Identification of groundwater resource zone in the active tectonic region of Himalaya through earth observatory techniques

Journal Pre-proof Identification of groundwater resource zone in the active tectonic region of Himalaya through earth observatory techniques SkMafizul Haque, Suresh Kannaujiya, Ajay Kumar Taloor, Dipika Keshri, Rakesh Kumar Bhunia, Prashant Kumar Champati Ray, Prakash Chauhan PII:

S2352-801X(19)30302-9

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsd.2020.100337

Reference:

GSD 100337

To appear in:

Groundwater for Sustainable Development

Received Date: 21 September 2019 Revised Date:

9 January 2020

Accepted Date: 20 January 2020

Please cite this article as: Haque, S., Kannaujiya, S., Taloor, A.K., Keshri, D., Bhunia, R.K., Champati Ray, P.K., Chauhan, P., Identification of groundwater resource zone in the active tectonic region of Himalaya through earth observatory techniques, Groundwater for Sustainable Development (2020), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsd.2020.100337. This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. © 2020 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Identification of groundwater resource zone in the active tectonic region of Himalaya through Earth observatory techniques SkMafizul Haque1, Suresh Kannaujiya2, Ajay Kumar Taloor3, Dipika Keshri4, Rakesh Kumar Bhunia4, Prashant Kumar Champati Ray2, Prakash Chauhan5 1

Department of Geography, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India Department of Geosciences, IIRS-ISRO, Dehradun, India 3 Department of Remote Sensing and GIS, University of Jammu, Jammu, India 4 Department of Civil Engineering, DIT University, Dehradun, India 5 Director, IIRS-ISRO, Dehradun, India (Corresponding author-SkMafizulHaque:[email protected]) 2

Abstract The delineation of the groundwater resource (GWR) zone is one of the challenging tasks for the research domain of hydrogeologists and decision makers. In this study, thematic inventory of existing ancillary data and remotely sensed data sets were used for targeting the GWR zones at microscale. Different geology, geomorphological and hydrological parameters thematic layers have been prepared to determine the groundwater resources zones. Further, GWR zones were validated with the results carried out by the resistivity imaging tomography data. Wenner, Dipole-Dipole and Pole-Dipole array methods, portraying six electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) characterised by 40 electrodes channels was used for geophysical analysis. The study result discovers two aquifer pockets in perched condition, in good association with hydrogeomorphological variables. To enhance the groundwater supply in study area a few recharged pits and trenches are being suggested for immediate construction in the upper reaches of the JNV campus. Thus the search for a suitable location of groundwater source in the small basin located at active tectonic area of the Lesser Himalaya i.e., Simar watershed (covering 4.62 Km2) was carried out as stated by the result of geospatial analysis, showing two strong accumulations cum recharging pockets located in the NNW portion of JNV campus, which are big source of groundwater, further validated by the 2-D resistivity as high potential groundwater zone. Keywords: Groundwater Hydrogeomorphology

resource,

Thematic

inventory,

Active

tectonic

zone,

ERT,

1.Introduction Groundwater resource is an unenduring natural component of the environment particularly in the tropical climo-morphogenic region of the world. Rather, it is very much confined within its unique geological setting. In the folded mountainous region like the Himalaya, it has grabbed in selected places based on its neotectonic actions. On the other hand, growing population concentration along with various anthropogenic activities has already been created a wide demand of potable water as it plays an important role not only for survival of the organisms but also for civilization growth of modern human society; even till the last decade of 20th Century, the large part of European countries was depended on groundwater for water supply (Chilton, 1996; Gyeltshen et al., 2019). Groundwater is the most valuable natural resource but limited in nature. The chance to hold the water in the rock bodies is a function of their types, origin, age, voids in forms of fractures or fissures and consolidated nature (Todd and Mays, 2012). Its availability varies from place to place and season to season under the influence of different hydrological settings (Suhag, 2016; Rahmati et al., 2016). For folded mountain regions, due to its complex geometry sometimes it is quite difficult to find water below the surface. So this is also linked with the identification of geological barriers in the hilly

