ESTIMATION OF GROUNDWATER POTENTIAL ZONE OF DAPOLI

Groundwater is an important resource contributing significantly in total annual supply. Assessing the potential zone of groundwater recharge is extremely important for the protection of water quality and the management of groundwater systems. Groundwater potential zones are demarked with the help of RS & GIS techniques. In this study a standard methodology is adopted to determine groundwater potential. The composite map are generated using GIS tools for identifying the groundwater potential zone such as slope, drainage density, rainfall and land use/land cover. These are integrated with weighted overlay in ArcGIS. Suitable ranks are assigned for each category of these parameters. For the various geomorphic units, weight factors are decided based on their capability to store groundwater and resultant layers are reclassified. The groundwater potential zones are classified into five categories viz very poor, poor, moderate, good & excellent. The use of suggested methodology is demonstrated for a selected study area in Dapoli, Ratnagiri district. Groundwater potential information will be useful for effective identification of suitable locations for extraction of water.