Demarcation of Groundwater Prospect Zones in Lower Reaches of Daraudi River Basin, Western Nepal

Volume 4 - Issue 1

Dinesh Pathak¹* and Menuka Gautam²

Received: September 24, 2019;   Published: October 21, 2019

DOI: 10.32474/OAJESS.2019.04.000176

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Abstract

In spite of the fact that Nepal is rich in water resources, majority of the mountain settlements faces scarcity in domestic water supply. Springs are the primary source of water for the sustainability of livelihood in mountain. The springs are becoming dry and the water availability has been further decreased leading to migration of entire village in some cases. Therefore, there is need to identify groundwater prospect area for further exploitation. This study proposes the methodology for delineating the groundwater prospect zone in the mountainous terrain at lower reaches of Daraudi River basin in west Nepal. Spring inventory was carried out collecting relevant information like spring type, discharge etc. together with surrounding geology and geomorphology. Thematic layers of different parameters like geology, slope, land use, geomorphology, drainage density, lineament density was prepared. Based on the field condition, weight and rank values were assigned to respective themes and their classes. Groundwater prospect map was prepared through weighted overlay of the thematic layers. The map was verified through comparing with the spring inventory and it is observed that most of the springs fall in high groundwater prospect zone while few in moderate zone and negligible in low prospect zone. This suggests that the methodology adopted to groundwater prospect map in this study well reflects the field condition and hence can be replicated in other mountain region with similar geologic and geomorphic as well as climatic condition.

Keywords: Groundwater Prospect; Nepal Himalaya; Hilly region; Factor Maps; GIS

Abstract| Introduction| Materials and Methods| Results and Discussion| Conclusion| Acknowledgement| References|