Delineation of groundwater potential zone for sustainable water resources management using remote sensing-GIS and analytic hierarchy approach in the state of Jharkhand, India

Groundwater abstraction in many parts of India is highly unregulated which has caused a gradual decrease in groundwater levels over the years. Normally surface water storage structures or recharge zones are developed without knowing if all the groundwater is getting recharged. The issue becomes serious in the plateau region where most of the rainfall goes as surface runoff. Here an effort was made to identify the groundwater potential recharge zones of the entire Jharkhand state using Remote Sensing, GIS, and Analytic Hierarchy Approach techniques. Thematic layers which could contribute to the successful recharge of groundwater were prepared. The whole region was classified into four prospective groundwater potential zones: extremely low, low, moderate, and high. The results showed that approximately 3.28 and 77.34% of the total area falls under the High and average groundwater potential zones and the rest are under Low and Very low. Most of the high potential area is located in eight districts due to the alluvial plain region or a few mountains in that region namely Godda, Sahibganj, Pakur, Dumka, Purbi, Singhbhum, Saraikela-kharsawan and part of the Ranchi. The discharge data of 28 existing bore wells were used to endorse the groundwater potential zones. The further validation was made with an Area Under Curve (AUC) of 83%. According to the validation, the applied method produces a fairly dependable outcome for the state of Jharkhand.