Identification of Groundwater Potential Zones in Lohit District, Arunachal Pradesh, Using Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System

This study delineates groundwater potential zones in Lohit District, Arunachal Pradesh, using an integrated Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information System (GIS), and weighted overlay approach. Multiple thematic layers namely geology, soil, drainage density, slope, lineament density, rainfall, and land use/land cover were generated and analysed to represent the controlling factors of groundwater occurrence and recharge. Geological information was obtained from the Geological Survey of India, soil data from the FAO Digital Soil Map, drainage from Survey of India topographic sheets, and terrain and land-cover parameters from SRTM-GDEM and satellite imagery. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied to assign scientifically consistent weights to each thematic layer based on their relative influence on groundwater potential. These weighted layers were integrated in a GIS environment to produce a comprehensive groundwater potential zonation map. The district was classified into five groundwater potential categories: poor (41.89 km²), fair (922.22 km²), moderate (1,014.62 km²), high (1,631.33 km²), and very high (405.78 km²). The results indicate that a substantial portion of the district falls within moderate to high potential zones, while areas categorized as poor and fair require focused groundwater development and recharge interventions to ensure sustainable water availability.