HydroResearch 2 (2019) 1–11

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HydroResearch

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Identification of groundwater potential zones in Mandavi River basin,

Andhra Pradesh, India using remote sensing, GIS and MIF techniques
R. Siddi Raju, G. Sudarsana Raju ⁎, M. Rajasekhar
Department of Geology, Yogi Vemana University, Vemanapuram, Kadapa 516005, Andhra Pradesh, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Identification of groundwater potential zones (GWPZ) in a crystalline rock terrain is a crucial task for sustainable
Received 6 May 2019 groundwater resource management, through scientific knowledge and modern geospatial techniques. Remote
Received in revised form 9 September 2019 Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) plays a key role in evaluating, conserving and monitor-
Accepted 12 September 2019
ing various groundwater-related development programs. The present study integrates RS, GIS and multi influ-
Available online 22 October 2019
ence factor (MIF) techniques for evaluating GWPZ in Mandavi River basin. In this connection IRS-R2 LISS IV
Keywords:
satellite imagery, the Survey Of India (SOI) toposheets and various auxiliary data sets from different sources
Groundwater potential zones (GWPZ) have been used in preparing thematic maps like drainage density, lineament density, geology, soil, geomorphol-
Multi influence factor (MIF) ogy, slope, rainfall, soil texture, land use/land cover and groundwater levels. Then the thematic layers were
Remote sensing and GIS changed into raster format in Arc GIS 10.4 environment. Weights and ratings have been statistically calculated
Mandavi River basin and assigned to raster maps based on the technique named multi-influence factor. Finally, it is found that the
GWPZ were classified into four type's viz. very poor, poor, good, and very good with spatial extents of 533 sq.
km (36%), 510 sq. km (35%), 319 sq. km (21%) and 103 sq. km (7%) respectively. The end results were validated
with the observation of well data. The overall accuracy and kappa coefficients were 72.8% and 0.63 respectively,
which shows a good correlation between groundwater potential zones and the observed well data. These results
will help hydrogeologists, decision-makers, planners and local authorities to formulate better groundwater re-
source planning in the Mandavi River Basin.
© 2019 The Author. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. This is an
open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Introduction 2019a). Therefore proper tools in assessing groundwater potential

In India, most of the seasons are dry in the semi-arid regions due to
insufficient rainfall and more evaporation owing to high temperatures
(CGWB, 2007). Consequently, the rainfall is scarce which affects the sur-
face water resources and hence requirements are met from groundwa-
ter in various fields such as irrigation, domestic and industrial, etc. The
hard rock formation of entire India is about 65% with low permeability
(10–1 to 10–5 m/day) and porosity with b5% (Saraf and Choudhury,
1998; Nagarajan and Singh, 2009). Generally, the occurrence of ground-
water is very limited in a hard rock terrain and is restricted to fractured
and weathered zones. Hence it is a big task to outline potential ground-
water zones (Burrough, 1986; Nagarajan and Singh, 2009; Siddi Raju
et al., 2016). Various factors like lack of rainfall and unplanned ground-
water management practices, more runoff, evaporation, climate change,
the rapid growth of urbanization and uneven distribution of water re-
sources are liable for water scarcity (Pinto et al., 2015; Balaji et al.,
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: gsraju05@gamil.com (G. Sudarsana Raju).
zones are required. The geospatial technique is one of the widely used
methods for quick targeting groundwater potential areas with ground
truth verifications. Geospatial techniques are reliable, simple and cost-
effective in assessing groundwater reserves than the traditional
methods (Arkoprovo et al., 2012; Thapa et al., 2017).
In the recent years, a number of researchers have attempted both RS
and GIS (Moghaddam et al., 2013) in identification of GWPZ by using
various techniques such as Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) tech-
niques (Kaliraj et al., 2013; Pinto et al., 2015; Sashikkumar et al., 2017;
Rajasekhar et al., 2018), multi influence factor analysis (Selvam et al.,
2014; Das et al., 2018), fuzzy logic analysis (Al-Abadi et al., 2017;
Tiwari et al., 2017), Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) (Hussein
et al., 2017; Kindie et al., 2018; Balaji et al., 2019b) etc. Among all, MIF
technique is reliable and cost-effective in deciphering groundwater po-
tential zones. Thus, this technique was applied in the present study.
The major portion of Mandavi River basin is occupied by a hard rock
environment in which the groundwater availability is limited and re-
stricted to weathered and fractured regions. In addition to this, the
study area has a semi-arid climate where the uncertainties in rainfall

