Role of Remote Sensing and GIS in artificial recharge … · planning has to be made based on the principles of environmental protection and sustainable ... Remote sensing and GIS

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

Submitted on January 2013 published on March 2013 405

Role of Remote Sensing and GIS in artificial recharge of the ground

water aquifer in Ottapidaram taluk, Tuticorin district, South India 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

[email protected]

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 km2. 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, multi-

temporal 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


water aquifer in Ottapidaram taluk, Tuticorin district, South India

M.Murugiah, P.Venkatraman

International Journal of Geomatics and Geosciences

Volume 3 Issue 3, 2013 406

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 km2 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.






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






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 km2

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






Table 1: Geomorphology of the study area

Geomorphological

Features

Area in km2

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 km2

Alluvium 14.69

Charnockite 41.42

Fluvio Marine Sediments 52.08

Hornblende Biotite

Gneiss

611.41

Marine Formation 17.23

Quartzite 6.78






3.3 Land Use/Land Cover

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 km2

and 73.03 km2

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 km2 (51.41%), medium

depth of water level are 271.72 km2 (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






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 km2, moderate

groundwater potential zone fall in 702.79 km2

area and poor ground water potential zone

covers an area of 23.49 km2 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

km2

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






Sl.No. Water level Class Area in

km2

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

3.6 Artificial recharge zones

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






Sl.No. 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

scrub 3

4

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






Sl.No. Groundwater prospects Area in km2 Artificial

Recharge zones Area in km

2

1 High Groundwater

Potable Zone 17.33

Highly Suitable

Site 40.81

2 Medium Groundwater

Potable Zone 702.79 Suitable Site 638.42

3 Poor Groundwater

Potable Zone 23.49

Not Suitable

Site 64.37

Figure 7: Site Selection for artificial recharge map

4. Conclusion

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 km2. The high favorable zone noticed at north

to eastern side and covers an area about 40.81 km2 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 km2 of the

total study area. The remaining areas of 64.37 km2 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






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Role of Remote Sensing and GIS in artificial recharge … · planning has to be made based on the principles of environmental protection and sustainable ... Remote sensing and GIS