Delineation of groundwater potential zone for sustainable development: A case study from Ganga Alluvial Plain covering Hooghly district of India using remote sensing, geographic information system and analytic hierarchy process

In the context of considerable change in the use of groundwater pattern, particularly with continuously increasing demand for groundwater due to growing population, expansion of area under irrigation and economic progress, the present paper makes an attempt to delineate groundwater potential zones using integrated remote sensing, geographic information system, and analytic hierarchy process techniques. Integration of geographic information system with analytic hierarchy process can exemplify as a process that transforms and harmonizes geographical data and weightage ranking to retrieve information for accurate decision-making. Accordingly, mapping and identification of groundwater potential zones are carried out in the Ganga Alluvial Plain of Hooghly district of India. Application of the same for Indo-Gangetic plain is made (new approach) to contribute the applicability Geographic Information System and Analytic Hierarchy Process for the delineation of groundwater potential zone. Predominant criteria (e.g., land use, land cover, soil type, geomorphology, geology, elevation, slope, rainfall, normalized difference vegetation index, drainage density, recharge rate, groundwater depth) were employed for computation of groundwater potential index. Overlay weighted sum method is applied to integrate all thematic criteria to generate groundwater potential zone map of the study area. The resulting groundwater potential index map has been classified into three groundwater potential zones, namely good, moderate and poor. Finally, groundwater potential zone map is validated using average groundwater level data from 32 wells scattered over the study area. The findings of the present paper have important implications for designing sustainable groundwater plan in the area.