INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOMATICS AND GEOSCIENCES Volume 3, No 3, 2013 Copyright by the authors - Licensee IPA- Under Creative Commons license 3.0 Research article ISSN 0976 4380 Role of Remote Sensing and GIS in artificial recharge of the ground Murugiah M 1, Venkatraman P 2 Research Scholar, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu 2. Department of Geology, V.O.C. College, Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu murugit@yahoo.com ABSTRACT The world population is expected to double by the middle of the next century, to about 10.6 billion people. More than 80% of these people will live in what is presently known as the "Third World." The importance of water is felt in all sectors as the demand and needs of the populace is growing. The present study area is Ottapidaram Taluk, Tuticorin District, Tamil Nadu and India. The Taluk boundary is demarcated from the survey of India Taluk maps were used, it covers an area about 743.62 km 2. The problem of the present study is a representative case of over exploitation of groundwater resources, leading to the continuous exhaustion of the grained as well as the groundwater aquifers. The application of the increasingly and internationally accepted method of artificial recharge on the groundwater aquifer was decided to be the most effective for the restoration of balance of the hydrogeological system. Deep knowledge of the details of the geological structure and the hydrogeological conditions of the area is necessary for the success of the method, whose planning has to be made based on the principles of environmental protection and sustainable development. Use of state-of-the-art technology and estimation of all the parameters involved, which are necessary, have been taken into account. Keep this as an objective to identify the suitable sites for artificial recharge zones. Keywords: Hydrogeology, artificial recharge, groundwater, aquifer. 1. Introduction The groundwater scenario in India, which receives a substantial amount of annual rainfall, is not very encouraging primarily due to the imbalance between recharge and groundwater exploitation. A large amount of rain water is lost through runoff, a problem compounded by the lack of rainwater harvesting practices. Exploitation of sub-surface water from deep aquifers, also deplenishes resources have taken decades or centuries to accumulate and on which the current annual rainfall has no immediate effect. Few sustained efforts have been made to identify zones where artificial-recharge techniques can be implemented to conserve groundwater. Remote sensing and GIS are playing a rapidly increasing role in the field of hydrology and water resources development. Remote sensing provides multi-spectral, multitemporal and multi-sensor data of the earth s surface (Choudhury, 1999). One of the greatest advantages of using remote sensing data for hydrological investigations and monitoring is its ability to generate information in spatial and temporal domain, which is very crucial for successful analysis, prediction and validation (Saraf, 1998). By the GIS technology provides suitable alternatives for efficient management of large and complex databases. The future of modern technological society in a world of burgeoning population may depend as much on judicious water management as on availability of cheap energy. The connections Submitted on January 2013 published on March 2013 405
between scientific knowledge and the human context of water are examined to understand how the complex task of living with water may be judiciously approached (Narasimhan, 2005). Groundwater is the largest available source of fresh water. It has become crucial not only to find out groundwater potential zones, but also to monitor and conserve this important resource (Rokade et al. 2004). Remotely sensed data provides unbiased information on geology, geomorphology, structural pattern and recharging conditions, which logically define the groundwater regime of an area (Rokade et.al., 2007). The remote sensing technique using aerial photographs and satellite imagery has proved significant in the field of hydrogeological investigation (Chatterji et al., 1979, Chatterji and Singh 1980). The recent technology helps in locating the favourable hydrogeomorphological zones for water resources study. In this paper, an attempt has been made to prepare the hydrogeomorpholgical map through Geographic Information Technologies platform. GIS Overlaying analysis is highly helpful in locating the water resources (Rokade et.al., 2007). According to conserve to next generation people to consider going the present work is an attempt towards this direction. The study focuses on development of remote sensing and GIS based analysis and methodology in groundwater recharge studies in taluk level. In order to implement artificial groundwater recharge, it is essential to delineate potential groundwater recharge zones. Conventionally, remote sensing and GIS methods are deployed to select favorable sites for implementation of artificial recharge scheme. The study area of Ottapitaram taluk in Tuticorin district state of Tamil Nadu (India) has been taken for analyzed. 