An integrated approach for evaluating groundwater resources of the weathered granite gneiss aquifer of the Usri watershed, Jharkhand, India

Abstract

This study integrates and optimizes the use of geomorphology, hydrogeology, hydro-geophysics, and remote sensing to get a better understanding of aquifer storage and retrieval mechanisms in the weathered aquifer system of the Usri watershed in Giridih, India. Integrated spatial analysis at the watershed scale has enhanced knowledge of weathered layer geometry, basement topography, broad fractures, and sub-surface flow barriers that affect groundwater availability in different areas of the watershed. The technique used for resource estimation not only estimates dynamic resources, as it has in the past, but also estimates static groundwater resources in weathered aquifers. It has been found that static resources are more than three times more abundant than dynamic resources that go unutilized. The digital basement topographic model of the watershed indicated multiple localized basement depressions. These depressions contain considerable drainable static groundwater resources that can be exploited for sustained extraction by implementing area-specific Aquifer Storage and Retrieval or Artificial Recharge and Retrieval system. The study found that the reliability of inferred lineaments as real fracture is limited in heavily weathered region such as the Usri watershed. The spatial hydro-geophysical characterization of satellite-derived inferred lineaments revealed that the majority of them do not correlate to real fractures.