Evaluation of Ground Water Potential Zones Using Remote Sensing Data -A Case Study of Gaimukh Watershed, Bhandara District, Maharashtra

In the present study efforts have been made to evaluate ground water potential zones for ground water targeting using IRS-IC LISS-II1 geo-coded data on 1:50,000 scale. The drainage, geology, geomorpholgoy and lineament information has been generated and integrated to evaluate hydro-geomorphological characteristics of the Gairnukh watershed, Bhandara district, Maharashtra for delineation of ground water potential zones. The analysis reveals that the deep valley fills with thick alluvium have excellent, shallow valley tills and deeply weathered pediplains with thin alluvium have very good and moderately weathered pediplains in the geological formations of Tirodi Gneiss and Sausar Groups have god ground water potential and these units are highly favourable for ground water exploration and development. Shallow weathered pediments in geological formations of Tirodi Gnesis and Sausar Groups are marked under moderate ground water potential zone. Shallow weathered pediplains in geological formations of Tiridi Gneiss and Sausor Groups are grouped under limited ground water potential category, except along the fractures/lineaments. Structural hills in geological formations of Tirodi Gneiss and Sausar Groups have poor ground water prospects. Inselbergs and Linear ridges in geological formations of Tirodi Gneiss are grouped under very poor ground water prospects zone. The good inter-relationship was found among the geological units, geomorphological units, lineament density, hydro-geomorphological zones and ground water yield data.     

Hydrogeomorphological studies by remote sensing application in niva river basin, chittoor district, andhra pradesh

To evaluate the hydrogeomorphological conditions of Niva river basin Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh, geological, hydrogeological and geomorphological studies were carried out. through visual interpretation of Landsat 5, FCC with adequate ground truth. The study shows that the Niva river basin is occupied by granites and gneisses of Archaean age with intrusive bodies of dolerites. The recent alluvium deposits are present along the stream courses. The study area is traversed by various directional fractures/lineaments and most of them are NESW, ENE-WSW and EW directions. Groundwater potential of geomorphological units viz. Denudational hill, Residual hill, Pediment, Pediplain and Valley fill is discussed.     

Identification of Groundwater Potential Zones Using Remote Sensing Techniques In and Around Guntur Town, Andhra Pradesh, India

The area in and around Guntur Town in Andhra Pradesh faces an acute water problem. It represents plain land and gentle slope responsible for infiltration and groundwater recharge. Adequate groundwater resource is reported to be available in the investigated area. It has not been properly exploited. The present investigation is, therefore, undertaken to assess groundwater favourable zones for development and exploration with the help of geomorphological units and associated features. The identified units and features by remote sensing technology with the integration of conventional information and limited ground truths are shallow weathered pediplain (PPS), moderately weathered pediplain (PPM), deeply weathered pediplain (PPD), residual hill (RH) and lineaments (L). The results show that the PPD, PPM and PPS are good, moderate to good and poor to moderate promising zones, respectively for groundwater prospecting. The RH is a poor geomorphological unit in respect to prospective zone as groundwater resource. However, adequate recharge source of groundwater can be expected surrounding the RH, as it acts as surface run-off zone. Lineaments parallel to the stream courses and intersecting-lineaments are favourable indicators for groundwater development. They can also be utilized to augment groundwater resource.     

Land use indicators of a watershed in arid region, western Rajasthan using Remote Sensing and GIS

The vegetation dynamics and land use/land cover types of Birantiya Kalan watershed located in the arid tracts of western Rajasthan have been characterized and evaluated using Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS). The watershed under study falls in the transitional plain of Luni Basin and is characterized by Aravali ranges in the eastern half and vast alluvial plains in the west. The land use/land cover types, as identified are cropland, fallow, forest, land with scrub, land without scrub, sandy area and the water body. Land with scrub occupied maximum area (39% area of the watershed) in 1996 in place of crop land which was dominant (43% of total area) in the year 1988. During eight years period, seasonal fallow land increased significantly and the areal extent of water body decreased to almost half. Vegetation vigour types have been classified into very poor, poor. moderate, good and very good categories. Moderate vigour type reduced from 62 to 27% and poor type increased from 34 to 68% during the period 1988 to 1996. Other vegetation vigour types have not shown any significant changes. To quantify the changes over the years in both vegetation and land use/land cover, weightages have been given to each type and composite values of both vegetation vigour and land use types for 1996 and 1988 have been calculated. It has been observed that the ratio for vegetation vigour has been found to be 0.85 showing that the overall vegetation have not improved after the treatment. The ratio for land use is found to be 1.01, which indicates negligible change in land use.     

