Groundwater is unevenly distributed and limited in hard rock terrains. The study has been carried out using remote sensing and GIS to delineate the potential recharge zones of ground-water in upper Betwa watershed, Raisen district, Madhya Pradesh, India. The different thematic layers viz; geology, lineament density, soil, slope, land use/land cover (LU/LC) and drainage density were prepared for assessment of groundwater recharge potential in the area. District Resource Map (DRM) of Geological Survey of India (GSI) 2002 has been used for geological study. SRTM Digital Elevation Model (DEM) was used to obtain the slope. LANDSAT-8 OLI data has been processed for lineament density and LU/LC analysis. Survey of India toposheets were used for drainage density analyses and National Bureau of Soil Survey & Land Use Planning Nagpur (NBSS&LUP) map used for soil study. Weightage has been given to parameters in thematic maps as per the relative influence of each parameter in the groundwater recharge. Rating to each class of parameters was given as per there relative significance in groundwater recharge. Finally, groundwater recharge potential map has been prepared by overlaying all thematic maps in terms of the weighted index overlay (WIO) method. The output map has been further classified into three zones (i) low ground-water potential zone (121.80 km2) (ii) moderate groundwater potential zone (387.78 km2) and (iii) high groundwater potential zone (173.35 km2). The output results were validated by plotting the specific yield data and groundwater level of selected wells in delineated groundwater recharge potential zones using GPS locations. It has been seen that most of the groundwater productive wells functioning in the area is falling in high and moderate groundwater recharge potential zone.

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Groundwater, the most vital water resource being used for irrigation, domestic and industrial purposes is nowadays under severe threat of contamination. Groundwater contamination risk assessment is an effective tool for groundwater management. In the study, a DRASTIC model which is based on the seven hydro-geological parameters viz: depth of water, net-recharge, aquifer media, soil media, topography, impact of vadose zone and hydraulic conductivity was used to evaluate the groundwater pollution potentiality of upper Betwa watershed. ArcGIS was used to create the ground water vulnerability map by overlaying the seven layers. Based on groundwater vulnerability map, the watershed has been divided in three vulnerable zones viz; low vulnerability zone with 42.83 km2 of area, moderate with 369.21 km2 area and high having 270.96 km2 of area. Furthermore, the DRASTIC model has been validated by nitrate concentration over the area. Results of validation have shown that in low vulnerable zone, no nitrate contamination has been recorded. While in the moderate zone nitrate has been found in the range of 1.6-10ppm. However, in high vulnerable zone 11-40ppm of nitrate concentration in groundwater has been recorded, which proves that the DRASTIC model is applicable for the prediction of groundwater vulnerability in the watershed and in similar areas too.

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