Delineation of groundwater potential zones for sustainable development and planning using analytical hierarchy process (AHP), and MIF techniques

Groundwater plays a vital role in the sustainable development of agriculture, society and economy, and it's demand is increasing due to low rainfall, especially in arid and semiarid regions. In this context, delineation of groundwater potential zones is essential for meeting the demand of different sectors. In this research, the integrated approach consisting of analytical hierarchy process (AHP), multiple influence factors (MIF) and receiver operating characteristics (ROC) was applied. The demarcation of groundwater potential zones is based on thematic maps, namely Land Use/Land Cover (LULC), Digital Elevation Model (DEM), hillshade, soil texture, slope, groundwater depth, geomorphology, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and flow direction and accumulation. The pairwise comparison matrix has been created, and weights are assigned to each thematic layer. The comparative score to every factor was calculated from the overall weight of two major and minor influences. Groundwater potential zones were classified into five classes, namely very poor, poor, moderate, good and very good, which cover an area as follows: 3.33 km2, 785.84 km2, 1147.47 km2, 595.82 km2 and 302.65 km2, respectively, based on AHP method. However, the MIF groundwater potential zones map was classified into five classes: very poor, poor, moderate, good and very good areas covered 3.049 km2, 567.42 km2, 1124.50 km2 868.86 km2 and 266.67 km2, respectively. The results of MIF and AHP techniques were validated using receiver operating characteristics (ROC). The result of this research would be helpful to prepare the sustainable groundwater planning map and policy. The proposed framework has admitted to test and could be implemented in different in various regions around the world to maintain the sustainable practices.