The present study involved the combined applications of advanced techniques and tools like remote sensing, GIS, electrical resistivity, MCDA, to assess the potential zones of groundwater occurrence. Several prepared thematic layers, including geology, geomorphology, rainfall, lineament, LULC, drainage density, soil type, slope, and soil texture, were assigned with a weight, depending on their influence on groundwater potential. Normalization concerned with relative contribution is applied in this study using the AHP method. Vertical electrical sounding has been conducted on different points to locate water-bearing formations/fracture zones. The resulting groundwater potential areas that are delineated applying these methods have been categorized into five zones, low, medium, medium-high, high, and very high potential. The groundwater potential zones demarcated show that high potential zones are present in the west and north-eastern portion, while low to medium groundwater potential is located in the central and eastern portion. The obtained result was validated using well yield data, and ROC method from which result accuracy obtained is 80% and the area under the ROC curve is found to be 0.857 at a significance value of less than 0.001, which justifies the efficacy of the proposed approach in the demarcation of groundwater potential zone.

Groundwater availability in urbanized areas is under high demand due to overconsumption and lack of recharge area. It is important to consider the groundwater scenario of the cities and industrial areas for its safe consumption and management. In this framework, remote sensing, geographic information system (GIS), is a tool which plays a vital role to map groundwater prospect zones due to its convenience and time-saving nature. The present study area, the watershed of Chhokra Nala, covers an area which consists partly of an industrial area and also Raipur city. The current study has utilized satellite imagery, along with other data sets, to develop different thematic layers such as geology, land use land cover, drainage and drainage density, lineament, geomorphology, rainfall, slope, groundwater depth and soil types. Integration of all these thematic layers through GIS analysis delineated the groundwater prospect zones by the application of a weighted index overlay method. A Resistivity Survey was also performed to locate groundwater potential zones. The groundwater potential zone map of the study area is categorized into five different zones, namely very low, low, moderate, high and very high.

The availability of resources and its demand made people select suitable places for the population’s growth. Rapid growth in population and urbanization lead to exploitation of the groundwater and its quantity. The Samoda watershed in the Durg District of Chhattisgarh state is also a growing urban area. It is essential to consider the existing groundwater scenario of the city and industrial area of Samoda watershed for the safe consumption, management, and also need to identify the groundwater prospect zones for further groundwater exploration. This can be easily done cost-effectively with the help of remote sensing and Geographical Information system (GIS) by integrating the different factors that support groundwater availability. This study carried out by the integration of data sets and maps such as satellite imagery, drainage, groundwater level, rainfall, land use land cover, slope, and existing maps of as geology, soil type, for the delineation of the groundwater prospect zone by the application of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) Multi-Criteria Decision Making method. The groundwater potential zones that are delineated from integrating each factor are categorized into five different zones: very low, low, moderate, high, and very high.

In the present study area, anthropogenic activities such as overexploitation of groundwater, improper disposal of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), rapid industrialization, urbanization, and chemical fertilizer use are led to groundwater resource to depletion and quality degradation. Due to the imbalance between demand and availability, management approaches groundwater quality and quantity adversely affected. To assess the effects of LULC change in groundwater quality, Nitrate was considered. Land use Land cover (LULC) map of 1999 and 2016 and groundwater quality data of 1999 and 2016 revealed that groundwater quality is highly affected in the settlement area due to anthropogenic activities. There is no earmarked site in the Raipur city for the dumping of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). Hence, to minimize the existing groundwater problem, there is a need to adopt proper remedial measures to improve groundwater quality and quantity.