Sustain. Water Resour. Manag. DOI 10.1007/s40899-017-0082-y

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Evaluating groundwater prospects using GIS techniques Abhishek K Rai1 · Prabhakar Nayak1 · Subhasish Tripathy2 

Received: 31 August 2015 / Accepted: 30 January 2017 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017

Abstract  Evaluating groundwater prospects is important for development and resource management of a region. In this work various features such as geomorphology, lithology, lineament, topography, soil type, and drainage pattern of a part of lower Mahanadi Basin was studied in order to delineate areas that are expected to be suitable for future groundwater exploration in the study region. The area is composed of geological features that vary from hard rock terrain in north-western part to deltaic plain and coastal region in the south-eastern part. An integrated analysis of various parameters provides better estimate of subsurface characteristics from groundwater perspective. On the basis of different weights assigned to geological factors, surface runoff, infiltration, and other factors, it was found that about 42% of the total area has good prospects of groundwater, whereas approximately 21% of the area has relatively feeble prospects. Borewell discharge data collected by the Central Groundwater Board (CGWB) confirm results obtained by GIS analysis. Results are useful for detailed investigations of the region through various geophysical techniques, pinpointing exploratory borewell locations and groundwater resource management for the region.

* Abhishek K Rai [email protected] Prabhakar Nayak [email protected] Subhasish Tripathy [email protected] 1

School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar, India

2

Department of Geology and Geophysics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India



Keywords  Groundwater potential · GIS analysis · Drainage pattern · Mahanadi Basin

Introduction Air and water are the most essential and precious gifts of nature for supporting life on the Earth. Today, the modern society exclusively depends on the presence of groundwater for irrigation, drinking, and industrial usages. Therefore, identifying a groundwater source besides estimating its recharge and yield capacity are important parameters that need to be evaluated in scientific studies dealing with groundwater prospecting, exploration and its management. This is of utmost importance for sustainable  urban planning and development.  The total catchment area of all river basins in India is more than 25 lakh ­km2. Ganga, Brahmaputra, and Meghna are some of the largest rivers covering more than 43% of the catchment area of all major river systems. The Mahanadi river system with its total length of 851 km is one of the largest rivers with a catchment area of about 1.41 lakh k­ m2, which is surrounded by Central Indian hills from north, Eastern Ghats from south and east, and by Maikala Hill ranges in the west. The lower Mahanadi Basin is the largest among three sub-basins of Mahanadi river system with a total catchment area of 57,958.88 km2. The study region is a part of the lower Mahanadi Basin located partially in the Khorda and Puri districts of Odisha (Fig. 1). It is bounded between longitudes of 85°021′E and 86°013′E, and latitudes of 19°049′N and 20°020′N covering a total area of 3185.24 km2. The region is surrounded by Bay of Bengal in the east and by the Chilika Lake, one of the largest brackish water lagoons in Asia, in the southwest. The topography of the region indicates the highest elevation (~290 m) in the north-western part and an average

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Fig. 1  Map showing location of the study area. Subset shows the region in India’s map

elevation of ~40 m in the west. Flat land areas are confined mostly in coastal regions of Puri in the east. With an average annual rainfall of about 1500  mm occurring mostly during monsoon, the region has a well-developed drainage pattern. Agricultural activity covers more than 50% of the region. Borewell data from CGWB and information from district resource map reveal that the study region has two different types of hydrological settings. North-western part is underlain by hard crystalline rocks with deep fractured aquifers. Water discharge from the borewell in this region is below 10 l/s. However, south-eastern part is coastal plain with unconsolidated aquifers and water yield from borewell is more than 30 l/s in major parts. Salinewater intrusion in the eastern part contaminates costal belt aquifers. Institutes of national importance such as Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, and National Institute of Science Education and Research have established their permanent campuses at the interface of these two types of geological settings. Adequate availability of water is one of the main concerns for proper development of this relatively fast-growing region. Therefore,  a comparative analysis of both the parts on a single map is essential to identify potential groundwater zones in the region. Geophysical techniques such as resistivity survey are one of the best surface methods used for exploration of groundwater. However, without some a priori information, it is often very difficult to carry out detailed geophysical investigations in a vast area. This can significantly increase the project cost several folds. Therefore, several

