Deciphering of Groundwater Potential Zones in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques

Abstract

The present study was carried out to decipher the groundwater potential zones in the coastal terrain of Tuticorin using Indian remote sensing satellite IRS-1C, LlSS-III data on a 1:50,000 scale and Survey of India (SOI) toposheets. The thematic layers such as lithology, slope, land-use, lineament, drainage, soil and rainfall were generated and integrated to prepare the groundwater prospect and recharge map of the study area. These layers were transformed to raster data using feature to raster converter tool in Arc GIS 9.2 software. Subjective weights are assigned to the respective thematic layers and overlaid in GIS platform for the identification of potential groundwater zones within the area. These potential zones were categorized as ‘high’, ‘moderate’, and ‘low’ zones with respect to the assigned weightage of different thematic layers. The resultant map shows that 10% of the area has highest recharge potentials, this is due to the percolation of precipitated water into the sub-surface rocks, followed by 65% of the area with moderate groundwater recharge potentiality, and rest of the area has low recharge potential. The study highlights that the total average annual precipitated water (877 mm) is responsible for natural recharge of the aquifers in the Tuticorin area.

Groundwater recharge potential zones mapping in upper Manimuktha Sub basin Vellar river Tamil Nadu India using GIS and remote sensing techniques

“…In the hard rock terrains, lineaments represent areas and zones of faulting and fracturing resulting in increased secondary porosity and permeability and are good indicators of groundwater (Dinesh Kumar et al 2007, Selvam et al 2014, 2015a. The Remote Sensing data, which offer synoptic view of large area, help in understanding and mapping the lineaments both on regional scale and local scale.…”

“…The gradient of slope is one of the factors that directly influence the infiltration of rainfall (Selvam et al 2014). Slope determines the rate of infiltration and runoff of surface water, the flat surface areas can hold and drain the water inside of the ground, which can increase the ground water recharge whereas the steep slopes increase the runoff and decrease the infiltration of surface water into ground.…”

“…Geology, lineament, lineament and drainage density, Land use and Land cover, slope and soil have been generated for analysis and integration into a prospect map. The groundwater recharge potential zone has been assessed in many countries (Krishnamurthy et al 1996;Saraf and Choudhury 1998;Shahid et al 2000;Jaiswal et al 2003;Sener et al 2005;Shaban et al 2006;Yeh et al 2009Yeh et al , 2014Yeh et al , 2016Adham et al 2010); Selvam et al 2014, 2015a, b, Samson and Elangovan, 2015and Prasanta Kumar Ghosh et al 2016.…”

“…During weighted overlay analysis, the weightage was given for each individual parameter of each thematic map, and weights were assigned according to the multi IF of that particular feature on the hydro-geological environment of the study area (Shaban et al 2006;Yeh et al 2009Yeh et al , 2014Adham et al 2010;Singh et al 2011;Magesh et al 2012;Gumma and Pavelic 2012;Selvam et al 2014Selvam et al , 2015aSamson and Elangovan, 2015;Prasanta Kumar Ghosh et al 2016). For this study mainly focuses six factors such as Geology, Lineament density, drainage density, Land use and Land cover, slope and soil were related to other factors and also some factors were interrelated.…”

Application of remote sensing, GIS and MCA techniques for delineating groundwater prospect zones in Kashipur block, Purulia district, West Bengal

“…Several conventional methods such as geological, hydrogeological, geophysical and photogeological techniques are being used to delineate groundwater potential zones (McNeill 1991;Lillesand and Kiefer 1994;Teeuw 1995;Meijerink 1996;Sander et al 1996;Edet et al 1997;Taylor and Howard 2000;Shahid et al 2000;Srivastava and Bhattacharya 2006;Sharma and Kaur 2012;Fashae et al 2013;Selvam et al 2014;Jhariya et al 2016). In recent times, digital techniques come out as a rapid and cost-effective tool, and are being used to integrate different data to decipher groundwater potential zones.…”