terrain which became a hindrance to groundwater accumulation. Presently, all the hilly regions of Himalayas are under water stressed areas for the drinking water supply and India is going to face a severe water crisis for drinking purposes due to improper management of water resources (Singh et al., 2017; Thakkar, 2019). Still, a large chunk of the Himalayan population is dependent on the groundwater for its domestic and agricultural needs and the main source of water supply in the mountainous regions arise chiefly from excavated wells and from boreholes that are placed along major streams and valleys (Jasrotia and Kumar 2014; Jasrotia et al., 2019b; Bhat et al., 2019). Prior to the installation of boreholes or wells in the mountainous region, the identification and targeting of the groundwater zone are vital for decision-makers. The folded mountain region like the Himalaya exhibits extensive hydrogeological varieties and thus storage, flow and movement process of groundwater are also highly controlled by the complex geomorphological and structural characteristics. Although it is also found that in the mountain region the groundwater ejects on the surface in the forms of springs, either as seasonal or permanent (Chilton, 1996). From the last three decades, remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) have opened new paths for groundwater studies (Krishnamurthy et al., 2000). Satellite imageries offer quick and useful baseline information on parameters like lineaments, geology, geomorphology, drainage, and land use/land cover, etc. (Saraf and Choudhary, 1998). Remote sensing and GIS techniques have been applied successfully for groundwater prospecting and recharge sites (Karanth, 1987; Jasrotia et al., 2011; Jasrotia et al., 2019a; Naghibi et al., 2016) and integrated remote sensing and GIS techniques have also been used to delineate groundwater potential zones (Srinivasa and Jugran 2003; Anuradha and Prabhavathy, 2010; Oh et al., 2011; Jasrotia et al., 2016; Gyeltshen et al., 2019). In hard rock topography, groundwater availability is limited and groundwater occurrence in such rocks is mainly restricted to fractured and weathered horizons (Kumar and Kumar, 2010). The evaluation of groundwater reserves require studies and surveys that identify areas with high potential for exploration to anticipate the imminent geophysical surveys, which are expensive and time-consuming practice (Neal, 2004; Arabameri, 2019). In the present day scenario implementing remote sensing techniques in the field of groundwater hydrogeology becomes one of the broadly accepted attempts in domain of earth sciences (BonhamCarter, 1994; Neal, 2004; Ganapuram, 2009; Jasrotia et al., 2013; Nampak et al., 2014; Lee et al. 2018; Jasrotia et al., 2018; Adimalla and Taloor, 2020). The integration of geological and hydrogeological surveys along with the remote sensing inputs can provide better result for such type of investigation. Depending upon the slope nature (gradient and direction), rock types, vegetations adaptation, presence of lineaments, surface water bodies, drainage systems, network of channels, flow accumulation over the surface; the availability and nature of groundwater also differ. The electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) has already shown its efficiency for the assessment of groundwater condition (Stan and Stan-Kleczek, 2014). The integration between remote sensing and geophysical measures can give a fair understanding of all these physical factors. Using remote sensing techniques, it is very effective to delineate geological and geomorphological structures over the Earth surface (Alam et al., 2017; Taloor et al., 2017, Alam et al., 2018; Chen et al., 2019; Taloor et al., 2019; Kothyari et al., 2019). The advanced utility of resistivity techniques to monitor the groundwater scenario in the piedmont zone of Himalayas revealed excellent results (Israil et al., 2006) as such types of geo-structural settings put interesting issues for the delineation of groundwater source-point especially in the water crisis areas located near human habitats. Using this integrated approach, the present study shows the scope to use freely available remotely sensed data along with resistivity survey, a way towards the cost-effective inventory work, which helps in exploring the location having high possibility of groundwater resources and its long-term sustainability. The major objectives of the present study are to determine the geohydrological evolution of high gradient hilly land surface in lesser Himalaya developed on hard metasedimentary rocks, highly controlled by the active tectonic activity; to investigate the present hydrogeomorphological scenario in and around Simar watershed (a

small watershed located in the left bank of river Gomti) and to find out the groundwater zones for sustainable supply of water resources in the study area. 2. Study area The present study area located 17 km northwest of Bageshwar town in the left bank of Gomti river known as Simar watershed (Fig.1a-c). Being located in the lap of lesser and central Himalaya zone on rugged, diversified and steep topography, temperate to sub-humid climatic conditions with severe and long winter which creates a dry hydrological environment. The groundwater is highly discontinued due to the unfavourable geohydrological conditions and repeated tectonic disturbance. Besides steep ground slope, the formation of hard rock strata with lineaments develops poor groundwater recharge probability in the study area. The occurrence and movement of groundwater depends not only on the nature of the litho units and the nature of the interspaces/interstices but also on the degree of interconnection between them, vertical and aerial extension of joints, faults and/or shear zones and the local and regional geomorphology. Groundwater emerges as springs and seepage (locally called Srots and Naolas) under favourable physiographic conditions such as in gently sloping areas, broad valleys of rivers and along with the lithological contacts. The dominant occupant of Simar watershed is Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) along with few isolated human settlements like Simar village in the northwest and Bimrari in southeast. Geologically the study area is found in the Baijnath crystalline unit a part of Almora nappe which is constituted of mesograde metasediments and intimately associated with granitic rock (Valdiya, 1980). According to Heim and Gansser (1939); Gansser (1964) the limits of this nappe are respectively marked by the outcrops of the folded Almora and Baijnath thrust plane. The Baijnath crystalline unit is surrounded by Bilani and Sandra formations in the south composed of shale siltstone and slate. The northern part, of study area is covered by Sandra formation and Upper Deoban formation composed of thin limestone shale and quartzite (Fig.1c). 3. Dataset and methodology High spatial resolution earth observatory (EO) freely available data have been used from different open source and free downloadable data domains (Table 1) along with various large to medium scale thematic maps. An integrated conceptual method framework has been carried out in the study (Fig.2) divided into three parts •Thematic inventory and spatial data mining based on the various secondary sources have been carried out in the pre-field stage. After preparing different thematic maps, one map regarding the groundwater resource zone has been prepared using geo-visualization and simple overlay techniques using the soft computing platform. •Earth resistivity tomography (ERT) instrument used for collection of ground-based resistivity data. •Finally, the validation of GIS-based output with geophysical data and field investigations.

