An integrated approach for the application of geographical information system and Remote Sensing for prospective groundwater zones in Surat region, India

Sustainable groundwater management is becoming a priority in the context of significant changes in groundwater use patterns, particularly with continuously increasing demand for groundwater due to growing population, expansion of irrigation area, and economic progress. This research contributed to the integration of GIS-RS and a fuzzy technique to delineate groundwater prospective zones for Surat district, India. In this study, nine different fuzzy membership layers of influencing parameters were overlaid using the fuzzy GAMMA operator to generate the prospective zones. The result indicates that 62.53% area of the district falls under the high prospective zone. Sensitivity analysis reveals that lineament density, rainfall distribution, and geomorphology were the most important parameters influencing the region's groundwater potentiality. The RS-GIS-based Fuzzy method is proficient and efficient and can be applied anywhere on the earth to identify and delineate groundwater prospective zones.