Ground Water Potential Mapping in Dulung Watershed using Remote Sensing & GIS techniques , West Bengal , India

Groundwater is one of the most valuable natural resources, which supports human civilization. The supply of groundwater is not unlimited and therefore its’ use should be properly planned based on the understanding of the groundwater systems behavior in order to ensure its sustainable use. Again a judicious use of groundwater, proper evaluation is required. A groundwater development and management program needs the analyses of a large volume of multidisciplinary data from various sources. Integrated use of remote Sensing and GIS can provide the appropriate platform for convergence of multidisciplinary data from various sources for appropriate planning. In the present study, an integrated remote Sensing and GIS based methodology is developed and tested for the evaluation of the groundwater resources of Dulung watershed, Paschim Medinipur District, West Bengal and a small part of the adjoining Jharkhand state. IRS 1D LISS-III satellite data of 4th February, 2008 along with other data sets, existing maps and field observation data have been utilized to extract information on the hydro geomorphic features of the study area. The ground water potential zones have been derived for the entire Dulangnala watershed and it has been divided into mainly four categories namely very low, low, medium and high recharge potential zone.