Promoting artificial recharge to enhance groundwater potential in the lower Bhavani River basin of South India using geospatial techniques

The artificial recharge is an alternative technique to augment surface water and groundwater and for providing continuous supply of water to the demand regions. The scope of contemporary study helps in evaluation of groundwater potential zones and to find proper zones and sites for groundwater recharge using geospatial and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) techniques. In this study, the pragmatic methodology was proposed for the implementation of water harvesting structures. The satellite and conventional datasets with field inferences were systematically processed to obtain various thematic information of the study area. The analytical hierarchical process (AHP) in geographical information system (GIS) was utilized to assign the geometric mean and the normalized weight for the individual features. Further, groundwater potential zones were identified, and they were categorized into four types viz. very high (523.58 km(2)), high (798.22 km(2)), moderate (646.04 km(2)) and low (456.66 km(2)). Nearly, 54.52% of the study area falls in the 'very high' to 'high' potential categories. The GIS-based Boolean logical method was also executed to identify suitable areas for creating recharge structures such as check dams (127.47 km(2)), percolation ponds (115.23 km(2)), flood and furrows (63.01 km(2)) and ditch and furrows (1046.31 km(2)). Based on the above results, 36 water harvesting structures were promoted to augment the groundwater resources of the basin. The highest priority was given to check dams (19 Nos), followed by percolation ponds (7 Nos), flood and furrows (5 Nos) and ditch and furrows (5 Nos). The suggested structures would improve the groundwater availability for agriculture and domestic purposes in the study area. Further, the outcomes could deliver a scientific procedure to the decision makers and water scientists for effective water resources development and management planning. Overall, the integrated remote sensing, GIS and MCDA methods are an efficient and useful tool for planning and improving groundwater recharge in the basin scale.