Sustainable fresh water resources management in northern Kuwait—A remote sensing view from Raudatain basin

The paper presents time and cost effective remote sensing technology to estimate recharge potential of fresh water shallow aquifers for their sustainable management of water resources in arid ecosystem. Precipitation measurement of Raudatain basin in Kuwait from TRMM data has been made and integrated with geological, geomorphological and hyrological data, to estimate the recharge potential of this basin. The total precipitation in the basin is estimated at 334 MCM for the year 2003. The initial losses are estimated at 78.43% and the transmission loss at 14.866% of the net precipitation.For sustainable management of the ground water resources, recharge wells have been proposed in the higher order streams to augment the Raudatain aquifer in Kuwait. If the available quantity of precipitation can be successfully utilized, it will reduce considerable pressure on desalination, which leads to increased salinity at the coast in Arabian Gulf.     

Temporal studies of land use/land cover in varaha river basin, andhra pradesh, india

Land use/land cover investigation have been carried out in Varaha river basia (VRB) using remote sensing data of 1986 and 1992 and the changes in land use/land cover during the period are estimated Visual interpretation techniques have been followed to delineate various land use/laad cover categories It is inferred that the land use/land cover pattern of the area is controlled by local topography, climate and resourees, The tesults revealed significant changes in the area of built-up land irrigated land, plantation degraded forest and upland over a period of six years.     

多时相ASAR数据的地表覆盖分类研究

本文选择了位于念青唐古拉山脉西段,覆盖范围大约100×100km2的区域,使用四个不同时期内的ASAR图像数据进行地表覆盖分类的研究。研究结果表明,虽然同种类型的地物在同一景雷达图像上的后向散射系数存在一定的差异,但是其后向散射系数随时间的变化规律却是一致的。根据地物后向散射系数的这种时相特征,我们对研究区的地表覆盖进行了分类,结果显示使用该方法能有效地区分草原、草甸、裸岩、水体、终年积雪等。     

Land subsidence in major cities of Central Mexico: Interpreting InSAR-derived land subsidence mapping with hydrogeological data

Significant structural damages to urban infrastructures caused by compaction of over-exploited aquifers are an important problem in Central Mexico. While the case of Mexico City has been well-documented, insight into land subsidence problems in other cities of Central Mexico is still limited. Among the cities concerned, we present and discuss the cases of five of them, located within the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB): Toluca, Celaya, Aguascalientes, Morelia, and Queretaro. Applying the SBAS-InSAR method to C-Band RADARSAT-2 data, five high resolution ground motion time-series were produced to monitor the spatio-temporal variations of displacements and fracturing from 2012 to 2014. The study presents recent changes of land subsidence rates along with concordant geological and water data. It aims to provide suggestions to mitigate future damages to infrastructure and to assist in groundwater resources management.Aguascalientes, Celaya, Morelia and Queretaro (respectively in order of decreasing subsidence rates) are typical cases of fault-limited land subsidence of Central Mexico. It occurs as a result of groundwater over-exploitation in lacustrine and alluvial deposits covering highly variable bedrock topography, typical of horst-graben geological settings. Aguascalientes and Toluca show high rates of land subsidence (up to 10 cm/yr), while Celaya and Morelia show lower rates (from 2 to 5 cm/yr). Comparing these results with previous studies, it is inferred that the spatial patterns of land subsidence have changed in the city of Toluca. This change appears to be mainly controlled by the spatial heterogeneity of compressible sediments since no noticeable change occurred in groundwater extraction and related drawdown rates. While land subsidence of up to 8 cm/yr has been reported in the Queretaro Valley before 2011, rates inferior to 1 cm/yr are measured in 2013–2014. The subsidence has been almost entirely mitigated by major changes in the water management practices of the city, i.e., a 122 km long pipeline bringing surface water from an adjacent state allowed to cease pumping in half of the wells.     

