DELINEATION OF GROUNDWATER POTENTIAL ZONES IN NAKREKAL BASIN, NALGONDA DISTRICT, TELANGANA STATE, INDIA – A GEOSPATIAL APPROACH

ABSTRACT The Nalgonda district is one of the drought prone districts of Telangana and frequently being afflicted by famines. The study area, Nakrekal basin is a part of this district and falls in the Survey of India toposheet no's 56 O/8 and 56 0/12. It lies between the north latitudes of 170 00'00” to 170 15' 07” and Eastern longitudes of 790 16' 28” to 790 34' 15”, and covers an area of about 409 sq.km. The present study is intended to use the remote sensing data, G.I.S. technology and spatial modelling techniques, in the Nakrekal basin. The remote sensing data provides the synoptic view of lithology, geomorphology, structures, and land use/land cover, type of soil etc. The field data provides the information about the depth to water table, thickness of weathered zone and the yields of the existing wells of the groundwater. The layers generated from the satellite data (IRS ID LISS III) and from the field data have been used for the index overlay operations for delineation of Groundwater prospective zones. The results of the study have been presented as based on groundwater potential, the area has been classified into Excellent, Very good, Good, Good-Moderate, Moderate-Poor, Poor-Nil and Nil. Key words: Hydrogeomorphology, Nakrekal basin, Geology, Groundwater and G.I.S.