Identification of Suitable Water Resource Management Interventions using Geoinformatics Techniques

Abstract

Water resource management interventions in response to climate change ensure the sustainable utilization of surface and ground water to prevent water depletion and hydrological hazards. This study is one of the efforts to locate potential groundwater recharge zones (PGWRz) and check dam sites to mitigate groundwater depletion and flood hazard in Uchali Complex, respectively. For this purpose, remote sensing (RS) as data acquisition platform and geographical information system (GIS) as data processing environment integrated with one of the finest multicriteria decision modelling (MCDM) approach i.e., Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP). PGWRz and check dam sites have been identified by utilizing 7 and 6 factors, respectively. For GWRz, the landcover has been assigned 23% weightage, while other factors included elevation, slope, rainfall, sand, clay and topographic wetness index (TWI) were assigned 21%, 17%, 1%, 8%, 8% and 10%, respectively. In the case of check dams, factors included peak discharge in streams, elevation, slope, landcover, TWI and terrain ruggedness index (TRI) with assigned weights as 23%, 28%, 17%, 13%, 10% and 9%, respectively. The suitability maps are classified into 5 equal interval classes as the most suitable, suitable, moderate suitable, less suitable and not suitable to analyze the results. For PGWRz 18 km2 area was classified as not suitable, while less suitability, moderate suitability, suitability and the most suitability accounts for 13 km2, 86 km2, 125 km2, and 12 km2, respectively. AUC showed that the FAHP’s performance to locate PGWRz has been very good as it identified 79.9% sites correctly. The check dams’ suitability output consisted of pixels reclassified as former discussed suitability classes. The fuzzy overlay produced 47.13% pixels as not suitable for check dams’ construction while less suitable, moderate suitable, suitable and the most suitable pixels account for 2.27%, 24.17%, 23.24% and 3.19%, respectively. For check dams, 2-D analysis was performed by drawing the topographic profiles. Its primary goal is to filter the number of pixels from suitable and most suitable class which consist of 4675 (23.24%) and 642 (3.19%), respectively. As a result of topographic profile analysis, 22 final sites of check dams along with their profiles are proposed. The result of the weighted integration of influencing factors provides robust insight of the spatial distribution of PGWRz and potential check dams in the Uchali Complex. The results of the study can serve as a critical resource for the policy makers, hydrologists, and local community to understand, implement and install groundwater recharge structures.