Satellite based study of land transformation in Ludhiana District, Punjab

This study reveals the temporal changes in the land use/land cover of district Ludhiana from the years 1970 to 2001 and reports on the change that has occurred in land use/land cover as a result of change in cropping pattern. The changes were analysed through the data obtained from statistical abstract 1969–70, False Colour Composite (FCC) of IRS-IC LISS-III satellite data of March 2001 and ground truth. There has been a decrease in agricultural land by 2100 ha. but still it occupies 83.76% of the total geographical area (TGA). The wasteland shows a declining trend whereas forest cover has increased from 1.07 to 2.71% of TGA. Area under non-agricultural uses has increased from 10.13 to 12.50% of TGA. There has also been a great change in the cropping pattern of the district. Crops such as groundnut, gram and cotton have nearly disappeared and wheat and rice dominate the region. This change has substantially resulted in the decrease of area under wastelands.     

Soft classification for sub-pixel land cover extraction

With increasing resolution of the remotely sensed data the problems of images contaminated by mixed pixels arc frequent. Conventional classification techniques often produce erroneous results when applied to images dominated by mixed pixels. This may load to unrealistic representation of land cover, thereby, affecting efficient planning, management and monitoring of natural resources. Consequently, soft classification techniques providing sub-pixel land cover information may have to be utilised. From a range of soft classification techniques, the present study focuses on the utility of conventional maximum likelihood classifier and linear mixture modelling for sub-pixel. land cover classifications. The accuracy of the soft classifications has been assessed using distance measures and correlation co-efficient. The results show that linear mixture modelling has produced accuracies comparable to maximum likelihood classifier. Besides this the correlations between actual land cover proportions and proportions from linear mixture modelling, though not strong, arc statistically significant at 95% level of confidence. It has also been observed that the normalised likelihoods of maximum likelihood classifier also show strong correlations with the actual land cover proportions on ground and therefore has the potential to be used as a soft classification technique.     

Use of Landsat Thematic Mapper for urban land use/land cover mapping

Visual interpretation of Landsat Thematic Mapper data coupled with ground checking has been used to extract information for urban areas. The emphasis has been given on development of land use/land cover scheme and image interpretation keys for interpretation and delineation purposes using satellite remote sensing data. Lucknow city and its surroundings have been studied to evaluate the usefulness and potentiality of satellite data particularly Landsat Thematic Mapper for urban area studies. This study has demonstrated that remote sensing can provide a valuable tool for urban data acquisition.     

Landsat image enhancement and analysis approach for geological studies of central part of Goa,India

With the advent of multispectral scanners and the availability of digital data, information extraction through remote sensing has become one of the viable tools for studying natural resources. Normally thick vegetation and soil cover are common obstacles while geologically studying an area remotely. The study area, Goa, is largely covered by settlements, private mines, and dense vegetation. This makes it difficult to decipher lithology, structures and to find their extension by ground surveying. In this paper, an attempt has been made to study a variety of image enhancement and analysis techniques to delineate geological features, lineaments, and several landuse features. The information gathered from land use features and vegetation cover is also utilized in delineating lithology and lineaments. Landsat Multi-Spectral Scanner (MSS) data both in the visual and digital form have been used for the analysis. Various photographic techniques such as Bas-relief, combined printing of positive and negative for different bands, color composites, and digital image processing techniques like ratioing, principal component analysis and ratioing of the first two principal components have been applied for geological information extraction. This paper examines comparative utility of enhancement techniques in studying geological aspects. It is found that the ratio image of PCI and PC2 gives most significant and detailed information with maximum contrast and sharp boundaries. Bas-relief images are excellent for identifying geomorphic features and lineaments.     

