Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment Using SINTACS-AHP Model and GIS in Raipur City

The most common technique for safeguarding groundwater quality is to identify the areas where groundwater is vulnerable to contamination. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the groundwater vulnerable zones of Raipur city using standard SINTACS Vulnerability Index (SVI) and Modified SINTACS Vulnerability Index (MSVI) methods within a geographical information system (GIS) environment. This model is based on seven data layers, including hydraulic conductivity, soil media, net recharge, topographic slope, water table depth, and unsaturated conditions, which have been weighted, categorized, and integrated into GIS to produce groundwater vulnerability zones. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method, was used to modify SINTACS method in the Raipur region by redefining the weighting in compliance with the hydrological system of the research area. Sensitivity Analysis (SA) was carried out to examine the impact of different parameters on Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment (GVA), and to account for the most sensitive parameters, and assure the reliability of the final judgment. In the determined groundwater vulnerable zones from the SVI and MSVI, fifteen groundwater samples collected from scattered wells were compared and validated. To determine how well the model works in determining vulnerability to groundwater contamination, the relation between groundwater nitrate levels and vulnerability index was investigated. From the entire area, the very high vulnerability zone contains 14.26% of the SVI and 12.42% of the MSVI. The model approach MSVI is discovered to have a good correlation with the area’s nitrate content and is suitable for the GVA of Raipur city.