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hydres.2019.09.001
2589-7578/© 2019 The Author. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
2 R. Siddi Raju et al. / HydroResearch 2 (2019) 1–11
prevail. Hence the present investigation was executed in identifying po-
tential groundwater zones using the latest geospatial tools.
Study area
The Mandavi River basin is to be found in between 13°51′ N–14°18′
N latitudes and 78°34′ E–79°1′ E longitudes and originates from Ellutla
extension reserved forest, Gurramkonda mandal, Chittoor district,
Andhra Pradesh (Fig. 1) and covers an extent of 1465 sq.km. The general
flow direction of the river is northeast and flows across the mandals
named Chinnamandem, Rayachoti, Ramapuram, and Veeraballi and en-
ters into palakondalu hill ranges and finally joins into Bahudariver at
Rollamadugu village. Geologically most of the area is covered by the gra-
nitic rocks and the observed drainage pattern was dendritic to sub-
dendritic. The average yearly rainfall of Mandavi River basin is about
686.62 mm. The minimum and maximum temperatures ranged be-
tween 20° and 45.5 °C respectively. The altitude ranges between 1080
and 195 m.
Methodology
In the present methodology (Fig. 2), various influential parameters
viz. drainage density, soil texture, soil depth, rainfall, lineament density,
geomorphology, land use land cover, geology, groundwater level data,
elevation, and slope maps were derived from ample of geospatial data
sets, for example, SOI toposheets, IRS R2 LISS IV satellite images, mineral
and soil resource maps, SRTM-30 m also field surveys and the supple-
mentary data produced from various organizations.
Initially, all conventional maps such as toposheets, district soil re-
source map, and district mineral resource map were collected from
SOI toposheet, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Geological
Survey of India (GSI) respectively then these are mosaic and geo-
referenced in GIS environment. The basic thematic maps such as drain-
age, village locations, basin boundary, etc., were digitized from SOI
toposheets. Soil texture and soil depth maps were digitized from district
Fig. 1. Location map of the Mandavi river basin.
soil resource map, geology and lineaments were digitized from the GSI
subsequently, all these thematic layers are updated to LISS IV satellite
image and field verification also carried out afterward altered thematic
layers within the GIS environment. Drainage density and lineament
density maps were produced by using drainage and lineament layers re-
spectively along with 20 years of rainfall data collected from district
chief planning office. Groundwater level data were collected in two
ways primarily, 20 years (9 stations within the basin) of GWL data col-
lected from district groundwater department this data is used as one of
the influential factors. Then GWL data of 81 stations collected through
field surveys, for GWPZ map validation purpose. Then the spatial distri-
bution maps of rainfall and groundwater level fluctuations were gener-
ated by using IDW tool in GIS.
Subsequently RS data sets such as IRS R2 LISS IV and SRTM-30 m data
obtained from National remote sensing center (NRSC), and USGS
website (https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/) respectively. The geomor-
phology and LU&LC maps were digitized from IRS R2 LISS IV satellite
image by using visual interpretation techniques and during the prepara-
tion of this map, NRSC Bhuvan LULC maps are taken as reference maps
and also field verification is done with GPS. The slope and elevation
maps were procured from SRTM 30 m data using GIS modules.
After that, all the thematic layers are converted into raster and
weights were assigned using MIF technique. Finally, the GWPZ map
was generated from the integration of all the raster layers using
weighted overlay analysis and validated with 81 observation well
stations.
Assigning of weight and ratings
Eleven influential input factors such as drainage density (DD), geol-
ogy (G), geomorphology (GM), land use and land cover (LU&LC), linea-
ment density (LD), rainfall (R), soil depth (SD), soil texture (ST), slope
(S), elevation (E) and groundwater level fluctuation (GLF) were ob-
tained for identification of GWPZ. In all, every factor is having its own in-
fluence and interrelated to multiple factors. The relation is, one to one or
 R. Siddi Raju et al. / HydroResearch 2 (2019) 1–11 3