Remote sensing for geology,geomorphology and lineament study of Vindhyan basin,north of Shivpuri,Madhya Pradesh

The study area comprises Bundelkhand Granite of Archaean age in the east, unconformably overlain by Upper Vindhyan sequence, ranging from Upper Kaimur Sandstone to Lower Bhander Sandstone Groups, in the west. Geomorphologically, the area has been divided into three geomorphic provinces viz. (1) Bundelkhand inselberg — pediplain, (2) Vindhyan structural plateau, consisting of two major sub-levels of Upper and Lower Bhander Sandstone Groups and two minor sub-levels of Upper and Lower Rewa Sandstone Groups, separated by escarpment and/or valleys, and (3) Chambal alluvial plain. Photo-interpretation and field studies indicate that there are three sets of lineament trends in the area out of which the NNW-SSE trend comes out very strongly on imagery and is correlatable with basement fracture trend of Bundelkhand massif. The synoptic view through imagery also gives the impression that the course of Chambal river towards north and west is controlled by a major lineament, possibly a regional fault trending NE-SW. The NNW-SSE lineament trend mentioned above then probably reflects tension release aspect of the faulting. The field check has brought out some very broad, gentle warps also with NNE-SSW trend in the area. The paper presents the salient observations on geological, structural and geomorphological studies for Shivpuri area based on remote-sensing techniques and their utility for such regional investigations.     

Hydrogeomorphic studies in Banaskantha and Mehsana districts (Gujarat) using Landsat data

A hydrogeomorphic approach is used in analyzing hydrologic conditions in the Mehsana and Banaskantha districts of Gujarat state. Using Landsat images, it was possible to delineate geological units, hydrogeomorphic features and vegetation density levels on a regional scale. A relationship between hydrogeomorphic features and vegetation density levels along with ground based hydrologic data was established in Mehsana district and the same was extended to the adjoining Banaskantha district. The ground water potential areas identified were from alluvium and piedmont zone. On the basis of different vegetation density levels, these areas were further subdivided into three different potential zones as regards the availability of groundwater viz. good, fair and poor. The applicability of the remotely sensed data has been found quite useful in quick identification of regional hydrogeomorphic setting of the area.     

Regional Groundwater Assessment of Krishna River Basin Using Integrated GIS Approach

The groundwater occurrence and movement within the flow systems are governed by many natural factors like topography, geology, geomorphology, lineament structures, soil, drainage network and land use land cover (LULC). Due to complex natural geological/hydro-geological regime a systematic planning is needed for groundwater exploitation. It is even more important to characterize the aquifer system and delineate groundwater potential zones in different geological terrain. The study employed integration of weighted index overlay analysis (WIOA) and geographical information system (GIS) techniques to assess the groundwater potential zones in Krishna river basin, India and the validation of the result with existing groundwater levels. Different thematic layers such as geology, geomorphology, soil, slope, LULC, drainage density, lineament density and annual rainfall distribution were integrated with WIOA using spatial analyst tools in Arc-GIS 10.1. These thematic layers were prepared using Geological survey of India maps, European Digital Archive of Soil Maps, Bhuvan (Indian-Geo platform of ISRO, NRSC) and 30 m global land cover data. Drainage, watershed delineation and slope were prepared from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission digital elevation model of 30 m resolution data. WIOA is being carried out for deriving the normalized score for the suitability classification. Weight factor is assigned for every thematic layer and their individual feature classes considering their significant importance in groundwater occurrence. The final map of the study area is categorized into five classes very good, good, moderate, poor and very poor groundwater potential zones. The result describes the groundwater potential zones at regional scale which are in good agreement with observed ground water condition at field level. Thus, the results derived can be very much useful in planning and management of groundwater resources in a regional scale.     

Environmental aspects in Dalli-Rajhara iron ore mine area,M.P. using digital image processing techniques

Landsat MSS (1982) and IRS LISS-II (1989) data have been used to study the land use/land cover changes in Dalli-Rajhara iron ore mine area. Supervised classification has been performed on the temporal data to generate land use/land cover maps. Land use/land cover categories generated from IRS LISS-II data of 36 m resolution has been resampled to 80 m and areal statistics have been computed for 2, 4, 8 and 10 km wide strips around Dalli-Rajhara iron ore mine. The environmental impact due to on-going mining activities in the area has been analysed. The results of this study indicate that due to increase in mine-related and agricultural activities, forests have been degraded and also forest areas have been reduced considerably.     

