Soil erosion assessment for developing suitable sites for artificial recharge of groundwater in drought prone region of Jharkhand state using geospatial techniques

The study demonstrates the identification of site-specific watershed management technique using geospatial technology to enhance the groundwater potential of an area. The soil erosion prioritization evaluated using geoinformatics technique and drainage morphometric analysis highlights the utility of multiresources evaluation in sustainable watershed development. The superimposed thematic layers of land use/land cover, lithology, hydrogeomorphology, drainage, and lineament over the soil erosion variability map helped in suggesting the site-specific location of the water harvesting structures in Daltonganj watershed of Palamu, Jharkhand, India. The spatial variability of the various soil erosion zones indicated that 0.78 and 11.31 km(2) are under very high and high soil erosion prone areas, respectively, whereas moderate areas of soil erosion comprised of 11.46 km(2) within the Daltonganj watershed. The lower catchment region of the Daltonganj watershed was found to be most prone to very high soil erosion, whereas parts of the lower, middle, and upper catchment regions are significantly prone to high rate of soil erosion. The central regions, however, are low to moderately prone to soil erosion. The quantitative drainage morphometric analysis helped to understand the groundwater situation. The present study thus helped in locating suitable sites for water harvesting structures which include 9 check dams, 31 farm ponds, and 9 nala bunds in the watershed, which will help in efficiently monitoring the soil moisture conservation and groundwater recharge and put a check on soil erosion of the area.