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other techniques are used to study groundwater prospects in a regional scale. GIS and remote sensing techniques are very popular  techniques and widely used for various purposes such as hydrological study (DeVantier and Feldman 1993) and seismic hazard assessment (Dhar et  al. 2017). It allows relatively faster assessment of groundwater conditions at regional scale. The identified zones of high groundwater potential by this method may be helpful to enhance the subsurface information obtained from geophysical investigations (Srinivasan et al. 2013), pinpointing borewell site locations, besides being an important input for better groundwater management. This study presents an integrated analysis of a number of parameters such as geomorphology, geology, elevation, soil texture, drainage density, and stream distribution which influence the subsurface groundwater availability and a comparative study for coastal and hard rock area in Khorda and Puri districts of Odisha. The detailed methodology is described in the following sections.

Data and methodology The well data collected by various agencies shows wide variations of the groundwater level in the region. The water level is relatively shallower in the south-eastern part and has a variable depth in the north-western part. This variation is due to different geological settings in the region; for example, the north-western part is a hard rock terrain, whereas the south-eastern part is a low-lying coastal region. Hard rock terrain consists of basement formation of

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Khondalites and Charnockite groups of Archean to Proterozoic period. The coastal plains of the south-eastern part consist of Quaternary sediments ranging from Pleistocene to Present day. Thus, the two regions have a completely different geology and hydrogeological settings. A region, for example, with 5  l/s well discharge in a hard rock terrain may be categorized as a high-potential, good yielding zone, whereas the same region is considered to have low potential in alluvial terrains. Thus, groundwater yield potential of a region is a relative term that may vary in different geological settings. The north-western part of this study region has fractured aquifers with less than 10  l/s water yield which may be sufficient for local domestic use but cannot be adequate for larger organizations in the region. However, the south-eastern part has unconsolidated aquifers with more than 30  l/s water discharge which can satisfy the need of these organizations. Therefore, an integrated analysis was carried out for both parts of the region in a single map. Several parameters such as topography, geology, geomorphology, drainage and stream pattern, and soil type directly or indirectly influence groundwater prospects in a region. These parameters when studied independently and integrated in an efficient manner are extremely helpful in identifying and demarcating potential groundwater zones. This is a popular approach and is widely used in estimating groundwater potential in a variety of geological environments (Saraf and Choudhury 1998; Krishnamurthy et  al. 2000; Jaiswal et al. 2003; Rao and Jugran 2003; Srivastava and Bhattacharya 2006; Ghayoumian et  al. 2007; Prasad et  al. 2008; Madrucci et  al. 2008; Chenini and Mammou 2010; Gupta and Srivastava 2010; Igboekwe and Akankpo 2011; Hutti and Nijagunappa 2011; Magesh et  al. 2012; Reghu et  al. 2013; Senthil Kumar and Shankar 2014; Thomas (2015), Abdel Ghaffar et al. 2015). Many of these studies have been done either in hard rock terrain or alluvial plain. Here, in this study region, both types of geological settings are available next to each other. The methodology is discussed in detail in the following sections. Thematic layer preparation ArcGIS software was used to prepare thematic layers of all the parameters from different sources. Geomorphological features (Fig. 2a) and lithological maps (Fig. 2b) were prepared by geo-referencing and digitization from the scanned copy of GSI’s district resource maps of Puri and Khorda districts. A lineament map (Fig. 3) was prepared from the Resourcesat-1 LISS-III lineament data of 1:50,000 scales which were collected from the website of National Remote Sensing Centre (http://www.nrsc.gov.in). By the extraction of various feature classes from high-resolution SRTM 90-m DEM data, a slope map (Fig. 4a) and a drainage map (Fig. 5a, b) were prepared. A scanned copy of WRIS-NRSC

