Geospatial delineation of groundwater recharge potential zones in the Deccan basaltic province, India

The water-scarce drought-prone Manjeera basin, of the Deccan basaltic province, is facing the relentless threat of groundwater over-exploitation. This region needs a reliable strategy to overcome groundwater scarcity as this province is of great hydrogeological significance. There is a deficiency of dependable information about the groundwater recharge potential zone (GWRPZ) for this province. Groundwater recharge (GWR) is vital for creating a balance in water resources. With the aim of solving this severe water crisis, this study was conducted. This study is a very potent hybrid approach of satellite imagery and digital elevation model along with other ancillary data analysis using ArcGIS software geospatial platform with multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) driven analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and multi-influencing factor (MIF) models for GWRPZ map delineation. Crucial hydrogeological variables were utilized to achieve an efficient GWRPZ map for effective artificial recharge planning. The derived maps were classified into four distinct zones, viz. very good, good, moderate and poor. Critical parameters like branching factor (BF) (0.16 and 0.12), miss factor (MF) (0.11 and 0.26), detection percentage (DP) (89.86% and 79.17%) and overall quality percentage (OQP) (78.48% and 72.15%) demonstrated good prediction accuracy for AHP and MIF respectively. This research output may assist the planners/policymakers/local administration in precise groundwater development and recharge strategies to achieve a sustainable groundwater development scenario.