Abstract No.395, Theme No.

14

Identification of Fresh Groundwater Areas Using Remote Sensing and GIS

K K. Singh
Research Scholar, Department of Civil Engineering, IITB-Monash Research Academy, IIT Bombay, Powai-400076, Mumbai, India,
Email: kunal_singh@iitb.ac.in

V. N. Bajpai
Professor, Department of Geology, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007, India, Email: vnbajpai@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT: The National Capital Region, Delhi faces acute water scarcity and the available underground water is severely
polluted. The groundwater resources in the area have been heavily exploited and also there is a huge demand of water in the city. With
this in view the study was undertaken to evaluate the fresh groundwater prospects zones employing Remote Sensing and GIS
techniques in the North Campus of University of Delhi, situated in the foothill region of North Delhi ridge. Efforts were made to
merge the LISS III and PAN image in tandem with water table mapping to demarcate the fresh groundwater prospects zones. The
study demonstrates that the merged image provides better results with more contrast than the corresponding individual images. It has
also been observed that the fresh groundwater is restricted in the foot hill region and in the fractured Quartzitic rocks of the North
Delhi ridge.
INTRODUCTION
The study area, North campus of University of Delhi is
located in the northern district of Delhi National Capital
Region (NCR) of India (Fig. 1). It lies between latitude
28 41' 56"N and 28 39' 57"N and longitude 77 11' 50"E
and 77 14' 09"E and is included in Survey of India
toposheet no. 53H/2NE on 1:25000 scale. The area has
been selected because fresh groundwater availability in
the Delhi-NCR is a matter of deep concern, as water is
either not available or available at great depth (>1000m)
and also the shallow water table is saline. The areas of
limited fresh groundwater occurrence can be expected in
the ridges and one of such ridge is the North Delhi ridge,
where on its west foot hill region, the North campus,
University of Delhi is situated.

Fig. 1. Location map of the study area

Physiographically, the area is undulating terrain
with linear ridge, striking NNE-SSW in the central part
and Najafgarh drain is flowing in the west. The river
Yamuna is flowing N to S in the eastern most part of the
region. The general elevations of the land surface ranges
from 200 m to 217 m above mean sea level (MSL) while
the elevations of the ridge area vary from 215 m to 240 m
above MSL. The climate of the area is marked by semi-

arid with extreme winters (1-2C) and summers (49-50C)

intervened by rainy season. The average rainfall in the
region is about 700 mm. Geologically the area consists of
quartzite of Delhi Supergroup` of Precambrian age,
overlain by Quaternary alluvium with intervening dunal
sand. The alluvium has been deposited on an uneven
basement, having sufficient storage of water in the
subsurface, however, also causing water logging and
salinity. The water logging has severely affected the
heritage buildings of the university and requires the
engineering treatment. It has been observed that the
surroundings of the ridge have a boon of fresh water,
which can be exploited for water supply. Since, the
construction in the university campus is continuously
going on, the demand of fresh water supply is accordingly
increasing. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)
supply is many times not enough particularly in summer
season, so, it is necessary to be self-dependent. Besides,
the work undertaken by Department of Geology,
University of Delhi, on different hydrogeological aspects
(Paul Prabhakar, 1985; Reddy, 1989; Bajpai and Paul
Prabhakar, 1993; Purohit, 2000; Bhardwaj, 2004), many
researchers have also reported the assessments of
groundwater conditions made with remote sensing
techniques (Baldev et al., 1991; Krishnamurthy et al.,
1992; Krishnamurthy, et al., 1992; Krishnamurthy &
Srinivas, 1995; Manavalan et al., 1993;). But no detail
study on the part of satellite data-based fresh groundwater
prospects zone delineation for groundwater exploration
and management is available at such a local scale. With
this in view, the present work has been thus undertaken to
have a better assessment of the situation in the university
campus.
In the present work, the hydrogeomorphic
classification of the terrain has been carried out on IRS
LISS III image to understand the surface and subsurface
distribution of water. The results are further substantiated
on merged images of LISS III and PAN for better
understanding and evaluation of water resources at local