Mahanadi Basin Map was geo-referenced and digitized to prepare a soil map (Fig. 4b) of the region. All these factors affecting groundwater prospects in this region are discussed below. Landforms and geomorphological features Structural features and land forms such as valley fill, pediments, pediplains, and inselberg are parts of geomorphological features that are important for groundwater prospects. Some of these features are extremely favourable for groundwater prospects of the region. For example, valley fills, residual soil and alluvium deposits and lineaments are extremely significant. Geomorphological data were collected from the district resource map of Puri and Khorda districts (Geological Survey of India report). Features such as deltaic plain, pediments/pediplains, Kaimundi surface, Bolgarh surface, ridges, and hills are found dominant in parts of the region. Deltaic plain are flat land of sedimentary deposits. These were considered very favourable for groundwater prospect due to their porous and permeable nature (Nagarajan and Singh 2009). These are the most dominant features that cover the maximum area of 1829  km2. However, all deltaic plains are not of the same type, and their influence on groundwater potential in a region varies to some extent. Mature deltaic plains and upper deltaic plains are more favourable in comparison to lower deltaic plains considering the fact of saline water intrusion in lower deltaic plains. Pediplains are nearly flat to gently undulating terrains covered with weathered sediments and are considered to have good to moderate potential for groundwater percolation (Patil and Mohite 2014). Here it was considered to have moderate potential as it is a part of the hard rock terrain. Pediments/pediplains cover an area of 1235.9  km2 of the study area. Kaimundi surface, on the other hand, consists of cultivated land and Bolgarh surface comprises barren lands. Both these land forms cover an area of 2.19%, followed by ridges and hills (50.24 km2 or 1.58%). Cultivated land is relatively more favourable than the barren land (Waikar and Nilawar 2014). Ridges and hills are classified as poor for groundwater (Pandian and Kumanan 2013). Geology and rock type Various rock types ranging from low- to high-grade metamorphosed rocks are found to be exposed in the region. Residual soil and alluvium, hard crust laterite and latosol, anorthosite, schist, shaly sandstone, and khondalites are exposed rock types in the north-western part, while various sandy clay and clay with silt deposits are dominant in the south-eastern part. A major part of the region is covered by sandy clay deposit which is extended for

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Fig.  2  a Geomorphology map of the study area. b Lithology map of the study area (both prepared from the district resource map, Geological Survey of India)

1405.69  km2 (44.13% of the total area). Residual soil and alluvium deposits, the next dominant species, cover 25.92% area and are considered excellent for groundwater deposit (Sarup et  al. 2011). In this study, sandy clay is considered more important as it covers the maximum area in plain coastal region, while alluvium deposit is a part of hard rock terrain with varying elevation. Laterite, schist, khondalite, and anorthosite are other rock types present in the north-western part hard rock region. Laterite is more porous and covers 12.44% of the total area so it was considered to have moderate potential. Schist, khondalite, and anorthosite with vast fractures may be

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good-potential zones. However, they cover only 1.93% area of the total region and no significant fractures are found in the region. Weathered zone thickness in the region is around 3–4  m as observed from the borewell data, which in few places is followed by impervious layers. They were evaluated as poor. Shaly sandstone covers an area of 45.43  km2 in the north-western part and was considered moderate for its lithological nature, location, and smaller area. Various types of clay deposits are found distributed in almost 14% of the total area, but they are poor for groundwater prospective point of view as they lack permeability. They moderately favour groundwater

Sustain. Water Resour. Manag. Fig. 3  Lineament map prepared from Resourcesat 1 LISS-III data. Lineament is shown on the lithology map

Fig.  4  a Map of localized slope in the area. Prepared from SRTM 90-m resolution DEM data. b Soil texture map of the area. Prepared from WRIS-NRSC Mahanadi Basin Map

deposit (Hutti and Nijagunappa 2011). Clay with sand and sandy clay with silt is present in the central part of the region. It was considered moderate as the sand content increases the permeability. Sand with silt covers an area of 40.59  km2 at the eastern part which is affected by saline water intrusion. Therefore, it was considered to have less potential than clay with silt and silty clay.

