Groundwater Potential Zones Identification in Wyra Sub-Basin in Lower Krishna Basin in South India

Groundwater potential zone identification is necessary for administrating each subsurface and surface water resource. Groundwater is vital to maintaining human health and the health of various aquatic and land-based organisms and their environment. The area of interest is the Wyra River basin of the lower Krishna catchment area, encompassing an area of 3443 km² and located between latitudes 16⁰14^′ 00“ N and 17⁰ 35^’ 00^’‘ N and 80⁰ 05’ 00” E and 80⁰ 55′ 00″ E longitude. A geographical information system (GIS) is used to generate thematic maps and identify groundwater potential zones. The multi-criteria decision analysis method and GIS were used to develop thematic maps. These thematic maps are ranked by Satty’s analytic hierarchy processes. To identify possible zones for groundwater, a total of eight thematic layers of the specified kind of digital elevation model, land use and land cover, soil map, slope, rainfall, geology, lineament density, and drainage density were planned during the analysis. The GIS platform is used to convert each of the thematic layers into a raster. Utilizing weighted overlay techniques entire Wyra basin is divided into four major classes from poor to very good. Corresponding percentages are 5.05%, 73.40%, 21.45%, and 0.08% of the study region. According to this research, groundwater planning and management can be done more effectively and economically by integrating GIS.