Delineation of Groundwater Potential Zones in Jalluttu Watershed using Remote Sensing and GIS

The study aim to delineate the groundwater potential zones of Jalluttu watershed, for efficient use of available water resources. Jalluttu watershed is taken to study the groundwater potential zones using Geoinformatics. It occupies an area of 277km2. The study area is located in the eastern part of Salem and Namakkal Districts. The watershed is the part of Vellar basin. The watershed receives 800 mm of rainfall annually and has an average elevation of 964m. This study area also witnesses a rapid outgrowth of settlements and agro-based industries. It is necessary to find out the groundwater potential to support the region’s growing population and agricultural activities. The work has been carried out by using the Multi-Criteria Decision Making method. There are eight themes taken (Geology, Geomorphology, Slope, Lineament density, Drainage Density, Soil Texture, Soil depth, Land use and land cover) and layers have been prepared using GIS software. For each theme weightage and ranks were applied to compute the groundwater potential index. Based on the derived statistics of ground water potential index the study area has been classified in to excellent, good, poor, and very poor zones.