3.1 Geovisualization and thematic inventory of hydrogeomorphological parameters For the geological understanding, EO data of different bands of Landsat-8, (OLI) have been used for the band rationing and band combination tools. The band combination of Landsat-8, [OLI band 10 (TIR), band7 (SWIR) and band 3 (visible green)] has been used for after high-pass filtering (3x3) after the suppression of speckles in the images (with the function of co efficient of var. 1.0) for the features extraction of the local landscape. On the other hand, the combination between band 7 (SWIR), 5 (NIR) and 1 (visible blue) is used for the wet and dry characteristics of the surface i.e., soil and crystalline rocky surface respectively. Generally, these two surface conditions are found in a similar

tone in other bands of optical image. By using PCA-1 on SFCC of natural colour and NIR, different mineralogical compositions of surface components have been extracted for the study area (Fig.3a-b). For the understanding of the hydrological environment, the entire Simar watershed area has been divided into ten sub-watersheds based on the existing lower ordered river channels. To gain the total picture all the existing channels (ephemeral, seasonal and permanent) have been considered for delineating the sub-watershed, and these all are marked ‘A’ to ‘J’ arbitrarily (Fig.4a). Based on the geo-visualizing method all the streams have been mapped from the Landsat 8 (OLI) and Sentinel-2 data to make a base map of channel networks for the study area. On the basis of the base map different hydrological assessment, measures have been carried out (sub-watershed scale) using softcomputation tools based on the various formula (Table 2). By using remote sensing data (Sentinel-2) the ratio of specific bands is able to delineate the fixed theme, like the ratio between visible red and NIR (known as NDVI) depicts the ground scenario of photosynthesis active vegetation and its concentration. The NDVI has been calculated by the following formula (after Serrano et al., 2019).

NDVI = NIR - visible red / NIR + visible red Where, NDVI= normalized difference vegetation index, NIR= near infrared

Similarly, rationing between green (band 3 of Sentinel-2) and NIR (band 8 of Sentinel-2) has been used for the estimation of surface moisture condition using the following formula (after McFeeters, 1996; Du et al., 2016). NDWI= green – NIR / green + NIR Where, NDWI = normalised difference water index, NIR= near infrared

After preparation of the surface water accumulation, the geo-morphological and lineaments map have been overlaid and subsequently all the map superimposed on the Landsat in google engine for extracting the exact location for the groundwater source point.

3.2 Collection of field data through geological and geophysical survey During the field survey, different instruments (both minor and geophysical) have been used for assessing and validate the exact position of groundwater source point. For the structural assessment, simple geological techniques have been implied with the help of measuring tape, compass etc. Resistivity is now a well-accepted technique (which is also equal to the recERTocal of conductivity (ρ=1/σ) in geophysical survey). Table 3 classifies orientation and direction of geoelectric resistivity sections portrayed by six Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) profiles, characterized with 40 electrodes channels which has been carried out (A-B, C-D, E-F, G-H, I-J and K-L) in the different parts of the JNV campus and its surroundings (Fig.4b). Based on the nature of ground gradient, repeated surveys with different arrays have been performed and the array with lowest root mean square (RMS) has been considered for final assessment and thus the electrical properties of the area, the associated imprints of groundwater zone and resistivity of rocks were determined. 2-D multiple ERT profiles have been prepared with the help of Wenner, Dipole-Dipole and Wenner+Dipole array and used on the bases of accessibility. Based on the space availability and surface gradient, electrodes

