Assessment of Groundwater Potential Zones Using Geospatial and MCDM Approaches in the Command Area of a Major Irrigation Project in Kurnool District, A.P, India

Due to limited water availability and unpredictable rainfall patterns, meeting water needs in India’s semi-arid regions, mainly for irrigation, is challenging. Groundwater is essential for irrigation and domestic purposes, emphasizing the need to comprehend its potential availability. Sustainable groundwater management is crucial to address growing water demands. Efforts like major canal irrigation projects and water conservation schemes aim to enhance surface water resources and recharge groundwater. Recently, combining geospatial analysis and multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) using analytical hierarchical process (AHP) has proven an effective tool in identifying groundwater potential zones. This study evaluates these zones and the impact of land use on groundwater, focusing on the Handri Neeva and Sujala Sravanti (HNSS) project’s command area (CA) in Andhra Pradesh. Using GIS and MCDM-AHP, the study employs various thematic layers—rainfall, land use, soils, geology, geomorphology, slope, drainage density, and lineament density—to create groundwater potential zone (GWPZ) maps of HNSS project CA. The results show that the HNSS project and land use have positively affected groundwater potential in the area.