Investigation of Topographical Controls on the Groundwater Potential Zone in a Hilly Watershed Using a Geospatial and Geophysical Approach

Roshani Singh, Aditya Kumar Anand and Pallavi Banerjee Chattopadhyay ()
Additional contact information
Roshani Singh: Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
Aditya Kumar Anand: Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
Pallavi Banerjee Chattopadhyay: Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2022, vol. 36, issue 13, No 24, 5313-5333

Abstract: Abstract Evaluation of groundwater potential zone (GWPZ) in hilly regions is challenging due to its steep slopes, runoff, erosion, landslides, and changing land use patterns. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and remotely sensed data are integrated with Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) to identify the critical markers influencing the GPWZ. The findings suggest slope exposure, relief, fractures, and weathering are critical features of GWPZ. Hill slopes have distinct zones of varied recharge, whereas foot of a hill has an evenly distributed recharge area with significant evapotranspiration depending on landscape characteristics. The study demonstrates how integrated technologies might aid in overcoming the challenges. The linear combination method of weighted overlay is applied to integrate the GIS maps of different groundwater potential indexes (GWPI) using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method. The final map suggests that about 75% of the Aglar watershed in the Tehri Garhwal District, Uttarakhand, India, falls under the "moderate" to "high" GWPZ category, 17% area of the watershed falls under "very high" GWPZ, and the rest 8% of the area is under "very low" to "low" GWPZ. Subsequent integration of 2D ERT with the remote sensing (RS) and GIS outputs, yields a vertical subsurface mapping of soil heterogeneities with an effective depth of saturation that quantifies the GWPZ. The zone of saturation is mainly controlled by fractures and the weathered formation where electrical resistivity ranges between 25 and 225 Ω-m. The mapping techniques affirm that the northern aspect of the watershed has a higher potential for groundwater occurrence than the southern aspect.

Keywords: Himalayan watershed; GIS; AHP; ERT; GWPZ (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11269-022-03314-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:waterr:v:36:y:2022:i:13:d:10.1007_s11269-022-03314-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11269

DOI: 10.1007/s11269-022-03314-x

Access Statistics for this article

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) is currently edited by G. Tsakiris

More articles in Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) from Springer, European Water Resources Association (EWRA)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().