are placed at 1m to 5m distance and the depth of the sections varies 12 to 36m from the surface. Graphical representation of all the geo-spatial and geophysical understanding is made by using different soft computation softwares. All pseudo section data used for tomography mapping (2-D) has undergone necessary topographic corrections and removal of errors. Talking about Wenner array method where all the 40 electrodes are collinear and the separations between adjacent electrodes are equal. The potential electrodes are between the current electrodes. The advantage of this array is that it has excellent vertical resolution but poor lateral resolution. By increasing the electrode number sensitivity of horizontal changes can also be improved (Loke, 2010). The Dipole-Dipole array has the advantage of relatively low EM coupling between the current and potential electrodes (Loke, 2011). It is very sensitive to horizontal changes in resistivity and in two dimensional survey, it gives better horizontal coverage (Loke, 2011). On the other hand, Wenner+Dipole Dipole shows both the horizontal as well as vertical resolution. In this geoelectric resistivity survey two sets of cables comprising 40 multi electrode switch boxes (using two sets of 20 electrodes) are used at 2.5, 1, 1.5, 1, 1 and 2 metre spacing along straight lines of A-B, C-D, E-F, G-H, I-J and K-L respectively. The last electrode at the end of section was attached with the earth resistivity meter for the uninterrupted current supply. The measurements, survey parameters and type of array adopted was monitored by GeoTest (Version 2.44) which also controls the geoelectric equipment in combination with many electrodes through Multi electrode Geo-electrics. It produced a graphical representation of the recorded subsurface apparent resistivity. The measured apparent resistivity data was processed in a two-dimensional (2D) inversion software RES2DINV (Geotomo) based on smoothness-constrain Gauss-Newton least squares inversion of apparent resistivity pseudo sections (Loke and Barker, 1996). To check the calculated resistivity section, a finite difference/finite element forward modelling subroutine was used to calculate the true resistivity values of the model. The readings were cross checked by repeating the survey in forward as well as backward directions. To obtain the true resistivity, 13 to 25 iterations have been performed and the RMS error found to be 1.56-4.3. 3.3 Validation and integration of EO data with geophysical output The outputs of GIS thematic layers and geophysical assessments have been integrated through overlaid analysis using soft computation tools. During this validation, the resistivity sections have also been considered along with the other associated variable like the concentration of vegetation patches, agricultural practices, spring location and their permanency, perception of local people, etc. The final map shows the exact location of groundwater aquifer with its approximate volume. 4. Analysis and discussion 4.1 Hydrogeomorphological characteristics of the study area Being located in active tectonic belt of Himalaya, different types of geological complexity have been found through geospatial understanding. Since, it is also located in the southern face of the Lesser Himalaya, its geohydrological characteristics are also very much significance for the groundwater condition. After all the unique geological setup along with the active tectonic features in and around the study area gives a complete portray (Fig. 5a-d). 4.1.1 Geological characteristics The strike arrangement is found in NNE to SSW direction and the dip is stretched towards NNW having the amount of 10⁰ to 40⁰ in the JNV campus and surrounding area. But in the northern portion the Simar watershed dip is 55⁰ towards SW direction. Based on the relation between lineaments (Fig.5a), underground geological structure and topographic formation, it can be assessed that one kind of inversion of topography has evolved in this study area. By using PCA-1 on standard false colour composition (SFCC) of natural colour and NIR, different mineralogical composition of surface component has been extracted (Fig.5b). By using the band combination technique of Landsat8 (OLI band no 10 (TIR), 7(SWIR) and 3 (visible green) various kinds of geological features have been extracted from the local landscape (Fig.5c) and the wet and dry characteristics of surface i.e, soil

and crystalline rocky surface. In the image output the light blue colour represents the settlement area/built-up environment i.e, building, roads and other infrastructures. Deep blue shows the water flow portion of the river channel and cyan indicates the sand deposited area in the river channel and also in its surroundings. Yellow coloured patches show the alluvium deposited piedmonts of hills. Here all the hills are precipitous in nature which are appeared in red to brown colour (Fig.5d) as shown in false colour composite (FCC) whereas, the combination between band 7 (SWIR), 5 (NIR) and 1 (visible blue) shows structural output of major features using speckle suppression and high-pass (3x3) technique (Fig. 5d in FCC). The detail surface mineralogical composition has been proposed in Table 4. As the Simar watershed is developed by outlier formation of Almora Nappe located on the syncline belt; its geological succession is fully ‘inversion of topography’ in nature. The hills and ridges are made off by older crystalline rocks through the process of metamorphism. The eroded ferrous leached components are deposited on the piedmont area. A few streams have able to developed fans in the foothills areas where ground slopes are found in abrupt change. These fans are mainly composed by pebbles, rock fragments and debris i.e, colluvial fans. The narrow and wide are also developed in the study area, mainly composed with pebbles and coarse sands. 4.1.2 Geomorphological characteristics The Simar watershed has a fifth-order drainage system of the Gomti river ranges from 950 to 1466m (Fig.6a). Wide morphological variation has been found within the little span of coverage has been described in Table 5. Since the Simar watershed is located in the southern face of Baijnath ridge which is fully controlled and evolved by under the influence of Baijnath formation (Valdia, 1980). Different types of complex fluvial processes are found in this watershed (Fig.6b). Escarpment slope (scarp faces) are also noticed in the steep and highly dissected area through the rapid and high energetic down cutting process of the fluvial system. The ruggedness development of the watershed shows that the scarp faces have a high level of ratio value (more than 75%) along with the high slope. A few isolated narrow valleys are also developed near to these scarp faces and formed gorge like narrow valley structure. On the other hand, areas occupied by structural hill slopes have high to moderate ruggedness ratio (values rages from 41% to 58%) and ground slope is also moderate with varying direction with wide valley (Fig.6c-d). Head ward eroded areas are also clearly noticed in few pockets located near to the steep and scarp faces areas. In the downhill portion two different pockets of colluvial fans have been marked over the gentle to moderate slope areas, one is located in the subwatershed ‘D’ at the north-western portion of JNV campus and two another colluvial fans are found in the down valley of ‘I’ and ‘J’ sub-watersheds at Bamrari. These are developed over the fragmented quartzite basement with 36⁰-41⁰ dipping at NNW direction. The composition of these two fans is mixed shared with boulders, debris and granulated regoliths with the metasedimentary rocks in its basement. The soil profile is not well-developed here but the soil depth is found 5 cm to 12 cm during field observation. These fans are used for the fruits orchard and seasonal cultivation. The drainage system is quite complex in nature; primarily the rectangular pattern has been initiated due to the alternate position of soft and hard rock but different kinds of tectonic activity along with the development of fracture, joints and isolated slip surface created the structural controlled drainage patterns. 4.1.3 Hydrological characteristics The analysis of hydrological variables has been carried out with the help of Arc GIS software. For this characterization drainage density, length of overland flow in km/km2, constant of channel maintenance, channel flow accumulation and mean bifurcation ratio (Rb), the direction of flow, have been determined by grid based measurement technique. The drainage density (Dd) lay emphasis on spacing among the streams, thus providing quantitative measure of length of stream within square grid of the area in terms of km/km2 (Strahler, 1964). Being, considered as an inverse function of permeability. The drainage density indirectly indicates the permeability and porosity of the terrain due to its relationship with surface runoff

