Combination of GIS and fuzzy-AHP for delineating groundwater recharge potential zones in the critical Goghat-II block of West Bengal, India

Abstract

This study tries to show the groundwater recharge potential zones in groundwater-stressed Goghat-II block, using fuzzy-AHP technique. According to the central ground water board of India, Goghat-II is the only critical block of West Bengal. Fuzzy-AHP is one of the widely accepted techniques for multi-criteria decision making. Factors like geology, geomorphology, slope, soil texture, land use land cover, net recharge and pond frequency are controlling the recharge potentiality in this region. Groundwater recharge potentiality has been identified by integrating these factors. Very low, low, moderate, high and very high potentiality represent 8.98%, 34.58%, 33.51%, 12.80% and 10.13% respectively. Low lying flat plain of the north-eastern part is favourable for groundwater recharge, whereas upland plain of the western part is less suitable for recharge. The result has been validated with the groundwater depth data of the post-monsoon season, which depicts that the approach is suitable for this region. Keywords: Groundwater recharge potential zones, Goghat-II, Fuzzy-AHP, ROC curve