An integrated GIS approach to analyze the impact of land use change and land cover alteration on ground water potential level: A study in Kangsabati Basin, India

Land use/land cover change continuously occurs at locally, regionally and globally over the last few decades for excessive demand of mankind. This change creates adverse effects on groundwater potential level (GWPL) due to interruption of recharge process; hence, this study has attempt to assess the impact of land use change and land cover alteration (LUCLCA) on GWPL, furthermore to find out such effective land alteration processes in Kangsabati basin, India. Hydrological parameters were taken for delineation of groundwater potential zones (GWPZs) using Saaty's Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) whereas Pearson correlation matrix (PCM) was used to determine the effective LUCLCA processes on GWPL change. Results revealed that high GWPZ decreases from 1828 km(2) to 1333 km(2), but low GWPZ increases from 117 km(2) to 622 km(2) during 2002 and 2016. In order of GWPL change, PCM demonstrated that negative land alteration processes (NLAP) are present in laterite outcrop, fallow land, settlement, and cropland, whereas positive alteration processes (PLAP) are present in dense forest, degraded forest, and wetland. With this validation, twenty-five sites were selected, nine sites have negative GWPL change for NLAP; four sites have positive GWPL change for PLAP, but GWPL change does not found in five sites for the same and low land alteration. In rest sites, model validation does not agree with GWPL change, however, other hydrological parameters are more dominated in this change. Therefore, LUCLCA does not only control the GWPL, but other thematic parameters are signified the potential level. Moreover, this study also helps the planner to predict sustainable land use management for groundwater conservation.