(Fig.7a) and the drainage density in the study area varies from 4.4 to 8.4km/km2. The Simar area has very low drainage density whereas the area located above the JNV campus has a high drainage density. Length of overland flow (Lof) is a length of water over the ground before it gets concentrated into certain stream channels used as a measure of non-channel water flow above the earth’s surface (Horton, 1945). It independently influences the topsoil detachment, transportation and more effective on gently sloped areas rather than steep slope areas. Low value of Lof indicates high relief short flow paths, more runoff, and less infiltration which leads to more vulnerable to the flash flooding. Meanwhile, a high value of Lof means gentle slopes and long flow paths, more infiltration, and reduced runoff. In the study area, LoF values ranges from 0.125 to 0.058, higher Lof value areas indicating high chance of seepage flow and found near the Simar settlement area. As it is located in the foothill portion and having a gentle slope condition along with the loose materials, the process of Lof is quite strong compared to the other area of watershed (Fig.7b). Owing to the presence of hard rock surface in the upper portion of study area, Lof is very negligible. Schumm (1954) introduced constant of channel maintenance as the ratio between the area of a drainage basin and total length of all the channels. The constant of channel maintenance (Ccm) plays an important role for the accumulation of surface flow through the runoff process. The importance of this constant is that it provides a quantitative expression of the minimum, limiting area required for the development of a length of channel. High value of Ccm denotes that large area is required to produce surface flow. Since this area is fully covered with the hard crystalline rock and characterized by steep slope the Ccm value in the most of the study area is low and lower value of Ccm represents less chances of infiltration with high surface runoff. The study area (Fig.7c) shows that the maximum area has a very low value of Ccm and high discharge of surface runoff occurs only during the rainy season. On the other hand, accumulation of channel flow (Cfa) denotes the water accumulation capacity in the channel during the time of peak discharge. Cells with a high flow accumulation are areas of concentrated flow and may be used to identify stream channels. In the study area, high accumulation is found along the higher order streams (Fig.7d). Bifurcation ratio (Rb) is the proportion of the total number of streams in a given order to the total number streams of the next higher order (Horton, 1945). Low Rb value point towards less geologic controls and direct the less distortion in drainage development. Higher values of Rb denoted the dominance of overland flow and flash flood risk during heavy rainstorm event (Kanth and Hassan, 2012). The Rb values throughout the Simar watershed ranges from and 1 to 3.75 (Fig.8a). The highest value of the bifurcation ratio is found in the ‘E’ stream system which denotes the utmost controlled of the geological activity and complex river system. Besides the ‘J’ stream system, ‘D’ is also contribution more balanced Rb. It is determined by materials of underlying surface, type and amount of vegetation cover and relief properties. Based on the direction of flow map (Fig.8b) it can be concluded that maximum area has the south directional flow regime and only a few pockets have northern flowing capacity which is also being highly controlled by structural constraints of local geology. 4.1.4 Other associated variables There are certainly a few other variables that play an important role in the assessment of the groundwater resources and its associated characterization. Vegetation related associations like its development, arrangement, types and seasonal variation were measured by the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) by using the optical remote sensing data (Fig.8c). Very low values of NDVI (0.1 and below) correspond to barren areas, rocky surface, sand, or snow. Moderate values represent shrub and grassland (0.2 to 0.3), while high values indicate temperate and tropical rainforests (0.6 to 0.8).