1.1 Study Area The study area of Ottapidaram Taluk is the central part of Tuticorin District, south part of Tamil Nadu with an area about 743.62 km 2 and is bounded by districts of Virudhunagar on the north, Ramanathapuram on the northeast, Tirunelveli on the west. The Ottapidaram taluk (Fig.1) lying between latitudes N 9 3 14 and 8 48 33 longitudes E 77 47 04 and 78 12 53 the major source for groundwater in the study area is rainfall during monsoon season. 2. Methodology Advancement in technology and with help of software s it was most useful for planner in decision-making in locating the artificial recharge zones. Remote sensing is one such recent technology that is very useful for groundwater studies. Using this technology and with help of GIS, different thematic maps were generated. The satellite data IRS LISS III (March-2012) were classified using supervised classification technique. Land use/land cover map and Geomorphology map spatial distribution map prepared through ERDAS image processing software. The land use classification adopted in the present study is based on National Remote Sensing Agency classification (1996). The Geology map was collected from the Geological Survey of India, traced, scanned and digitized in GIS. The Water level data were collected from the Public Works Department, Govt. of Tamil Nadu, Chennai. These maps are used for selecting suitable artificial recharge sites. The integrated analysis was carried out in GIS platform. 406
3. Result and Discussion 3.1 Geomorphology The Geomorphology map (Figure 2) was prepared from IRS LIII (march-2012) data using image interpretation elements with limited field validation. The spatial distribution of the individual element is given in the Table 1. The Geomorphological units are highly helpful for selecting the artificial recharge sites (Ghayoumian, 2007). In the present investigation, the classifying various landforms based on geomorphology, such as Buried pediment deep, Buried pediment shallow, Sedimentary plain, pediment and coastal plain were identified and 407
its groundwater potential zones were demarcated (Jagadeeswara Rao et al., 2004). These landforms act as groundwater storage reservoirs and some of them act as recharge and run-off zones (Jai Sankar et al., 2001). The Burried pediments shallow covers the larger area around 550.48 km 2 in the study area. 3.2 Geology The study area is underlined by Hornblende biotite gneiss, Charnockite, Fluvio Marine Sediments, Alluvium, Marine formation and Quartzite rocks occupy and isolated hills. The central part of the study area is occupied by small hills of hard crystalline massive charnockite as shown in Fig. 3 and Table 2. The Hornblende biotite gneiss is occupied most of the study area. The other rock types are present in a smaller portion of the study area. The Gneissic rocks are highly weathered, jointed and fractured. There are joints and fractures parallel to foliation as well as perpendicular to it and this weathered and fractured zone, which forms potential groundwater zones. In the Charnockite rocks, the process of weathering restricted to top few meters of weathered zone. These rocks will not allow water to percolate as a result these areas will be less groundwater potential. There are strips of quartzite deposits, which could also be potential groundwater zones. Figure 2: Geomorphology Map 408
Table 1: Geomorphology of the study area Geomorphological Area in km 2 Features Buried Pediment (Deep) 35.30 Buried Pediment (Shallow) 550.48 Coastal Plain 31.92 Pediment 67.50 Sedimentary Plain 52.08 Structural Hill 6.31 Figure 2: Geology Map of the study area Table 2: Spatial distribution results of geology Type of Geology Area in km 2 Alluvium 14.69 Charnockite 41.42 Fluvio Marine Sediments 52.08 Hornblende Biotite Gneiss 611.41 Marine Formation 17.23 Quartzite 6.78 409
3.3 Land Use/Land Cover Role of Remote Sensing and GIS in artificial recharge of the ground The land use/land cover of the study area is characterized by a mixture of forest cover, agricultural activities and salt affected land (wasteland) besides water body, river sediment and salt pan. These are readily interpretable from the satellite images (Figure 4). The central part of the study area has very little forest covered. Water bodies are disseminated in the study area. Most of the study area covered the fallow land and crop land around 565.74 km 2 and 73.03 km 2 respectively. The land with scrub and land without scrub are covered small areas in the northwest part of the study area. The detailed land use/land cover class GIS spatial distribution results are given in the table 3. 3.4 Water Level The annual average water level spatial distribution map (Figure 5) reveals that major portion of the study area covered in deeper depth of water level are 381.19 km 2 (51.41%), medium depth of water level are 271.72 km 2 (36.59%) and shallow depth of water level are 89.19 km 2 (12.01%) respectively are shown in Table 4. 3.5 Weighted Index Overlay Method for Groundwater Prospects Weighted Index Overlay Analysis (WIOA) is a simple and straightforward method for a combined analysis of multi-class layers can be incorporated in the analysis to consideration of relative importance leads to a better representation of the actual ground situation. Figure 4: Land use/land cover of the study area Considering to the hydro-geomorphic conditions of the study area weighted indexing has been adopted (Table 5) to delineate groundwater prospective zones from the integration of 410
