Mapping of Potential Groundwater Recharge Zones in the Kolleru Lake Catchment, India, by Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques

Water scarcity is the major problem in India where the population has been tremendously increasing, which results in invading natural resources, thus affects on hydrological processes. Because of this, significant surface water bodies have been disappearing continuously. Therefore, more pressure on groundwater resources is a consequence of that. The integration of remote sensing and geographical information system (GIS), which helps in groundwater research for the investigation of potential groundwater availability, is essential to assess, monitor, and conserve groundwater resources. This analysis reports on the mapping of various potential groundwater resources in the Kolleru Lake catchment, India, by using remote sensing and GIS techniques. For this, a survey of India toposheets and IRC-1C satellite imageries was used to prepare thematic layers of geomorphology, drainage density, lineament, slope, land-use, soil, rainfall, and NDVI converted into raster format in ArcGIS. The raster maps of these thematic layers were assigned to a weight-based factor depending on the catchment characteristics and its topographic influence. The results demonstrated that about 7% of the area is under excellent groundwater potential recharge. Good, moderate, and lower potential conditions are 42%, 38%, and 13%, respectively. The results indicated that the management of groundwater potential zones should be targeted on the middle-catchment region. Further, the results were validated with the borehole data obtained from the Government of Andhra Pradesh-Groundwater Department. These results are useful for better both planning and groundwater management sources in the Kolleru Lake catchment.