In the study area value ranges from 0.17 to 0.58, the value of NDVI in the lying area of the Simar watershed area is quite high as most of the area is covered with seasonal shrubs. In the upper reaches owing to the presence of bare ground composed with hard crystalline rocks it is low. The area under bare surface have also been noticed throughout the year and these areas are basically located in the steep cum scarp slope. Dissected types of morphological units results in the scatter vegetation mainly pine has been grown over most of the study area but the patches of orchards of pyrus (naspati) and banana trees are also noticed in the western portion JNV campus; these are also found in the area composod of debris, boulder and loose unconsolidated material. The ability to holding the moisture over the land surface area was also measured by the normalized difference water index (NDWI) is a satellite-derived index from the near-infrared (NIR) and green bands are known to be strongly related to the plant water content considered as a very good proxy for plant water stress (Fig.8d) particularly in the hilly terrain and these all variables are more vital for the targeting the underground water assessment. In the piedmont plain and the area covered by the colluvial fan, large land segments has compact vegetation (Fig. 9a-c) which is suitable for soil moisture-bearing activity. The NDWI value has also shown same characteristics in the Simar watershed. Outside the Simar locality the maximum negative values of NDWI which means a high probability of moisture concentration is found in three pockets which are the pour points or mouth portions of ‘C subwatershed; two spots are located in extreme northwest side of JNV campus; and in the Bamrari locality. Out of these three places, Simar and Bamrari are old settlement areas located in the piedmont zone and local inhabitants are completely depended on the groundwater resource on these pockets. On the other hand JNV campus is located on the colluvial fan developed over the meta-sedimentary rocky surface and it is observed from the lineament map, that JNV campus is surrounded by high lineament concentration (Fig.9d) which makes the locality a good prospect zone of groundwater occurrence. Although, the sub-watershed ‘E’ and ‘J’ also have moderate nature of surface water accumulation and the rest of the other sub watershed area has low to very low nature of NDWI. 4.2 Geophysical characteristics Geophysical techniques play a pivotal role in investigating the groundwater prospects with very high accuracy. The resistivity outputs in the study area show a significant result in the section AB designed in the dry bed of the Gomti river (Fig. 10a-b) with RMS error 2.4% and located on the left side of river permanent channel. The Wenner+Dipole Dipole array output shows an almost negligible presence of groundwater in this section. A thin pocket of water concentration zone has been noticed in this section but it is confined in three pockets (within the depth up to 14 m from the ground) having less than 184 ohm.m. The reason behind this is surface infiltration from various channels. Underneath this region, there was high conductive material concentration covering rest of the section. At the surface (0 to 7.45 m) the haphazard concentration of large buried boulders of quartzite found in the area also indicates the very high conductivity nature. Two very small spots are also demarcated at the surface portion which indicates the channels of small tributaries, Gomti river. Since, the Wenner+Dipole Dipole method creates better vertical and horizontal resolutions it clearly demarcates the thin pocket of soil moisture concentration. The section C-D shows a well-built accumulation of groundwater which stretches from surface of the section at 8 m depth. Since the section was developed on the playground and the ground has a strong retaining wall at near to ‘C’ point, a vast water storage zone has been developed towards ‘C’. It is actually a stock of infiltrated water, stored in the filling portion of playground. In the same way channels of sub-watershed ‘D’ water infiltrated strongly and formed pursed water storage at the surface portion of ‘E-F’ section, located at 25 m to 55 m distance from ‘E’ station. But due to the presence of a large hard and metamorphic rock having more than 3100 (ohm.m) resistivity beneath this storage; this pursed storage is not able to develop permanent aquifer. On the other way, an aquifer pocket has been noticed towards ‘F’ station (79 m from the first electrode). Foot of scarp-cliff location along with the deposition of loose materials, creates this aquifer in a long sustainable condition. Section ‘G-H’ shows the absence of strong groundwater pocket; although the section was developed across the colluvial fan associated with

