Assessment of groundwater potential zones and artificial recharge structures mapping for sustainable water resources planning based on remote sensing and GIS approaches

Abstract

The efficient management of groundwater requires judicious use of resources, considering the limited surface water availability and unprecedented rainfall occurrence. The Tikamgarh district area is a need more effective policy for sustainable groundwater development and management due to severe groundwater stress, over-extraction, limited recharge capacity, and recurrent drought conditions. Artificial recharge is another method for enhancing groundwater and surface water resources. The various thematics layers such as soil, geomorphology, lineament density, slope, land use and land cover (LULC), drainage density (DD), geology, and aspect have been used in this study. These layers were normalized using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) eigenvector method and weighted based on Saaty’s five-point scale in order to identify groundwater potential zones (GWPZs) and recommend suitable sites for artificial recharge structures by using geographic information system (GIS) framework throughout the district area. Spatial maps have been created from satellite datasets using ArcGIS10.5 software. These maps provide valuable information related to the study area. The developed GWPZs were divided into five classes according to the statistical data, which ranges from very high to very low potential zones. The accuracy and the feasibility of the recharge sites recommended by the GWPZ maps are validated using ROC curve analysis. During validation of recharge sites map accuracy is showing the area under the curve (AUC) of 0.79%, while the GWPZ map showing training and testing accuracy is 0.724 and 0.704, respectively. After the investigate of the study area, we have suggested artificial recharge structures, such as cement nala bunds (CNBs), check dams, dams, farm ponds, and wells. This results of study area can helpful and valuable information for planning groundwater resources and sustainable farming practices and enhance local water security.