ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Water
Sec. Water Resource Management
Spatial Analysis of Groundwater Quality and Potential for Irrigation Using Hydrogeological and Water Quality Parameters: Insights from Bargarh Canal Command Area
Provisionally accepted
Priyanka Mohapatra1Jagadish Chandra Paul1Dwarika Mohan Das2Ambika Prasad Sahu1Sanjay Kumar Raul1
Laishram Kanta Singh3,4*Sougrakpam Roma Devi5Arun Kumar Singha6Amulya Kumar Mohanty6- 1Department of Soil and Water Conservation Engineering, College of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, OUAT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha–751003, India, Bhubaneswar, India
- 2Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Jagatsinghpur, Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar, India, Bhubaneswar, India
- 3The ICAR Research Complex for North Eastern Hill Region (ICAR RC NEH), Umiam, India
- 4ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra Imphal West, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Imphal, Manipur–795004, India, Imphal, India
- 5ICAR- Krishi Vigyan Kendra Churachandpur, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Imphal, Manipur–795004, India, Imphal, India
- 6ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, Zone VII, Umiam, Meghalaya-793103. India, Shillong, India
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An efficient groundwater management strategy requires identification of groundwater potential zones with a good groundwater quality index. The present study uses analytic hierarchy procedure (AHP) to identify potential groundwater resource zones along with quality for irrigation purposes in the Bargarh Canal command area of Odisha, India. The groundwater potential zone (GWPZ) was assessed using the geology, lineament density, geomorphology, groundwater fluctuation, soil type, topographic wetness index (TWI), slope, canal density, drainage density, and land use/cover of the study area. The Groundwater Quality Index (GWQI) considers seven indices viz. sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), sodium percentage (Na%), magnesium hazard (MH), permeability index (PI), residual sodium carbonate (RSC), Kelly's ratio (KR), soluble sodium percentage (SSP) and three chemical parameters like electrical conductivity, chlorine, nitrate. The study area was categorized into three groundwater potential zones with 71.8% accuracy: good (48.12%), moderate (41.72%), and poor (10.16%). Irrigation water quality was assessed using Piper, United States Salinity Laboratory (USSL), and Wilcox Diagrams. Utilizing the groundwater quality index, the study region was divided into three distinct groundwater quality zones with an accuracy of 73.6%: poor (4.02%), moderate (45.20%), and good (50.78%). This classification was achieved through Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) and Area Under Curve (AUC) analyses, which demonstrated strong model reliability. Superimposition of the GWQI map over the GWPZ map reveals some degree of overlap between good potential zones with poor quality, which can guide policymakers and water managers for groundwater resource management and planning, underscoring the importance of both quantity and quality aspects. Keywords: Groundwater, Groundwater Quality, Groundwater Potential Zone, Groundwater Quality Index, Analytical Hierarchy Process
Keywords: analytical hierarchy process, Groundwater, Groundwater potential zone, Groundwater quality, Groundwater quality index
Received: 30 Jul 2025; Accepted: 30 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mohapatra, Paul, Das, Sahu, Raul, Singh, Devi, Singha and Mohanty. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Laishram Kanta Singh
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