Integration of Geospatial Modeling and Suitable Ground Water Potential Area Analysis by Using GIS-Based TOPSIS, VIKOR, and EDAS Techniques in the Northern Mahananda River Basin, India

Ground water isGeospatial one of the major geo-environmental natural resources worldwide. In the last few decades, it has deteriorated due to poor sustainable management and practices; it must be assessed. In the present chapter, 19 thematic layers of geo-environmental conditioning parametersParameters for delineating ground water potentiality zonation (GWPZ) have been incorporated for the northern Mahananda River basin, India. The study area is densely populated and economically an agriculturally based region. Therefore, an integrated approach that included geographic information systemGeographic Information System (GIS) (GIS) and three systematic and comprehensive multi-criteria decision-making (MCDMMCDM) techniques namely ‘Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution’ (TOPSIS), ‘Vise Kriterijumska Optimizacija Kompromisno Resenja’ (VIKOR), and ‘Evaluation Based on Distance from Average Solution’ (EDAS) have been used for comparative assessment of ground water potentiality zonation (GWPZ). Multicollinearity statistics were performed to eliminate and fix issues like mutually related parametersParameters (i.e., NDWI and TRI). Here the ground water potentiality maps produced through TOPSIS, VIKOR, and EDAS have been categorized into five categories, and results show present study area occupied very low potentiality areas (0.002%, 8.33%, and 2.83%), followed by low potentiality zone (1.85%, 7.75%, and 34.74%), moderately potentiality zone (6.99%, 22.65%, and 47.93%), high potentiality zone (31.87%, 25.36%, and 13.16%), and very high potentiality zone (59.29%, 35.92%, and 1.33%) in three models,Models respectively. The model’sModels efficiency and validity have been checked by considering the ‘Receiver Operating CharacteristicReceiver operating characteristic-Area Under the Curve’ (ROC-AUCROC-AUC) technique to highlight the most suited model for ground water potentiality zonation (GWPZ) for this region. The performance of VIKOR (0.70) is comparatively better than TOPSIS (0.38) and EDAS (0.55). The present chapter will be beneficial for better and more sustainable ground water management and strategies in the study area. Finally, the chapter will demonstrate the crucial role of GISGeographic Information System (GIS) and its application of respective modelsModels lucidly.