The present study illustrates the delineation of the groundwater potential zones in one of the most critical and drought affected areas under Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh. Hydrological evaluations were carried out in district Mahoba using GIS tools and remote sensing data which ultimately yielded several thematic maps, such as lineament density, land use/land cover, drainage density, lithology, slope, geomorphology, wetness index (WTI), altitude and soil. CartoDEM data which have spatial resolution of 30m i.e. equivalent to one arc second were used to create digital elevation model, drainage density, altitude, WTI and slope. The thematic layers were assigned relative weightages as per their groundwater potential prospects under multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method through analytical hierarchy process (AHP). To recognize the groundwater potential zone, weighted overlay analysis was performed using ArcMap software. Additionally, for testing of the Dempster-Shafer model, 16 borewells in high potential areas have been selected. Based on the probability of the groundwater occurrence, the belief factor was equated. Further combining the weighted layers, groundwater potential zones were obtained. The groundwater potential maps illustrate five zones having different potential in the Mahoba district. According to the AHP model the north-west side of the study area is characterized with very good potential zones whereas the north-east and southeast region constitute medium and poor groundwater potential zones respectively. It reflects that more than 50% of the area is having medium groundwater potential while 30 percent of the area falls under low potential zone. 10% of the study area falls under very good groundwater potential zones. According to the DS model, very high groundwater zones constitute only 7% and the remaining area falls under poor potential. Overall accuracy of the DS model was higher than AHP model.
The present study reveals the potential run-off estimation, soil erosion and scope of groundwater recharge in the Bundelkhand region in the state of U.P. , India. The estimation of run-off and soil erosion have provided a platform to evaluate the realistic potential for water conservation in the study area. The study area is characterized by occurrence of mild to severe drought conditions with significant run-off and poor infiltration. Geomorphological factors such as land use changes, slope, and nature of soil affect the run-off rate and discharge significantly. Soil map and rainfall data for the study area were acquired to evaluate the hydrological soil group (HSG) and antecedent moisture condition (AMC) respectively. Soil Conservation Services and Curve Number (SCS-CN) method has been used to calculate the run-off volume at the point where river/streams join together while soil loss has been calculated using revised universal soil loss equation of RUSLE model with the input of spatial data sets such as soil texture, rainfall, topography etc. The maximum run-off (355mm) has been estimated in watershed-1 during 2016 and minimum (1 mm) in watershed-4 respectively. The estimated run-off varies from 5.5% to 28% of the total rainfall in the study area, while soil loss is maximum (2.1x106 ton/ha) in the watershed-1. It is a fact that soil loss is in conformity with run-off. This finding provides the roadmap for the selection of suitable artificial recharge structures to augment the groundwater in the study area.
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