Lineaments The joints, fractures, axial trace of fold, parallel ridge, break in slope, etc. are considered excellent for groundwater exploration in hard rock terrain. They help groundwater percolation and subsurface movement up to several kilometres. Lineament intersections and the surrounding zones of

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Fig.  5  a Stream ordering for the area (Strahler 1954). Various watersheds are shown with different colours. b Drainage density in the area. High drainage density (shown in red) shows large surface runoff

lineaments are favourable for groundwater accumulation. In this study, an area extending 150  m on either side of each lineament was considered as a favourable groundwater prospect zone (Krishnamurthy et  al. 2000). Lineament distribution in the region is more towards the western part. Trend of the lineament in the region can be mainly classified into NE–SW and NW–SE. Intersections of several lineament are observed as well, which further facilitate the percolation of groundwater and recharge of aquifers. Slope of the region The amount of infiltration from the total surface runoff is one of the factors that affect groundwater condition. Surface runoff is directly affected by the average slope of the region. In regions with higher degree of slope, the surface runoff is expected to be high. This allows relatively less amount of water to infiltrate into the subsurface. However, in the gentle slope regions surface runoff gets more time to infiltrate into the subsurface. Thus the regions with reduced slope are considered better for groundwater prospect. The local slope in an area can be calculated from the elevation data. On the basis of slope, the whole region was classified into seven groups: (1) nearly level (0–3% steepness), (2) very gentle (3–7% steepness), (3) gentle (7–12% steepness), (4) moderate (12–16% steepness), (5) moderate–steep (16–19% steepness), (6) steep (19–37% steepness), and (7) very steep (>37% steepness). As it is clear from the map that most parts of the region (~90% of the total area) are nearly level with low elevated land of steepness, 0–12% can assist in surface infiltration. Therefore,

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a higher weightage is given to lower elevated area which decreases with increasing steepness (Olutoyin et  al. 2014; Neelakantan and Yuvaraj 2012). Infiltration is also influenced by other factors such as weather zone thickness, exposed rock type, local geology, and rain fall. A plain land covered with an impervious layer cannot help with infiltration. Therefore, we assigned a maximum weightage of 5 to the nearly level region. Soil texture The upper most unconsolidated thin-layer sediment found above the bedrock is called soil. It plays an important role in groundwater recharge, as water percolation into the subsurface is greatly influenced by soil texture. The soil texture depends upon the sand and silt proportion and is categorized as coarse-, medium-, fine-grained or rocky, and nonsoil accordingly. Coarse-grained soil contains more percentage of sand and gravel, while fine-grained soil contains more silt and clay. Coarse-grained soil covers 741.93 km2 (23.29% of total area), while medium-grained soil covers 955.66 km2 (30.01%) and fine-grained soil occupies a maximum area of 1382.09 km2 (43.39%). Due to its higher sand content, coarse-grained soil has higher permeability than fine-grained soil and hence higher infiltration rate. Therefore, coarse-grained soil was assigned a higher weightage factor (Olutoyin et  al. 2014) and is considered good for groundwater recharge in a region. Maximum study area is covered with fine-grained soil with a less weightage factor which negatively affects the overall weight percentage of the parameter.

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Rocky and non-soil region covers only 3.31% area of the total region. Groundwater suitability of this region depends upon the weathered and fractured zones available in this part. This area is mainly located in the south-eastern part. Considering its very small surface area, nature of soil, and the surrounding hydrological conditions, it is evaluated as very poor in a comparative analysis. Drainage and stream pattern The major streams in the area are rivers like Kushabhadra, Daya, Bhargabi, and Kuakhai which are distributaries of Mahanadi River. Most of these rivers are dry during summer, whereas they are flooded during the monsoon.The drainage network of the region extracted from DEM data can provide important hydrological information (Saraf et al. 2004).  Drainage pattern is highly dependent on subsurface formations, e.g. the subsurface rock types are one of the primary factors that control the course of a stream flow. Drainage pattern in the area can be categorized as dendritic. Strahler’s stream ordering scheme (Strahler 1954) was used to compute drainage density, bifurcation ratio, and stream frequency in the region. Bifurcation ratio is a parameter that indicates how much subsurface formation has geological control over the drainage basin (Strahler 1954). This was calculated by dividing the total number of streams of a particular order by the total stream number in the next higher order. Total number of streams and total stream length in the region is 428 and 958.894 km respectively (Table 1). Drainage density is the stream length per unit area and was found to be 0.301 km/ km2 by dividing the total stream length (958.894  km) by the total area (3185.24  km2) of the region (Horton 1945). Stream frequency of the area was calculated as 0.134/km2 by dividing the total number of streams (i.e. 428) by the total area (3185.24  km2)  of the study region (Bello et  al. 2014). Drainage intensity was computed as 0.04 by multiplying stream frequency and drainage density. The region was categorized into four different groups such as very low (0–1  km/km2), low (1–2  km/km2), moderate (2–3  km/km2), and high (3–4  km/km2) based