Fig. 2. Flow diagram represents methodology for identification of groundwater potential zones.

one to many factors (Fig. 3), based on its relation strength, weights and cumulative sum of each influential factor were calculated with the for-
ratings were assigned (Magesh et al., 2012; Kaliraj et al., 2015; Thapa mula given below
et al., 2017) and each factor representative weight of GWPZ is the addi-
tion of all weights from every factor. Integration of all these influential  
ð X þ YÞ
factors with their weights in the GIS module called weighted overlay Proposed score ¼ P  100
ðX þ YÞ
analysis.
The major effect was assigned a weight of 1.0 and the minor effect
was assigned a weight of 0.5. The major, minor effect and their where, X is a major effect.

Fig. 3. Inter relationship between the multi influencing factors concentring the groundwater potential zone in Mandavi river basin, Andhra Pradesh.
4 R. Siddi Raju et al. / HydroResearch 2 (2019) 1–11

Y is a minor effect. Geology

Occurrence and movement of the groundwater is depending on the

The major, minor and cumulative sum of each influence factors were
nature of the rocks and its parameters for example porosity and perme-
depicted in Table 1. Relative rates, weights of each influential factor
ability which are different for each rock type (Balaji et al., 2019b;
were depicted in Table 2.
Ghasemizadeh et al., 2012). The geological features are digitized from
district mineral resource maps (GSI 1990) and updated to LISS IV satel-
lite image in a GIS environment. Further field verifications have been
Results and discussion
carried out with Germen etrex GPS. The major portion of the study
area consists of crystalline rock terrain (84%) of Archean age which con-
Groundwater potential zones were delineated by using various fac-
sists of granites, granite gneisses, granodiorites, migmatite both acidic
tors, for instance, geology, slope, geomorphology, drainage density, lin-
and basic intrusive rocks with negligible primary porosity hence runoff
eament density, land use and land cover, soil texture, soil depth, and
is more. The 20 years mean annual rainfall and runoff of Mandavi river
elevation. The details about various influential factors have been
basin is 699.75 mm and 478.06 mm, respectively (Siddi Raju et al.,
discussed below.
2018). Hence it is clearly noticed that the regional geology and soils
are responsible for surface runoff of about 68%. A small proportion
Drainage density (DD) (16%) of area is made up of shales with dolomite/limestone, shales
with phyllite of Cumbum formation, quartzite with shale of
The drainage density denotes closeness of stream segments spatially Bairenkonda, Nagari formations of Nallamallai group and dolomite,
which depends on both physical characteristics and climatic conditions quartzite/arkose with a conglomerate of Gulcheru formation of Papagni
of a geographic location (Krishnamurthy et al., 2000) and it is important group of Cuddapah super group of Proterozoic age in the northern and
factor prevailing the movement and saturation of water into the earth north-eastern parts (Fig. 4b).
(Balaji et al., 2019a). Drainage network has been digitized from SOI Individual weights for each lithological unit have been determined
toposheets and it is updated to LISS IV satellite image. As per Straheler according to their groundwater prospects. A high weight was given to
(Strahler, 1964), this is a 7th order basin and the drainage network is dolomites followed by shales with dolomitic limestones, quartz/arkose
dendritic to sub dendritic patterns in nature thus which indicates uni- with the conglomerate, shales with phyllite, quartzite with shales and
