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Over the past few decades, groundwater has become an essential commodity owing to increased demand as a result of growing population, industrialization, urbanization and so on. The water supply situation is expected to become more severe in the future because of continued unsustainable water use and projected change in hydrometeorological parameters due to climate change. This study is based on the integrated approach of remote sensing, geographical information system and multicriteria decision‐making techniques to determine the most important contributing factors that affect the groundwater resources and to delineate the groundwater potential zones. Ten thematic layers, namely, geomorphology, geology, soil, topographic elevation (digital elevation model), land use/land cover, drainage density, lineament density, proximity of surface water bodies, surface temperature and post‐monsoon groundwater depth, were considered for the present study. These thematic layers were selected for groundwater prospecting based on the literature; discussion with the experts of the Central Ground Water Board, Government of India; field observations; geophysical investigation; and multivariate techniques. The thematic layers and their features were assigned suitable weights on Saaty's scale according to their relative significance for groundwater occurrence. The assigned weights of the layers and their features were normalized by using the analytic hierarchy process and eigenvector method. Finally, the selected thematic maps were integrated using a weighted linear combination method to create the final groundwater potential zone map. The final output map shows different zones of groundwater potential, namely, very good (16%), good (35%), moderate (28%) low (17%) and very low (2.1%). The groundwater potential zone map was finally validated using the discharge and groundwater depth data from 28 and 98 pumping wells, respectively, which showed good correlation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The groundwater resource is a multidimensional concept; it is defined by its location, its occurrence over time, its size, properties, conditions of accessibility, the effort required to mobilize it and therefore, all of which are to be considered in the context of demand. Groundwater, a renewable and finite natural resource, vital for man's life, social and economic development and a valuable component of the ecosystem, is vulnerable to natural and human impacts. There is a great need for the assessment and monitoring of quality and quantity of groundwater resource required at local level to develop an exact scenario of watershed. In this study qualitative assessment of groundwater was done and a ground water quality index criterion was used to understand the suitability of groundwater for irrigation and drinking purpose in the study area. A GIS based multicriteria analysis was done by assigning weight to different water quality parameters. The water quality was grouped into six classes from very good to unfit for drinking. It was found that the in most part of the study area the water quality varied from moderate to good except in some areas where it is poor to unfit. An assessment of change in landuse and landcover was done from the year 1989 using Landsat data to year 2006 using LISS III satellite data. The change in LULC was correlated with water quality data and it was found that the areas around which rapid urbanisation as well as industrialisation is taking place showed poor to unfit groundwater in terms of quality.

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The groundwater is the only major source of drinking water in western part of Rajasthan, India. The study was carried out to locate and decipher hydrogeochemical reactions responsible for elevated concentration of fluoride. The concentration of fluoride ranged from 0.6 to 4.74 ppm in groundwater of study area. Since the area is a desertic terrain and no industries are present thus possibility of anthropogenic input of fluoride is all most negligible thus the enrichment of fluoride in groundwater is only possible due to rock-water interaction. The highly alkaline conditions indicated fluorite dissolution as major process responsible for high concentration of fluoride in Pokhran.