Table 1  Number of streams and stream length in the study area Stream order

No. of streams

Total no. of streams

Total stream length (in km)

Total area (in ­km2)

Ist IInd IIIrd IVth

216 116 73 23

428

958.894

3185.24

on drainage density covering 21.89, 34.64, 30.46, and 13.01%, respectively. Data integration All the thematic layers were sub-categorized into features such as deltaic plain, pediments/pediplains, and ridges/hills. These features were assigned weightage in a scale of 1 to 9 as per their influence on groundwater prospect considering many previous works (Prasad et al. 2008; Rao and Jugran 2003; Saraf and Choudhary 1998) and area covered by individual features as well as local geological and geographical settings of the region. Features as per their influence were ranked as very good, good, moderate, poor, and very poor. Weightage factors assigned to “very good” features are 9 and 8 considering their comparative influence. For example, deltaic plain is an excellent indicator for groundwater but mature deltaic plain is more favourable than upper deltaic plain. At the same time, lower deltaic plain was considered as very poor and was assigned a weightage of 1 as it is along the coastal line and affected by saline water intrusion. Similarly, weightage factors assigned for “good” features are 7, 6, and 5; 4 and 3 for “moderate” features; 2 for “poor” features, and 1 for “very poor” features. Residual soil and alluvium deposits represent a good indicator for potential groundwater zones. However, in this study, this is a part of fractured aquifer zone. Thus, sandy clay was assigned more weightage than alluvium deposit. This is how weightage was assigned to all the features of each thematic layer (Table 2). As there was no thickness information available for the features, the area covered by each feature was considered to calculate the initial weight percentage for each thematic layer. The assigned weightage was multiplied with the area percentage of the respective features and was summed up for all the features to obtain the total weightage of a parameter. These total weightage values of all the parameters were used to calculate the weight percentage of each parameter. All these thematic layers with particular weight percentage were integrated by weighted overlay technique in ArcGIS to obtain the potential groundwater zone map. This integration technique was carried out several times within +5 to −5% of the calculated weight percentage to test the accuracy with borewell data acquired from CGWB and to obtain the final potential groundwater zone map (Fig.  6) of the region. This weight percentage indicates the importance of a parameter for groundwater prospecting in a particular region. The final potential map has been classified into three zones such as ‘good’, ‘moderate’, and ‘poor’ as per their groundwater potentiality.

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Table 2  Weightage assigned to different parameters Parameters

Features

Area (km2) Area (%) (x)

Groundwater prospect Weightage Total weightage Weight (%) assigned (w) (TW = Σw × x)

Geomorphology

Mature Deltaic plain Upper deltaic plain Kaimundi surface Pediments/pediplains Bolgarh surface Lower deltaic plain Ridges/hills Sandy clay Residual soil and alluvium Shaly sandstone Laterite Clay with sand Sandy clay with silt Silty clay Clay with silt Schist Khondalite Anorthosite Sand with silt Present Absent 0–3 (Nearly level) 3–7 (Very gently) 7–12 (Gentle) 12–16 (Moderate) 16–19 (Moderate–steep) 19–37 (Steep) >37 (Very steep) 0–1 (Very low) 1–2 (Low) 2–3 (Moderate) 3–4 (High) Coarse Texture Medium texture Fine texture Rocky and non-soil

