Ground water exploration in the Saurashtra peninsula

The fact that groundwater in hard-rock formations is generally confined to fissures, fractures, joints and weathered zones makes space imagery extremely useful when prospecting for groundwater in hard-rock areas. Keeping this in mind, multitemporal LANDSAT imagery of the Saurashtra region has been studied by employing visual/manual-interpretation techniques. Various hydrogeomorphological features, such as abandoned channels, buried channels, lineaments, water bodies, vegetation and floodplains, were mapped at a scale of 1:250 000. Using these maps, areas with groundwater potential were identified. Resistivity surveys were conducted in selected areas. Using these results, sites for exploratory drilling were chosen. The pumping-test results at most of the sites were quite encouraging. The present study therefore demonstrates the usefulness of remotely sensed data in groundwater exploration.