form lithology. granite/granodiorite/migmatites respectively (Table 2).
This updated drainage network has been used for generation of DD
map using following formula proposed by Horton (1932) in GIS envi- Geomorphology
ronment.
Geomorphological features provide significant indications of
groundwater resources and also it gives indirect information about
n Dl ðkmÞ −1 groundwater occurrence, movement and evolution (Machiwal et al.,
Drainage Density ðDDÞ ¼ ∑l¼0 ¼ km 2010). The landforms are digitized using IRS-R2 LISS IV satellite image
A ðsq:km:Þ
through visual interpretation technique and field verification has been
carried. The basin shaped like a heart and high elevated area occupied
where, Dl = Total lengths of Channels in km; A = Area of the basin in sq. in the northern and southern part, the remaining central part of the
km. area is nearly plain to gentle (Fig. 5e). Based on the origin, a total of fif-
According to Thapa et al. (2017), it was categorized into four classes teen geomorphologic features have been identified, such as:
viz. high, moderate, low and very low with spatial extents of 94 sq. km denudational origin (pediplain shallow weathered (205.5 sq.km),
(6%) of high DD, 226 sq. km (15%) of moderate DD, 489 sq. km (34%) of pediplain moderate (152.6 sq.km), denudational hills (20.2 sq.km), re-
low DD and 656 sq. km (45%) of very low DD (Fig. 4a). A high priority sidual hills (157.5 sq.km), inselberg (53 sq.km), pediment Inselberg
was given to a high value of drainage density category followed by mod- complex (449 sq.km)), structural origin (structural hills (128.5 sq.km),
erate, low and very low drainage density values respectively (Table 2) dyke ridges (0.8 sq.km), upper plateau moderately dissected (73.8 sq.
(Magesh et al., 2012; Kaliraj et al., 2015; Thapa et al., 2017). km)), depositional origin (point bar (0.5 sq.km), bajada shallow (13.2
sq.km), piedmont slope (35 sq.km), pediment (10.7 sq.km), water bod-
ies (44 sq.km) and valleys (168.3 sq.km)).
Table 1 In the present study area, weathered and fractured rock terrain with
Effects of influencing factor, relative rates and score for each potential factor (Thapa et al.,
2017; Magesh et al., 2012).
high altitudes and steep topography have medium to low groundwater
potentials hence, assigned low weight. Which includes pediment Insel-
Factor Major Minor Proposed Proposed score of each berg complex, pediplain shallow weathered, pediment, structural hills,
effect effect relative rates influencing factor
denudational, residual hills, dyke ridges, inselberg, and piedmont slope.
(X) (Y) (X + Y) ðX þ YÞ Floodplains generally show good groundwater potentials because of
½P   100
ðX þ YÞ
the high infiltration rate of the weathered material deposits (Thapa
et al., 2017) hence, assigned high weight. This consists of pediplain
Drainage density 2 0.5 2.5 10 moderate, bajada shallow, point bar, upper plateau moderately dis-
Geology 2 1 3 12
Geomorphology 2 1 3 12
sected, valleys and water bodies.
Land use land 1 1 2 8
covers Land use/land cover (LULC)
Lineament density 3 0.5 3.5 14
Rainfall 1 0.5 1.5 6
LU/LC is one of the important factors in recharging of water into sub-
Soil depth 0 1.5 1.5 6
Soil texture 0 0.5 0.5 2 surface (Das et al., 2017). In the present study area, various LULC fea-
Slope 1 1.5 2.5 10 tures were identified from IRS R2 LISS IV satellite image, which was
Elevation 2 0 2 8 later verified by the basis of field studies. The LULC map includes the ag-
Ground water level 2 1 3 12 ricultural land (cropland, double crop area, fallow land and plantation),
fluctuation
built-up land (rural and urban), forest land (forest and forest
 R. Siddi Raju et al. / HydroResearch 2 (2019) 1–11 5