169.12 1446.02 42.83 1235.9 27.35 214.01 50.01 1405.69 825.66 45.43 396.07 13.41 85.55 184.47 126.84 42.85 14.45 4.23 40.59 325.57 2859.67 2149.62 701.36 58.8 45.46 52.71 80.24 97.05 697.53 1103.25 970.11 414.35 741.93 955.66 1382.09 105.56

Very good Very good Good Moderate Poor Very poor Very poor Good Good Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderate Poor Poor Very poor Very poor Very poor Very poor Very good Poor Good Moderate Moderate Poor Poor Very poor Very poor Good Good Moderate Poor Good Good Moderate Very poor

Geology

Lineament Slope (%)

Drainage Density (km/km 2)

Soil

5.31 45.39 1.34 38.8 0.86 6.73 1.57 44.13 25.92 1.43 12.44 0.42 2.69 5.79 3.98 1.35 0.45 0.13 1.27 10.22 89.78 67.48 22.02 1.85 1.43 1.65 2.52 3.05 21.89 34.64 30.46 13.01 23.29 30.01 43.39 3.31

Results and discussion The integrated model provides significant inputs for identifying prospective zones of groundwater accumulation. The study is useful for narrowing down the region to conduct high-resolution geophysical studies and exploratory borewell drills. Geomorphic features in the region were easily recognized by their tone, texture, shape, and colour in the remote sensing images. Land forms such as deltaic plain in the eastern part, and cultivated land and pediplains in the

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9 8 6 4 2 1 1 7 5 4 4 4 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 8 2 5 4 3 2 2 1 1 7 5 3 1 7 5 4 1

5.84

21

5.26

19

2.62

10

4.43

16

4.31

16

4.89

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western part are dominant geomorphic features covering an area of about 95%. These are very favourable for groundwater deposit as they are almost flat land with porous sediments and higher percolation rate. Weightage assigned to different features were used to calculate the weight percentage for the parameter considering area covered by different features. They were assigned a maximum weightage of 21%. Lithology is another important parameter. The porosity and permeability of soil and rock type help in identifying potential groundwater zones. Western part is dominated by

Sustain. Water Resour. Manag. Fig. 6  Borewell data plotted on the groundwater prospect map

residual soil and alluvium which cover ~26% of the area. These are considered as good for groundwater accumulation. The eastern part is dominated by clay deposit. Due to less permeability, they are ranked moderate to poor. But sandy clay was ranked better than alluvium deposit considering the factors like elevation, the area covered, and geology of the region. Laterite is also dominant in the western region with 12.43% covered area but these are evaluated as moderate as they cannot hold water for a longer time. The total weight percentage was calculated as 19%. Lineaments are considered an excellent factor for groundwater prospect in hard rock terrain. These are weaker zones and help water to percolate as well as move. Lineament density is more towards the western part which is covered with higher elevated hilly terrain. Areas surrounding lineaments have better prospects for groundwater deposit and were assigned a weight of 8. Lineament density towards the south-eastern part remarkably decreases. With elevation varying from MSL to a height of 291 m, the eastern part of the region is mostly flat with little undulations. On the other hand, the western part does show some topographical features which contribute to the flow of streams in the region. Land form with steep slope helps in higher surface runoff. Flat land and gentle slope region can be considered as prospective zones. Almost 68% of the study area is covered with a nearly level region (0–3% steepness) and is mostly covered by the eastern part. As the infiltration is affected by many other factors and considering the geology of the region, it was assigned a weightage of 5. A very gentle slope region with steepness 3–7% covers almost 22% of the total area. It was considered to have moderate potential as it covers maximum part of hard rock