Abstract No.395, Theme No.14

scales. There are several techniques for data fusion of

multi-sensor images in the remote sensing literature (Yao
and Gilbert, 1984; Chavez et al., 1991; Weydahl et al.,
1995; Niemann et al., 1998; Saraf, 1999; Zhang, 1999;
Gamba and Houshmand, 1999). Data fusion is capable of
integrating different imagery to generate more information
than can be derived from a single sensor image (Chen et
al., 2003). The water table contour map has been prepared
to indicate the direction of ground water flow in the study
area and also to know the areas of high and low recharge.
Water samples have been collected from the located bore
wells (Fig. 1) and specific electrical conductance
measurement has been done to demarcate the areas of
fresh and saline groundwater. Also such areas have been
demarcated on IRS FCC and merged images.
DATA USED AND METHODOLOGY
In the present work, the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite
(IRS) LISS III sensor, multispectral band image and high
resolution (5.8 m) panchromatic (PAN) band image have
been procured from the National Remote Sensing Centre
(NRSC), Hyderabad, India. The time of IRS LISS III data
has been selected as 1st week March, which is suitable for
vegetational differentiation. Comparison has been made
from the Dec. month LISS III image, when the vegetation
is on the reducing side.
This section also summarizes the spatial
enhancement procedures to merge the IRS LISS III image
and the PAN image. We used ERDAS Imagine 8.7, image
processing software and ArcView 3.2-a, geographical
information system (GIS) software, for the image
processing and mapping steps. The FCC images are
constructed by combining the blue, green and red colours
(bands 2, 3 and 4) and then resolution merge, spatial
enhancement technique has been applied following the
principal component method and cubic convolution
resampling techniques to merge the PAN and LISS III
images. Further. hydrogeomorphic classification has been
carried out based on visual and digital image classification
techniques. Water table measurements have been done on
the located wells in the area (Fig. 1) and water table
contour map has been prepared using ArcView GIS. Also
water samples have been collected from these bore wells
and specific electrical conductance measurement has been
carried out using the soil/water quality analyzer kit model
DB-1206 (Decibel Scientific Industries, Chandigarh,
India). Finally, fresh and saline groundwater areas have
been identified and demarcated on the satellite images.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Hydrogeomorphic Classification
Hydrogeomorphologically, the area has been classified
into the rocky tract, the pediment, the alluvial plain and
the valley fill. All these areas can be distinguished on IRS
LISS III FCC image, however, with more contrast on
PAN and merged images of LISS III and PAN. The

maximum contrast for visualizing different type of

features is on the merged image, because it has the higher
spatial resolution of PAN image and multispectral
characteristics of LISS III image. This has also been
indicated earlier by mapping of furrows within the
alluvium in the Golf links of Delhi region (Saraf, 1999).
The rocky tract appears as oval ridge, extending
in NNE-SSW direction as visible on LISS III, PAN and
merged image (Locations R, Figs. 3 a, b and 4 a). Rocky
tract consists of Quartzite interbedded with schist of Delhi
Supergroup. The rocks are highly fractured and show
three sets of joints as NW-SE, E-W and NE-SW as
prominent trends (Fig. 2 a). The beds dip in SE direction
with an angle of 44. The NE-SW trending joints are
vertical to sub-vertical (Reddy, 1989). Within the rocky
tract on merged image, the water bodies appear as bluish
tone (Locations W, Fig.4 a), whereas, in PAN image as
dark black tone (Locations W, Fig. 3 b), and the vegetated
areas appears as reddish brown to red (Locations G, Fig.4
a). At certain places the joints are very deep and are
exposed to water table making extensive lakes as
Khunikhar (Location K Fig. 2 b) and Sarpakar Lake.
These lakes provide recharge and water supply to ridge
and pediment areas.

Fig. 2. a) Fractured quartzitic rocks with three sets of

joints as NW-SE, E-W and NE-SW, b) Khunikhar lake
In the rocky tract distinct dark brown depressions
(Locations D, Fig.4 a) indicate either forest or deep-water
bodies. The bright red colour indicates the mixed
vegetation of grasslands, parks and shrubs (Locations G,
Fig.4 a). Constructed areas and road networks are best
differentiated on PAN image (Locations C, Fig.3 b) as
compared to that on merged image. The constructed areas
appear as white tone with their rectangular boundaries.

Fig. 3. a) IRS LISS III image, b) PAN image

The pediment situated on the western side and in
the immediate vicinity of the rocky tract, appears pinkish
to yellowish red with network of roads in the northern part
on merged image (Locations P, Fig.4 a). The pediment is

Abstract No.395, Theme No.14

basically rock pediment covered by thickness of alluvium

ranging from about 5m to 50m in the university campus.
While, the shallow pediment extends to a depth of about
30m, the deep pediment extends to a depth of about 50m.
The water quality all along the contact of the rocky tract
with pediment following the University road (Fig.1)
joining the Shankar Hall, Gwyer Hall, and St. Stephens
College is fresh. The area shows typical buried
microdrainage basin formed between the Ridge and the
Najafgarh drain. This is indicated by several shadowy
reddish pink areas within the region showing drainage
flowing towards west and northwest shown by black lines
on the merged image (Fig.4 a). Thus, the University
Campus and surrounding areas appear to be within an
extensive pediment with channel network buried under
urbanisation.