geomorphology, geology, land use/land cover and water level. Groundwater Prospects (GWP) output map (Fig. 6) reveals that the combinations based on Weighted Index of above said layers. The high groundwater potential zone covers an area of 17.33 km 2, moderate groundwater potential zone fall in 702.79 km 2 area and poor ground water potential zone covers an area of 23.49 km 2 in the study area. The high groundwater potential zone was noticed in the southeast part of the study area are given in the table 6. Table 3: Spatial distribution Result of Land use/land cover Sl.No. Land use/land cover Class Area in km 2 Area in Percentage 1 Agricultural Plantations 1.08 0.14 2 Built-up Land 5.52 0.74 3 Coastal Land 3.81 0.51 4 Crop Land 73.03 9.82 5 Dense Forest 1.83 0.25 6 Fallow Land 565.74 76.08 7 Land with or without Scrub 30.00 4.03 8 Salt Affected Land 28.83 3.88 9 Salt Pan 9.10 1.22 10 Stony Waste 0.91 0.12 11 Tank 23.79 3.20 Figure 5: Annual average water level of the study area Table 4: Spatial distribution result of annual average water level 411
3.6 Artificial recharge zones Role of Remote Sensing and GIS in artificial recharge of the ground Sl.No. Water level Class Area in km 2 Area in Percentage 1 Shallow Water Level 89.19 12.01 2 Medium Water Level 271.72 36.59 3 Deeper Water Level 381.79 51.41 Artificial recharge is the process of augmenting the natural movement of surface water into underground formations by some artificial methods. Hence, groundwater cannot suffice the requirement for agriculture or drinking water. Thus, additional recharge by artificial methods becomes necessary to meet the water deficit. The present study successfully demonstrated an integrated remote sensing and GIS technique to suggest the Figure 6: Groundwater prospects map Table 5: Weightage factor on various parameters of groundwater prospects and artificial recharge zones 412
Sl.No. Role of Remote Sensing and GIS in artificial recharge of the ground Parameter For Artificial Recharge For Groundwater Potential Zone 1 Geomorphology Buried pediment (Deep) 2 2 Buried pediment (Shallow) 2 2 Coastal Plain 4 4 Pediment 2 2 Sedimentary plain 3 3 Structural hill 1 1 2 Geology Alluvium 3 3 Charnockite 2 2 Fluvio Marine sediments 3 3 Hornblende Biotite Gneiss 1 1 Marine formation 3 3 Quartzite 3 3 3 Land Use/land cover Agricultural plantations 3 2 Built-up Land 1 1 Coastal Land 3 3 Crop land 2 2 Dense forest 3 3 Fallow land 3 2 Land with or without 4 scrub 3 Salt affected land 3 3 Salt pan 3 3 Stony waste 3 3 Tank 3 3 4 Water Level Shallow water level 1 1 Medium water level 2 2 Deeper water level 3 3 suitable zone for future artificial recharge structures in the Ottapidaram Taluk, Tuticorin District, Tamil Nadu. For analysis purpose the present study select the parameters such as geomorphology, geology, land use/land cover and water level were ranked. The assigned rank values is high indicates higher reliability of GWP/ artificial recharge zones. In weighted index overlay, the individual thematic layers and also their classes are assigned weightage (Table 5) on the basis of their relative contribution towards the output. In the present study, weighted indexing method has been used to demarcate the suitability zones for artificial recharge sites and their results are shown in figure 7 and table 6. The classes with higher values indicate that high favorable zones for artificial recharge structures. The Potential zones for future artificial recharge sites are shown in Figure 6 to provide better groundwater recharge conditions. Table 6: Results of groundwater prospects and artificial recharge zones 413
Sl.No. Groundwater prospects Area in km 2 Artificial Area in km 2 Recharge zones High Groundwater Highly Suitable 1 17.33 40.81 Potable Zone Site Medium Groundwater 2 702.79 Suitable Site 638.42 Potable Zone Poor Groundwater Not Suitable 3 23.49 64.37 Potable Zone Site 4. Conclusion Figure 7: Site Selection for artificial recharge map The Groundwater recharge of the Ottapidaram Taluk is the result of an interaction between geomorphology and water level in the process of permanent adjustment between constraining properties. The total area of the study is 743.62 km 2. The high favorable zone noticed at north to eastern side and covers an area about 40.81 km 2 of locations like Tharuvaikulam and Pudur Pandiyapuram are highly potential and artificial recharge zones in the study area. Followed by the moderately suitable area for recharge zone covers an area about 638.42 km 2 of the total study area. The remaining areas of 64.37 km 2 are free from the limitation of the problem because of these areas naturally fall under the active agricultural land. This alarming situation calls for a cost and time-effective technique for proper evaluation of groundwater resources and management planning. Generally, the recharge sites situated on a gentle slope and lower order streams are likely to provide artificial recharge to a smaller area. 5. References 414
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