Integrated remote sensing and GIS study for hydrogeomorphological mapping and delineation of groundwater potential zones in Khallikote block,Ganjam district,Orissa

The present study attempts to delineate different groundwater potential units using remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) in Khallikote block of Ganjam disrict, Orissa. Thematic maps of geology, geomorphology, land use and land cover, drainage density, lineament density, slope and DEM (digital elevation model) were prepared using the Landsat Thematic Mapper data in 3 spectral bands, band 7 (mid-infrared light), band 4 (near-infrared light), Band 2 (visible green light). Relationship of each layer to the groundwater regime has been evaluated through detailed analysis of the individual hydrological parameters. The SMCE (Spatial Multi-Criteria Evaluation) module in ILWIS (Integrated Land and Water Information System) supports the decision-making process for evaluating the ground water potential zones in the area. The study shows that more than 70% of the block is covered by medium to excellent category having good ground water potential.     

MODIS土地覆盖分类的尺度不确定性研究

以空间异质性较强的枯水期鄱阳湖为研究区,以搭载于同一卫星平台、具有同一观测时间和较高空间分辨率的ASTER数据为参照,分析研究了MODIS数据在土地覆盖分类中由空间尺度带来的不确定性。首先基于MODIS三角权重函数,建立了从ASTER到MODIS的尺度转换方法;然后对不同空间分辨率的数据进行土地覆盖分类,并基于误差矩阵和线性模型分析了MODIS土地覆盖分类结果的误差来源。结果表明,空间分辨率和光谱分辨率与成像方式这两类因素对MODIS与ASTER分类结果差异的贡献比例约为(6.6—11.2):2;MODIS像元尺度对研究区水体的分类不确定性影响较低,而对森林的不确定性影响可达63%。由此可见,在基于MODIS数据的土地覆盖分类研究中,空间尺度所产生的不确定性是比较显著的。这些研究结果对于土地覆盖分类及变化检测、尺度效应和景观生态学不确定性研究,有积极的参考意义。     

Land subsidence under different land use in the eastern Beijing plain,China 2005-2013 revealed by InSAR timeseries analysis

Land subsidence has been occurring in Beijing since the 1970s. Five major land subsidence areas have been formed: Dongbalizhuang–Dajiaoting, Laiguangying, Changping Shahe–Ba Xianzhuang, Daxing Yufa–Lixian, and Shunyi–Ping Gezhuang. In this paper, we studied on land subsidence in Dongbalizhuang–Dajiaoting and Laiguangying using small baseline subset interferometry and interferometric point target methods of 47 ENVISAT ASAR and 29 RADARSAT-2 data. The results showed that the degree of land subsidence in these areas varied significantly. The mean land subsidence rate ranged from 143.43 to 8.2 mm/a and from 132.11 to 7.3 mm/a during 2005–2010 and 2011–2013, respectively. We correlated the observed settlement with the land use (agricultural, residential, and industrial). Displacement in the agricultural areas was greater than that in the other areas from 2005 to 2013. Moreover, we compared the observed deformation and the groundwater level in phreatic and confined aquifers. There was a strong correlation between ground subsidence and the groundwater level and the ground settlement increased with a decrease in the groundwater level and the maximum correlation coefficient can reach 0.525. Furthermore, subsidence appeared to be associated with compressible deposits, suggesting that for 90–210-m thick compressible deposits, ground settlement is more likely to occur as the thickness of the compressible layer increases.     

Geology and geomorphology of Cumbum valley and Varushanadu hills,Madural district,Tamil Nadu through remote sensing

The Varushanad hills forms the eastern offshoot of the Western Ghats and the Cumbum valley divides the Varushnad hills from the Western Ghats. Investigations were carried out in about 1700 sq Km comprising the Cumbum valley and the Varushanad hills of the Western Ghats situated in Periakulam Srivalliputhur and Usilampatti taluks of Tamil Nadu on the geological and geomorphological aspects. Remote sensing techniques were used and limited field checks were made. Visual interpretation of aerial photographs on 1:60,000 scale was carried out for identifying the geomorphological features, drainage pattern and lithology. Digital analysis of the Landsat computer compatible tape (CCT) path-row 154–053 was also carried out to delineate major lithological variations. Major lineaments were also mapped from the Landsat imagery and false colour composite. The rock types of the Cumbum valley and the Varushanad hills are mainly charnockites, granite gneiss and pink granites which have been deformed by folds and faults. The various geomorphological units of the area are ridges, valleys, bazada zone and pediment zone of mountain complex. Resources evalution studies on the potential zone of ground water and possible construction materials were also discussed.