agriculture firm. But the section ‘I-J’ which was expanded along the colluvial fan confirms the presence of one strong and big aquifer along with one moist cum porous pocket and surface accumulation zone. Similarly, the section ‘K-L’ indicates one big aquifer at 5 m to 13 m depth and it extends about 41 m to 92 m from the first electrode. And just beneath this aquifer lies a giant impervious hard rock mass having the resistivity more than 4000 ohm.m, as well as bounded by porous materials in three sides refer to Fig.4b. As the surface has 10⁰ to 25⁰ slope towards the ‘K’ station, it has the ability to recharge very frequently by the surface flow and spring. Owing to the favourable condition and good soil-waterplant interaction, the adaptation and growth of banana trees (Fig.11a) has also much sustained particularly on the surface portion of this section. Targeted groundwater source area marked by orange colour circle (Fig.9a-d) indicates the location aquifers. At a distance of 130 m from the first electrode, there is a permanent spring which further validates the remote sensing based earth observations (Fig. 11b). 5. Conclusion In this study intensive and scientific investigations were made based on the integration of geospatial and geophysical techniques which able to investigate the groundwater prospects with very high accuracy. The techniques of remote sensing made it possible to spatially analysis the micro zoning imprints of water availability which can easily be validated through the geophysical information. As groundwater resources is not well-distributed for mass consumption in the study area but the engineering and technical measures are the only possible ways to sustain these aquifers for long term. As these are located on the hard and meta-sedimentary rock, aquifers can easily be recharged through the surface accumulated water. So, a few recharged pits and trenches are being suggested for immediate construction in the upper reaches of the JVN campus. The colluvial fan area of the upper reaches of JVN campus which are (located along the section ‘K-L’) has the capability to recharge the ground surface with very good infiltration capacity from the sheet flow and spring discharge. For the long term sustainability of groundwater resources in the JNV area, structural measures along with engineering inputs are being needed to recharge the groundwater resource and aquifer as active. Based on the results study has exhumed a few observations that • the hydrogeomorphology of the study area is totally different from the Beijnath Formation and there is a wide range of variability in terms of geomorphology and tectonic imprints. • the local slope is very steep at the hill portion, there is little chance to infiltrate. Meanwhile, the rocks of hills are meta-sedimentary (quartzite dominated). So the piedmont plain and downhill areas have significant capacity to infiltrate the surface water and due to the presence of hard rocks, during the rainy season these infiltrated water leached out to the main channel of Gomti river. • the area of JNV campus surrounded by two small tributaries of Gomti river with quite extended catchment area which have a good scope to accumulate rainwater during monsoon period and supported by the good number of lineaments. • the uniqueness of vegetation concentration is indicating the good amount of surface water accumulation in the NNW portion of JNV campus with lithology, structure, slope, lineaments. • the result of geospatial analysis shows two strong accumulations cum recharging pockets located in the NNW parts of JNV campus, which is a big source of groundwater further validated by the 2-D resistivity as high potential groundwater zone in the study area. Acknowledgements Authors are thankful to the Editor in Chief for constructive approach through the review process. Authors would like to thank all the anonymous reviewers for constructive and thought provoking comments which helps in improving the quality of the manuscript.

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Table1. Detail of dataset used in the present study.

Geomorphology

Hydrology

Landsat-8, OLI (b-10,7,3)

Band combination

Landsat-8, OLI(b- 7,5,1)

PCA (1)

Landsat-8, OLI (b-2345)

Lithology

Valdia, 1980

Structure & Lineament Dip, Strike etc

Landsat-8, Primary Survey

Landform

Sentinel-2

ERDAS & Q GIS

Slope & Aspect

ASTER DEM

ERDAS & Q GIS

Terrain & Contour

ASTER DEM

ERDAS & Q GIS

Drainage basin map

ASTER DEM & Landsat – 8, OLI

ERDAS & Q GIS

Ruggedness ratio

ASTER DEM

ERDAS & Q GIS

Bifurcation ratio

ASTER DEM & Landsat8 Drainage Base map prepared from ASTER DEM, Landsat-8

Drainage density Channel flow accumulation

Data used

Data source

Used software ERDAS & Q GIS

www.usga.gov.in

Geology

Geo-visualizing theme High pass 3x3

ERDAS & Q GIS ERDAS & Q GIS ERDAS & Q GIS ERDAS & Q GIS

Primary Survey

www.usga.gov.in

Variable

ArcGIS & Q GIS ArcGIS & Q GIS ArcGIS & Q GIS

Stream ordering

Resistivity

ArcGIS & Q GIS

Direction of flow

ArcGIS & Q GIS

Length of overland flow NDVI

ArcGIS & Q GIS Sentinel

NDWI

Landsat-8 & Sentinel-2

Resistance

Lippmann 4point light Technical Data Operating Instructions Version 4.45, 2012

www.u sgs.gov www. geomotosoft.com

Others

Constant of channel maintenance

Primar y Survey

ERDAS & Q GIS ERDAS & Q GIS GeoTest (for controlling the geoelectric equipment in combination with multiple electrodes)

RES2DINV (for determining the 2-D resistivity model of the subsurface)

Table 2. Different parameters of hydrological attributes for the assessment in the study area. Attributes Watershed area (Wa)

Equation/method used Area of the catchment in Km2 derived through GIS operation Hierarchical order of streams (through GIS analysis)

Stream order (µ)

Strahler (1964)

Nµ Wa Lµ Dd = Wa

Drainage frequency (Fd)

Horton (1945)

Fd =

Drainage density (Dd) Constant of channel maintenance (Ccm) Mean bifurcation ratio (Rbm)

References Horton (1945)

Horton (1945)

Schumm(1954)

