Identification of Groundwater Potential Zones of a Tropical River Basin (Kerala, India) Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques

The present work accentuated the expediency of remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) applications in groundwater studies, especially in the identification of groundwater potential zones in Ithikkara River Basin (IRB), Kerala, India. The information on geology, geomorphology, lineaments, slope and land use/land cover was gathered from Landsat ETM + data and Survey of India (SOI) toposheets of scale 1:50,000 in addition, GIS platform was used for the integration of various themes. The composite map generated was further classified according to the spatial variation of the groundwater potential. Four categories of groundwater potential zones namely poor, moderate, good and very good were identified and delineated. The hydrogeomorphological units like valley fills and alluvial plain and are potential zones for groundwater exploration and development and valley fills associated with lineaments is highly promising area for groundwater extraction. The spatial variation of the potential indicates that groundwater occurrence is controlled by geology, structures, slope and landforms.