Delineation of groundwater potential zones in South East part of Anantapur District using remote sensing and GIS applications

Groundwater is one of the most important natural resources which support the human needs and ecological diversity. Groundwater plays a crucial role in the socio-economic development of India. It has also become a major factor for the growth of the agricultural and industrial sectors. Assessing the potential zones of groundwater recharge is necessary for the protection of quality and the management of groundwater systems. Remote sensing and GIS applications provide huge information in least time for the management and planning of groundwater. In this research, remote sensing and GIS applications are used to investigate and demarcate the groundwater potential zones in the parts of Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh, India. To get accurate integrated information, various thematic layers such as geology, land use/land cover, drainage density, geomorphology, slope, and lineament map were prepared using satellite data and other available data using ArcGIS. All the thematic maps were integrated to delineate the groundwater potential zones using ArcGIS. Weighted overlay analysis of spatial analyst tool of ArcGIS is used to prepare the final integrated map with suitable ranks of the each category of the themes.