Table 2 Table 2 (continued)

Classification of weighted factors and their ratings influencing the potential zones in the
study area. Factor Sub-class Weightage Rating

790–1080 m 1
Factor Sub-class Weightage Rating
11. 20 years avg. −4 to −3.2 bgl 12 12
1. Drainage density High 10 10 groundwater level −3.1 to −2.8bgl 10
Moderate 8 fluctuation −2.7 to −2.4bgl 8
Low 5 −2.3 to -2bgl 4
Very low 2 1.9 to 2.3bgl 1
2. Geology Shale with dolomite/limestone 8 12
cm = centimetre; mm = millimetre; m = meter; bgl = below ground level.
Shale with phyllite 6
Quartzite with slate 5
Dolomite 12
Quartzite/arkose with 7
conglomerate
plantation), stream, river and water bodies and wastelands with their
Granite, granodiorite, granite 4
gneiss and migmatites
respective spatial extents of 834 sq. km (57%), 46 sq. km (1.5%), 376
3. Geomorphology Bazada shallow (BJS) 12 12 sq. km (25.7%), and 186 sq. km (12.7%) respectively (Fig. 4c). Most of
Pediment (PD) 4 the seasons are dry in condition hence cropping pattern is dependent
Pediment inselberg complex 5 on the rainfall and the groundwater availability. The important crops
Point bar (PB) 12
harvested in the Mandavi river basin is mango, groundnut, paddy, sun-
Residual hill (RH) 4
Denudational hill (DH) 2 flower, and tomato, etc., among these Banganaplle mangos or also
Dyke ridge (DR) 1 known as Benesha famous for this region. From the FCC satellite
Inselberg (I) 1 image, the agricultural land was a rectangle in shape and these were
Pedi plain shallow weathered 5
identified by its tone and texture. A light medium red tone and fine to
(PPS)
Pedi plan moderate weathered 12
medium texture represent agricultural cropland plantation was ob-
(PPM) served by the dark red tone and fine texture and fallow land was iden-
Piedmont slope (PS) 1 tified by the medium burly wood tone and medium texture (Rajaveni
Structural hill (SH) 3 et al., 2015; Lone et al., 2013). Built-up land was light bluish white
Upper plateau moderately 12
with the fine texture of regular shape and size (Lillesand et al., 2007).
dissected (UPM)
Valley (V) 12 Forest plantation was displayed in light reddish light reddish-brown
Water body (WB) 12 tone and fine medium texture with irregular shape and varying in size
4. Land use & land covers Agricultural crop land 6 8 (Rajaveni et al., 2015; Kumar et al., 2008). Dry tanks/streams showed
Agricultural fallow land 5
high brightness tone and tanks/streams/river with water showed in
Agricultural double crop area 7
Agricultural plantations 5
high darkness tone to light blue color depending on the depth of the
Built up land 1 water. Wastelands were observed by light to dark bluish tone with a
Forest plantations 4 coarse texture. A high weight was given to water bodies/streams/rivers
Forest area 4 followed by agricultural land, forest land, wastelands, and built-up lands
River/stream 8
respectively (Table 2).
Wastelands 2
Water bodies 8
5. Lineament density High 14 14 Lineament density (LD)
Moderate 8
Low 6 Lineaments developed by the tectonic activity and they describe the
6. Rainfall High (N736 mm) 6 6
Moderate (689–736 mm) 4
surface topography and subsurface structural features as well as in-
Low (640–689 mm) 3 creased secondary porosity where the fault and fracture are more
Very low (b640 mm) 2 (Magesh et al., 2012; Rajaveni et al., 2015). Especially hard rock terrain
7. Soil depth Moderately deep (75–100 cm) 6 6 lineaments are pathways for groundwater movements. High lineament
Moderately shallow (50–75 4
sectors are good indicators of high potential groundwater zones
cm)
Moderately shallow to shallow 3 (Haridas et al., 1998). Lineaments were identified and mapped from
