Multi-criteria decision making and Dempster-Shafer model–based delineation of groundwater prospect zones from a semi-arid environment

• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-022-19211-0
• Publication Date: 2022-02-19T18:02:31Z
• Authors: Hemant Kumar Pandey; Vishal Kumar Singh; Sudhir Kumar Singh
• Keywords: 13. Climate action; Decision Making; Geographic Information Systems; Desert Climate; Hydrology; 15. Life on land; Groundwater; 01 natural sciences; 6. Clean water; Environmental Monitoring; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Abstract The present study illustrates the delineation of the groundwater potential zones in one of the most critical and drought affected areas under Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh. Hydrological evaluations were carried out in district Mahoba using GIS tools and remote sensing data which ultimately yielded several thematic maps, such as lineament density, land use/land cover, drainage density, lithology, slope, geomorphology, wetness index (WTI), altitude and soil. CartoDEM data which have spatial resolution of 30m i.e. equivalent to one arc second were used to create digital elevation model, drainage density, altitude, WTI and slope. The thematic layers were assigned relative weightages as per their groundwater potential prospects under multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method through analytical hierarchy process (AHP). To recognize the groundwater potential zone, weighted overlay analysis was performed using ArcMap software. Additionally, for testing of the Dempster-Shafer model, 16 borewells in high potential areas have been selected. Based on the probability of the groundwater occurrence, the belief factor was equated. Further combining the weighted layers, groundwater potential zones were obtained. The groundwater potential maps illustrate five zones having different potential in the Mahoba district. According to the AHP model the north-west side of the study area is characterized with very good potential zones whereas the north-east and south-east region constitute medium and poor groundwater potential zones respectively. It reflects that more than 50% of the area is having medium groundwater potential while 30 percent of the area falls under low potential zone. 10% of the study area falls under very good groundwater potential zones. According to the DS model, very high groundwater zones constitute only 7% and the remaining area falls under poor potential. Overall accuracy of the DS model was higher than AHP model.