terrain. The total weight percentage was calculated to be 16% for slope factor. Coarse-grained soil is better influenced as it contains a higher percentage of sand and lesser silt and clay, compared to fine-grained soil. But the study area is dominated with fine-grained and medium-grained soil in the south-eastern part and coarse-grained soil in the north-western hard rock part. All the features were assigned comparative weightage considering the local geology, and the weight percentage was calculated to be 18%. Higher drainage density helps in higher surface runoff through the channels. So lower drainage density is good for potential groundwater zones. Low drainage density value also indicates coarse texture for the region based on the drainage density classification scheme. The drainage density of the study area is computed as 0.301  km/ km2 which is lower and can be inferred as coarse texture of the area with good groundwater potential. The composition of various types of stream in the area was found to be 50.47, 27.10, 17.06, and 5.37% for the 1­ st- to ­4th-order streams, respectively. The 1­ st-order stream is more than half of the total stream and no ­5th-order stream was found in the region. A small bifurcation ratio of 2.21 indicates that there do not exist much geological control in the region. All the above parameters were integrated according to their weight percentage to obtain the final potential map. This map shows comparative groundwater potential zones in the region. The largest part is categorized as good prospective zone, which is almost distributed throughout the region and occupies 1315 km2. The area of about 1162 km2 shows moderate potential, whereas an area of 663  km2 is less favourable.

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Table 3  Borewell data for the region from CGWB

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Location

Depth drilled (mbgl)

Water discharge (l/s)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Kundra, Puri Kusupur, Puri Patalia, Puri Puri (Sanskrit University) Dahijanga, Nimapara Tompallo, Puri Pipli, Puri Kaipadar, Khurda Jatni, Khurda Chatabazar, Khurda Khurda Tortua, Khurda Podadiha, Khurda Attri, Khurda Chatua, Khurda Manibandha, Khurda Tandala, Khurda Delanga, Puri Challisbatia, Puri Satasankha, Puri Dasabatia, Puri Gundi, Puri Balighai, Puri Bolanga, Puri

305.39 266.45 305.83 222.46 163 266.5 125 111.3 140.9 38.1 41.3 147.3 166.2 123.65 172 178.4 141.8 119.48 140 261.39 278 317.33 450.75 227.03

75 75 75 65 15 17 16.33 3 2 4 0.7 7.4 1.5 8 1.2 1.5 4.5 2.11 6 Well abandoned due to salinity Well abandoned due to salinity Well abandoned due to salinity Well abandoned due to salinity Well abandoned due to salinity

mbgl metres below ground level l/s liter per second

Borewell water yield data for the region collected from CGWB were plotted to verify the result (Fig. 6). All these well data were categorized into three groups such as ‘low (<10  l/s)’, ‘moderate (10–30  l/s)’, and ‘high (>30  l/s)’ as per their groundwater discharge. It was found that most of the data satisfy the final potential groundwater map of this study.

Conclusions The applied technique is widely used and well known. However, this is a comparative study of two different geological settings within the same study region. The regions can be studied separately as well but if the study area is located at the interface of the different geological setting, then this comparative study will be more helpful. In this study, the area of interest is located at the interface region, more towards the north-western part where different national-level organizations are being developed. This area with fractured aquifer is incapable of satisfying the purpose of adequate water supply. Therefore, an analysis of

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the surrounding region was conducted to identify the nearest possible potential groundwater zones. Also this study will be helpful for further research and aquifer mapping in the region. A number of factors such as geomorphic features, drainage pattern, structural features, etc. contribute to groundwater accumulation in a region. Therefore, an integrated study of all these parameters can provide a high resolution groundwater potential map. In this study, some of the parameters that were available for the region have been analysed and integrated to evaluate groundwater potential in the lower Mahanadi Basin. It was found that ~42% of the total area has relatively high groundwater potential, whereas 21% of the area has relatively less prospects for a sustainable groundwater source. This analysis helped in identifying prospective groundwater-bearing zones that may be considered for further detailed geophysical investigation. In general, the results are consistent with the in situ borewell discharge data (Table 3) measured from exploratory wells of Central Ground Water Board (CGWB). The study may be helpful in minimizing the project cost of geophysical survey significantly by using optimum

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manpower, besides saving valuable time. It also provides sufficient input for an effective management of groundwater resources in the region. Acknowledgements  This work was carried out at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar. P. Nayak thanks the Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar for granting fellowship to conduct and complete this work. Thanks to the Central Ground Water Board, Bhubaneswar, for providing well yield data and Geological survey of India for providing the district resource map of the study region.

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