Identification of groundwater potential in hard rock aquifer systems using Remote Sensing, GIS and Magnetic Survey in Veppanthattai, Perambalur, Tamilnadu

Water is an essential natural resource without which life wouldn’t exist. The study aims to identify groundwater potential areas in Vepapanthattai taluk of Perambalur district, Tamil Nadu, India, using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model. Remote sensing and magnetic parameters have been used to determine the evaluation indicators for groundwater occurrence under the ArcGIS environment. Groundwater occurrence is linked to structural porosity and permeability over the predominantly hard rock terrain, making magnetic data more relevant for locating groundwater potential zones in the research area. NE-SW and NW-SE trending magnetic breaks derived from reduction to pole map are found to be more significant for groundwater exploration. The lineaments rose diagram indicates the general trend of the fracture to be in the NE-SW direction. Assigned normalised criteria weights acquired using the AHP model was used to reclassify the thematic layers. As a result, the taluk’s low, moderate, and high potential zones cover 25.08%, 25.68% and 49.24% of the study area, respectively. The high potential zones exhibit characteristics favourable for groundwater infiltration and storage, with factors as gentle slope of <3°, high lineament densities, magnetic breaks, magnetic low zones as indicative of dykes and cracks, lithology as colluvial deposits and land surface with dense vegetation. The depth of the fracture zones was estimated using power spectrum and Euler Deconvolution method. The groundwater potential mapping results were validated using groundwater level data measured from the wells, which indicated that the groundwater potential zoning results are consistent with the data derived from the real world.