Fig. 4. a) Merged image, b) Water table contour map

The alluvial upland appears with sharp contrast
to pediment towards south and west, and is dominated by
bluish green tone (Locations A, Fig.4 a). The Alluvium
consists mostly of brown sand with clay and kankar. The
area has shallow groundwater table (depth less than 3m) at
places, which shows red reflectance due to healthy
vegetation. Such areas are having fresh water as found in
the corner of Miranda House Hostel Campus towards
Gandhi Bhawan. In fact, the road (Chatra Marg, Fig.1)
joining Vice-chancellor residence, Department of Geology
and Department of Botany is the boundary line of the
fresh water and brackish water towards Miranda house
and Khalsa College. This road is also the dividing line of
buried pediment and alluvial upland. On alluvial upland,
where the salt efflorescence patches are present as within
the University playground, Miranda House, Khalsa
College ground, and University-Police Playground,
(Locations S, Fig 4 a), these appear yellowish white
surrounded by yellowish red patches due to green
vegetation. The white patches of salt efflorescence on
Landsat images also appear as a common feature in the
vicinity of Ganga and Yamuna canal systems (Bajpai &
Gokhale, 1991).
The valley fill is situated to the west of road
(Patel Marg, Fig.1) joining Miranda House and Patel
Chest Institute gate. The area extends towards west
approximately all along the Najafgarh drain which
consists of mostly clay with saline water to a depth of
about 200m, as found in geophysical surveys (deep
resistivity and gravity) carried out by Bhanumurty et al.,

(1978). The Najafgarh drain appears dark gray on the

merged image (Fig.4 a), which otherwise appears light
bluish scattered line on LISS III image (Fig. 3 a). The
several shallow hand pumps in alluvial valley fill area
yield brackish to saline water.
Water Table Contour Map
Water table contour map based on elevations of the water
table for different locations has been depicted in figure 4
b). As evident from the map the contours are closer
towards ridge indicating relatively higher hydraulic
gradient, however, less hydraulic conductivity, away from
the ridge. Such areas are situated on shallow buried
pediment between University playground and the ridge
(Location LP, Fig. 4 b). At selected locations within the
ridge area the groundwater elevations are 217m and 219m
(Fig. 4 b). Between the ridge area in the east and the
Najafgarh drain in the west, the water table elevation
contours range from 212m to 205m. A general observation
is that contours in the Delhi University Campus area are
widely spaced as depicted between 210m and 209m and
between 208m and 207m. The wide spacing shows more
hydraulic conductivity (Location HP, Fig. 4 b). Several
shallow tubewell borings in the campus show fine to
medium sand, which blankets the rock pediment. As
mentioned earlier, the pediment area has a thickness to a
maximum of about 50m. It is interesting to note that this
area appears bright to dark red on the merged image
(Locations P, Fig. 4 a). The dark red colour also indicates
typical boundary characteristics of channel pattern
directed towards W and NW. This is in conformity to the
flow lines directed towards W and NW (Locations F1 and
F2, Fig. 4 b) as indicated on the water table contour map.
Specific Electrical Conductance
Specific electrical conductance measurements show the
conductivity values in the area ranges from 900S/cm to
12,000S/cm. In the rocky tract it ranges from 900S/cm
to 1500S/cm indicating the occurrence of fresh and
potable water. In the pediment area (onward from the
foothill region of the ridge towards Geology department)
the conductivity values range from 850S/cm to
3500S/cm. The conductivity value of 2000S/cm in the
dugwell in the University Playground indicates the
presence of fresh water. The deep aquifer in the pediment
region (aquifer in fractured quartzite; 55m - 80m of depth)
at USIC gives the conductivity value of 2100S/cm,
which is fresh and potable water. Specific electrical
conductance of water ranging from 9000S/cm to
12000S/cm from the several borings along the Khalsa
College, Miranda House and Patel Chest lines indicate
that the water is from brackish to saline. In all these areas,
the salt efflorescence patches are indicated by white tone
in the grasslands and playgrounds (Location S, Fig. 4 a).
In all these areas the water of dynamic storage (infiltrated

Abstract No.395, Theme No.14

stored water to a shallow depth during monsoon; JulyOctober) can be used for irrigation and drinking.
The deep valley fill is situated on either side of
Najafgarh drain in its close vicinity. The subsurface
material in this region consists of clay saturated with
saline water. The artificial grassland squares in such areas
do not develop to greater spread and are indicated by
yellowish white tone (Locations, Y, Fig. 4 a). It may be
mentioned here that wherever the palaeochannels meet the
Najafgarh drain after passing through valley fill region,
the areas can be expected of low conductivity (Locations
L, Fig. 4 a).
CONCLUSIONS
High-resolution satellite data is useful for visual
assessment of surfacial features such as geomorphology,
vegetation,
water
bodies,
settlement
etc.
Hydrogeomorphic classification is better possible on
merged image. A buried drainage system in the northern
part of the area between the ridge and Najafgarh drain
oriented towards west and northwest has been also
discovered on the merged image on the basis of dark red
to bright red channel boundary characteristics. In rest of
the area, particularly towards south the bluish green tone
does not indicate the presence of drainage. This study
showed the usefulness of merged image for water quality
assessments at a local scale. This type of information can
be very useful in groundwater management to monitor and
explore the fresh groundwater water at local scale.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank to University authorities
especially, the Prof. C.R.Babu, the then Pro Vice
Chancellor for providing funds and encouragement for
such a work.