Ground water potential zone of Kushavathi watershed in Kolar district

Abstract

Groundwater is an important natural resource in present day, but of limited use due to frequent failures in monsoon, undependable surface water, and rapid urbanization and industrialization have created a major threat to this valuable resource. A groundwater development program needs a large volume of multi disciplinary data from various sources. In order to ensure a judicious use of groundwater, its proper evaluation is required for optimal utilization. With groundwater occurrence being a subsurface phenomenon, its identification and location are based on indirect analysis of some direct observable terrain features like geology, geomorphology and their hydrologic characters. The present work is an attempt to integrate RS and GIS based analysis and methodology in groundwater potential zone identification in the study area, , Kushavathi watershed occupies the south eastern corner of the Kolar district which is situated in the south - eastern part of Karnataka at a distance of 70 km east of Bangalore city. The information on geology, geomorphology, soil, slope, rainfall, water level and land use/land cover was gathered, 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.