Ccm = 1/ Drainage density (Dd) Average value of bifurcation ratio in all order for a watershed

Length of overland flow (Lof)

Lof =

Strahler (1964) Horton (1945)

1 *2 Dd

Table 3. Orientation and distribution of resistivity sections in the study area with adopted methods. S.No. Section

Length of Direction the Section (m) 200 SSE to NNW 80 SE to NW 120 NNE to SSW

1 2 3

A-B C-D E-F

4

G-H

80

SE to NW

5

I-J

80

S to N

6

K-L

160

S to N

Locality

Considering Method

Left bank of River Gomti Playground of JNV Across the small tributary of R. Gomti(formed 'D' sub-watershed) at the down-stream confluence point Beside the JNV Hostel, across the colluvial fan, with orchard

Wenner+Dipole Dipole Wenner+Dipole Dipole Wenner

Beside the JNV Hostel, along the colluvial fan, agriculture field with orchard Beside the JNV Hostel, along the colluvial fan, agriculture field with orchard

Wenner

Wenner+Dipole Dipole

Dipole Dipole

Table 4. The detail output of surface mineralogical composition. Surface nature Basic & crystalline components Silica components Ferrous components

Rock type with predominant mineral Location Amphibolite Hornblende, Gneiss, Schist Steep hills and ridges with local Tourmaline bearing rocks Quartzite River site and bank lowland Mica Schist, Chlorite Schist, Phyllite Piedmont of hills

Table 5. General description of surface characteristic of different morphological units in Simar watershed area. Morphological Unit Dissected Slope

Hill Steep to hanged

Head-ward erosion pockets Structural slope

Nature of slope

over

Steep and concave in nature

Ruggedness Ratio

Range of Drainage characteristics elevation (m) High 1350-1550 First order dominancy, initiation of channel, parallel in nature, smooth drainage texture High 1550-1650 Ephemeral in nature, developed in confined in break portion of slope pockets Moderate to 1250-1500 Second order dominancy, seasonal high

hill Steep to moderate, rectilinear in nature Scarp slope Over hang High 1300-1450 Area of overland flow Narrow valley Moderate Moderate to 1250-1400 Third order dominancy, mostly high permanent, coarse drainage texture Wide valley Moderate Moderate 1200-1400 Drained by higher order channels Colluvial fans Moderate Low 1130-1250 Very coarse drainage texture, presence of springs Piedmonts Gentle to Very low 1100-1300 Area of seepage water and seasonal moderate springs

Fig.1(a) Location map of India (b) Uttrakahnad state showing the location of study area (c) Geology map of study area [modified after, Gansser (1964)].

Fig.2 Conceptual framework of the methodology used in the present study.

Fig.3 Conceptual framework for performing the PCA among the bands of EO data (after Genc and Smith, 2005).

Fig. 4(a) Location of ten sub-watersheds, (b) Location of resistivity sections in and around the JNV campus used in present study.

Fig. 5 Geological setup in and around the study area: (a) distribution of lineaments; (b) optical RS data based PCA-1 output shown the surface mineralogical composition; (c)wet and dry surface detection using band combination, (d) structural output of major features using speckle suppression and high-pass (3x3) technique (Source: prepared by authors using Landsat-8, OLI data).

Fig.6 (a) Elevation map showing the drainage order (b) Geomorphology map, (c) Nature of slope map, (d) Ruggedness index map of the study area.

Fig. 7 (a)Variation of drainage density map, (b) Length of overland flow map of Simar watershed (c)Variation of Constant of channel maintenance (Ccm) map, (d) Channel flow accumulation (Cfa) map of the study area.

Fig. 8 (a) Bifurcation ratio (b) Direction of overland flow maps of the study area (c) NDVI map, (d) NDWI map of the study area.

Fig.9 Targeted groundwater source area marked by orange coloured circle, (a) overlay analysis based on Landsat -8 on the google imagery(b) 3-D view of the targeted area (c) overlay with 50% transparency (d) Lineaments based groundwater prospects map.

Fig. 10(a)Resistivity section along the line A-B and C-D (based on Wenner+Dipole Dipole array); E-F (based on Wenner array).

Fig.10(b) Resistivity section along the line G-H (based on Wenner+Dipole Dipole array); I-J (based on Wenner array) and K-L (based on Dipole Dipole array).

Fig. 11(a) Presence of Banana trees in the alpine region of active tectonic area. (b) Collection of spring water in the area.

Highlights: •

To establish the link with identification of geological barriers in the tectonically active hilly terrain which became a hindrance for groundwater accumulation.

•

Delineation of GWR zones in the active tectonic area of the Lesser Himalaya i.e, Simar watershed for the alternative as well as sustainable supply of water resource with the help of Earth Observatory (EO) techniques.

•

The study shows the two pockets of aquifer in perched condition, having good association with hydrogeomorphological variables and growth of unique vegetation colony.