Artificial Recharge Structures for Groundwater Augmentation in Mysuru Taluk of Karnataka State, India using Geospatial Technology

Abstract

Groundwater is an essential component of the environment and economy which sustains the flow in our rivers and plays an important role in maintaining the fragile ecosystems. The groundwater dependence of agrarian states like Karnataka is high. Major water sources are under serious threat due to gradual increase in population, climatic change, over withdrawal of groundwater, immense agricultural practices, deforestation and from other sources around the world. Recent studies indicate that 26% of the area of Karnataka State is under over exploited category and number of blocks is under critical category. Within the state, the irrigated agriculture planking further stress on the groundwater system and desires appropriate management of the resources. The present study aims to augment groundwater resources in stressed areas of Mysuru taluk for groundwater sustainability. Survey of India (SoI) topomap, IRS-1D, PAN+LISS-III and ASTER G-DEM satellite data are effectively utilized through GIS environment. Efforts have been made to evaluate the thematic layers of geology, geomorphology, drainage density, lineament density, soil, slope, land use/ land cover, rainfall and overlay weightage analysis using GIS environment. The derived thematic layers have been assigned suitable ranks and weightages using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) depending on the features Sustainable… Manjunatha et al.