(25–75 cm) two sources viz., the district mineral resource map from Geological Sur-
Shallow (25–50 cm) 2 vey of India (GSI) and satellite data. Fractures were observed in cross
8. Soil texture Gravelly clay soils 2 2 sections of dug wells, rock mining points and outcrops were studied in
Gravelly loam soil with stony 1
surface
the field work time. Normally the lengths of lineaments ranging from
Gravelly loam soil with very 1 0.14 to 14.14 km. Frequency and directions of lineaments analyzed
low AWC with Rose diagrams, in this diagram most of the lineaments are oriented
Gravelly loam soils 1 in the E-W direction followed by NNE, SSE, NNW-SSW (Fig. 5d). All the
Loamy soils 1
dykes were vertical in position in the study area. The LD map was gen-
9. Slope Level to nearly level 10 10
Very gentle 8 erated by the following formula
Gentle 5
Moderate 4
n Ll ðkmÞ
Moderately steep 3 Lineament Density ðLDÞ ¼ ∑l¼0 ¼ km−1
Steep 2 A ðsq:km:Þ
Very steep 1
10. Elevation b100 m 8 8
110–200 m 7 where, Ll = Total lengths of lineaments in km; A = Area of the basin in
210–300 m 6 sq. km.
310–410 m 5
420–530 m 4
The LD map (Fig. 5d) reveals that the highest lineament density is
540–650 m 3 observed in southern parts of the study area. A high ranking was given
660–780 m 2 to high lineament density category (7.6%) followed by moderate
(26%) and low (66.4) (Table 2).
6 R. Siddi Raju et al. / HydroResearch 2 (2019) 1–11
Fig. 4. Drainage density, b. Geology map, c. Land use and Land cover map of the study area.
Rainfall
In the Mandavi River basin, rainfall is the only source for recharge of
surface water into the subsurface through weathered and fractured
zones. Rainfall data for 20 years was collated from district chief planning
office Kadapa then based on this data spatial distribution map has been
prepared using Inverse distance weighted (IDW) tool in the Arc GIS en-
vironment (Fig. 5f). The basin annual average rainfall is very high
(836–809), high (689–736 mm), moderate (640–689 mm) and low
(b640 mm) which contributes an extent of about 167 sq. km (11%),
806 sq. km (55%), 440 sq. km (30%) and 52 sq. km (4%) respectively
(Siddi Raju et al., 2018a). The weight, rankings of each factor and its
sub-classes were assigned as per rainfall intensity and its recharge of
groundwater.
Soils
Soil plays a key role in the process of recharge of surface water into
the subsurface (Das, 2017). Primarily, soil texture and soil depth maps
were digitized from the District Soil resource map in GIS environment
and updated verified with field check.
Soil texture
Soil texture has main controller of water percolation through pours
spaces and infiltration process to join the aquifer. The soil texture map
classified based on average size of different individual soil grains such
as sand, silt, and clay. The observed soils were categorized into loamy
soils (14%), gravelly loam soils (2%), gravelly loam soils with stony sur-
faces (36%) and gravelly clay soils (48%) see the (Fig. 6h–i) (FAO, 2006).
Then weights assigned for each soil texture unit according to its infiltra-
tion rate. A high priority was given to gravelly clay soils followed by
gravelly loam soils with stony surfaces, gravelly loam soils, gravelly
loam soils and loamy soils.
Soil depth
Soil depth is a fundamental factor in many earth science disciplines
due to its critical role in many hydrogeological processes (Patton et al.,
2018). Based on depth, categorized into four classes namely moderately
deep (75–100 cm), moderately shallow (50–75 cm), moderately
 R. Siddi Raju et al. / HydroResearch 2 (2019) 1–11 7

