Vol.:(0123456789) Environment, Development and Sustainability https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-020-00593-5 1 3 An integrated approach for mapping groundwater potential applying geospatial and MIF techniques in the semiarid region Soumik Bhattacharya 1  · Swarupa Das 2  · Sandipan Das 1  · Mahesh Kalashetty 1  · Sumedh R. Warghat 3 Received: 16 April 2019 / Accepted: 5 January 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020 Abstract Geospatial methods play an important role in the identifcation, monitoring, assessment, and conservation of groundwater resources. An integrated approach combining the geospa- tial techniques and multi-infuencing factors (MIF) was adapted for the determination of potential groundwater zone in the Purulia District of West Bengal, Eastern India. The pre- sent groundwater is underexploited for agricultural and other activities. This study would also beneft in identifying the artifcial recharge zone for further research and developmen- tal activity in the region. The important parameters including slope, landuse/cover, linea- ment, drainage, geology, and soil afecting potential groundwater occurrence were gener- ated from Topo Maps, Landsat remote sensing imagery, and various ancillary data. Various thematic layers were allocated a fxed score as weightage using MIF technique. Thereaf- ter, the weighted layers were statistically computed in the overlay analysis to generate the groundwater prospect map. The groundwater potential map demonstrated fve zones, viz. very good (13.8%), good (34.9%), moderate (48.3%), poor (2.8%), and very poor (0.2%). The fndings of the research study would enable to carry out future research and propose efective planning and management of groundwater development. Keywords Geospatial technologies · Groundwater potential mapping · MIF · Water resource management 1 Introduction Groundwater afects the rural and urban populations as a vital source of agriculture, indus- tries, and domestic water supply in India (Mukherjee et al. 2012; World Bank, 2010). India has 17.8% of the total population of the world but hosts about only 4% of the world’s freshwater resources (Mukherjee et al. 2015). The net annual water resources’ availabil- ity of the country has been assessed as 1123 Billion Cubic Meter (BCM)/year. Out of the 1123 BCM/year, 433 BCM/year is the share of available groundwater of the entire country * Sandipan Das sandipanraj2002@gmail.com Extended author information available on the last page of the article