Hydrospatial Analysis, 3(2), 49-59, 2019. Y. Badhe et al. 49 Original Research Paper Site Suitability Analysis for Water Conservation Using AHP and GIS Techniques: A Case Study of Upper Sina River Catchment, Ahmednagar (India) Yogesh P. Badhe 1 *, Ravindra S. Medhe 1 , Tushar Shelar 2 1. Department of Geography, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune - 411007 (India). 2. Vasundhara Watershed Development Agency, Government of Maharashtra, Pune 411 007 (India). Abstract The site suitability for construction of water conservation structures is an important step towards groundwater conservation in arid and semi-arid regions. Water is the most crucial for maintaining an environment and ecosystem which is helpful to sustaining all forms of the life. The increasing water scarcity day to day has been one of the common problems over a period of time. On top of it, when the area is a part of rain shadow zone like Ahmednagar district, water conservation activities are become more important. The present study aims to identify the suitable zones for water conservation activity. Multi- criteria evaluation is carried out using Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques to help the choice makers in defining suitable site for construction of water conservation structures. Different layers which were considered for multi-criteria evaluation: slope, land use land cover, soil texture, lithology, soil depth, soil erosion, wells, lineaments and drainage network. Analytical Hierarchy Processes (AHP) is used for weighted sum to find suitable sites for implementation of water conservation activity using selected criterions. The site suitability map was classified into four classes: highly suitable, moderately suitable, less suitable and not suitable with area of 19.19%, 26%, 49.03% and 5.78, respectively. This map will help for selection of suitable sites for construction of Mati Nala Bund (MNB), Check Dam, Cement Nala Bund (CNB) and Continuous Contour Trenches (CCT) for conservation of groundwater resource in the region. © 2019 GATHA COGNITION ® All rights reserved. Article history Received: 11 November 2019 Revised: 25 December 2019 Accepted: 27 December 2019 Keywords Analytic Hierarchy Process; GIS; Land Suitability; MCDA; Water Conservation Activity; Water Scarcity. Editor(s) P. S. Hire 1 INTRODUCTION Water storage is the insurance for feature and acts as a barrier against the variability of the rainfall in different region and therefore increases the resilience of the sponsor against dry spell during the rainy season (Payen et al., 2012; Kumar et al., 2017). Groundwater conservation is critically depending on the sources of water, climate change and degradation of land (Kadam et al., 2017). This study was focused on selecting the suitable sites for construction of water conservation structures. Furthermore, it will be helpful for planning and monitoring the water conservation activities, i. e. Continuous Contour Trenches (CCT), Cement Nala Bund (CNB), Loose Boulder Structure (LBS) and Check Dams using AHP. Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) refers the alternatives based on the human decision from a finite set of parameters in terms of the multiple criterions (Roszkowska, 2013). This technique also used for land suitability analysis (Zolekar and Bhagat, 2015; Zolekar, 2018) and watershed prioritization for development (Gaikwad and Bhagat, 2017; Kadam et al., 2019). Multi-thematic geospatial datasets of Upper Sina river catchment was used for the site suitability analysis for water conservation using AHP and GIS techniques. The criterions used for analysis are: land use land cover (LULC), stream network, slope map, lineament map, soil depth, soil erosion, soil texture, soil depth and other * Author address for correspondence Department of Geography, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune - 411007 (India). Tel.: +91 9921982996 E-mails: yogeshspb94@gmail.com (Y. Badhe -Corresponding author); ravindramedhe1@gmail.com (R. Medhe); shelartusha@gmail.com (T. Shelar). https://doi.org/10.21523/gcj3.19030201 © 2019 GATHA COGNITION ® All rights reserved.