Fig. 5. d. Lineament density map, e. Geomorphology map, f. Rainfall map and g. Groundwater level fluctuation map of the study area.

shallow to shallow (25–75 cm) and shallow (25–50 cm) (FAO, 2006)
and covering an area of 217.7 sq.km, 28.5 sq.km, 171.3 sq.km, and
1047.2 sq.km respectively. Based on soil type and capacity of infiltration
the weights are assigned. High weight was assigned to moderately deep,
followed by moderately shallow, moderately shallow to shallow and
shallow.
Slope
In the evaluation of GPZ, the slope is one of the key parameters. Sur-
face water intruders are directly affected by the inclination of the slope
(Rajaveni et al., 2015). The slope map was generated from SRTM-30 m
DEM data in a GIS. In general, the ground surface of the study area
was towards north-northeast direction. Based on degree of slope
(NBSS and LUP, 2008) the present study area have been categorized
into seven slope classes viz. nearly level (0°−1°), very gentle (1°−3°),
gentle (3°–5°), moderate (5°–10°), moderately steep (10°–15°), steep
(15°–30°), very steep (N30°) and a high degree of the slope was ob-
served in the north-eastern and south-western parts of the study area
(Fig. 6j). A high priority was given to nearly level followed by very gen-
tle, gentle, moderate, moderately steep, steep and very steep slope
classes.
Elevation
The elevation factor is one of the crucial factors in GPZ delineation.
Generally, plain areas have high infiltration rate than moderate and
high elevated points (Thapa et al., 2017). The elevation map was gener-
ated from SRTM-30 m DEM data in a GIS environment and high and low
elevation values range from 195 msl–1080 msl were observed in the
8 R. Siddi Raju et al. / HydroResearch 2 (2019) 1–11
Fig. 6. h. Soil depth map, i. Soil texture map, j. Slope map, k. Elevation map of the study area.
NNE part and northern part of the study area (Fig. 6k). The based on
range of altitude from msl the elevation is classified into seven sub-
classes viz. 110–200, 200–300, 300–410, 410–530, 530–650, 650–780,
780–1080 in the GIS environment. A high priority was given to plain
areas followed by moderate and high elevated points.
Groundwater levels (GWL)
Data on long-term fluctuations in the groundwater levels provide in-
formation about ground- water prospects. In this connection, an at-
tempt has been made to portray long-term GWLF are the taken as one
of the influential factor for delineation of groundwater potential
zones. Groundwater level data has been collected from two sources
which include long term GWLF data of 9 observation well stations mon-
itored by district groundwater department used for one of the influen-
tial factor for delineation of groundwater potential zones. The results
indicated that the average depth to water level during the pre and
post monsoon seasons range from be −4 and 2.3 m, below ground
level respectively (Fig. 5g). The high weight was assigned to low fluctu-
ation and low weight has been given to the high value of fluctuation.
And then, water level data of 81 observation well stations collected
through field surveys for validation of groundwater potential zones
map.
Groundwater potential zones (GWPZ)
Finally, weights and ratings were assigned to all the influential fac-
tors and their relative subclass later than these factors were used for
identification of GWPZ through weighted overlay analysis in the GIS en-
vironment by the following equation.
X
n
GWPZ ¼ ðDDw  DDr Þ þ ðGw  Gr Þ þ ðGMw  GMr Þ
i
þ ðLU&LC w  LU&LC r Þ þ ðLDw  LDr Þ þ ðRw  Rr Þ
þ ðSDw  SDr Þ þ ðSTw  STr Þ þ ðSw  Sr Þ þ ðEw  Er Þ
þ ðGLFw  GLFr Þ
 R. Siddi Raju et al. / HydroResearch 2 (2019) 1–11 9

Fig. 7. Groundwater potential zone map of the study area.

