in hard rock terrain

Delineation of potential groundwater recharge zone is vital to augment groundwater resources in hard rock terrain. It is also important for the sustainable development and management of groundwater resources. Conventionally, suitable zone for potential groundwater recharge is deciphered using tritium injection, hydrogeological, geophysical geomorphological maps and regional groundwater model, which are often time consuming and uneconomical. Therefore, the analysis of unconfined aquifer response in terms of rise in water level due to precipitation, a rapid and cost-effective procedure is evolved in hard rock terrain. Cross-correlation of rise in water level and precipitation is established. The entire area is classified into various zones depending on variability in coefficient of correlation. Thus, most favourable zone for artificial recharge is delineated with the help of correlation coefficients, which has given good agreement with the results of Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) technique in the study area.