ASSESSMENT AND VALIDATION OF GROUNDWATER POTENTIAL ZONES USING ANALYTICAL HIERARCHY PROCESS (AHP) AND OBSERVED YIELD DATA IN THE CENTRAL KHARUN RIVER BASIN, CHHATTISGARH, INDIA

J. SUBHADARSINI, D.C. JHARIYA, V.K. VIDYARTHI, M. SAHU

Abstract


Groundwater is an essential natural resource used in multiple grounds such as municipal, agricultural, and industrial water supply. To sustainably manage groundwater resources, it is important to assess groundwater potential zones (GWPZs). This study adopted a combination of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques to systematically assess and map groundwater availability zones within the Central Kharun River basin, which is located in parts of Durg and Raipur Districts of Chhattisgarh, India. Thematic layers are created for nine significant factors, including depth to groundwater level, lithology, rainfall, soil, slope, geomorphology, lineament, drainage density, and land use and land cover (LULC) of the study region. These thematic layers are prepared by using GIS techniques. Based on relative contributions of each factor in groundwater occurrence, weights have been assigned using the AHP method. The model results have been validated against 15 observed well yields from monitoring wells by plotting the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and area under the curve (AUC). Overall, the study classifies the basin into three distinct GWPZs: low, moderate, and high. Sensitivity analysis (SA) highlights that groundwater level exhibits highest mean sensitivity index (SI = 0.39), followed by lithology (SI = 0.24) and rainfall (SI = 0.15), indicating them as the most significant factors that influence GWPZs. The findings of the analysis demonstrate the effectiveness of the integrated AHP-GIS approach and provide valuable guidance for the planning and sustainable resource management of groundwater resources.


Keywords


Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), GIS, Groundwater potential zones (GWPZs), Central Kharun river basin, Observed well yield.

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