where GWPZ = groundwater potential zone; w and r represents factor assessment (Table 3). The overall accuracy represents based on the fol-
weightage and rating respectively. DD = drainage density; G = geol- lowing formula (Jensen, 1996).
ogy; GM = geomorphology; LU&LC = land use and land cover; LD =
lineament density; R = rainfall; SD = soil depth; ST = soil texture; S No:of correct OWL 59
Overall accuracy ¼ ¼ ¼ 72:83%
= slope; E = elevation; GLF = groundwater level fluctuation. Total No:of OWL 81
A high priority has been given to lineament density and low priority
has been given to soil texture. Waited overlay and multi influencing fac- where, OWL = Observation Well Locations.
tor techniques were used in preparing GWPZ map in GIS software. The Kappa (K) analysis represents a multivariate approach for accuracy
final map of the Mandavi River basin has been divided into very poor, assessment and it provides a Khat statistic which means a measure of
poor, good, and very good potential zones (Fig. 7). From the figure, it accuracy. It is calculated from following the formula (Usman et al.,
was found that the very good and good groundwater potentials were 2015).
identified in North and south-central parts while the poor and very
poor potentials zones were found along the basin boundary. Percent overall correct value−Percent correct agreement to observed values
K¼
Total number of class−Percent correct agreement to observed values
Validation of results
The overall accuracy and kappa coefficients were 72.83% and 0.63 re-
For validation of results, fieldwork has been carried out in the pre spectively and its strength of agreement is substantial (Landis and Koch,
and post monsoon seasons during the 2017–18. In this field study, 81
observation well stations data has been collected randomly from the Table 3
formers along with GPS locations. The observed wells water depth Error matrix of groundwater potential zones.
ranged between 3.2 and 160 m. Based on the water depth the observed
S.No GWPZ Very good Good Poor Very poor Total Correct samples
wells have been divided into four classes viz. 3–25 m, 26–55 m, and
1 Very good 11 5 0 0 16 11
56–85 m and 86–160 m which referred to as low, medium, high and
2 Good 0 19 5 0 24 19
very high (Fig. 7). Accuracy assessment was carried out in order to 3 Poor 0 3 18 0 21 18
know the correlation between the resulted groundwater potential 4 Very poor 0 1 8 11 20 11
zones map and observed well data. The observation well data has Total 11 28 31 11 81 59
been taken as reference points for calculating the classification accuracy. Overall accuracy = 59/81 = 72.8%
Kappa coefficient = 0.63%
Generally, a confusion matrix or error matrix is used for accuracy
10 R. Siddi Raju et al. / HydroResearch 2 (2019) 1–11
1977), which shows a good correlation between groundwater potential
zones and the observed well data.
Conclusion
It is essential to identify groundwater potential zone (GWPZ), where
people suffered from water scarcity. The present study strongly sup-
ports remote sensing and geospatial techniques in addition to multi in-
fluence factor analysis are ingenious in the identification of
groundwater prospect zones in Mandavi River basin, India. A weighted
overlay model was applied with eleven different influential parameters
including drainage density, lineament density, geomorphology, geol-
ogy, LU/LC, rainfall, soil texture, soil depth, slope, elevation and ground-
water level fluctuation. The end results reveal that only one-third of the
area has good groundwater prospects. Good to very good groundwater
prospect zones were occupied by small spatial extents of 103 sq. km
(7%) and 319 sq. km (22%), while the poor and very poor groundwater
prospect zones were occupied by the extents of 510 sq. km (35%) and
533 sq. km (35%) respectively. The final map created will be useful in
managing groundwater resources of the Mandavi River basin for sus-
tainable water resource management.
Acknowledgments
The first author Mr. R.Siddi Raju, Inspire award no [IF150036],
greatly thankful to Department of Science and Technology for financial
support in the form of DST Inspire fellowship. And also my sincere
thanks to the Department of Geology, Yogi Vemana University for
supporting to carry out my research work.
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