ABSTRACT
The sustainable development of the groundwater resources is of utmost importance these days due to a decrease in the water table and low precipitation, especially in arid and semiarid areas. The present research is an effort to identify suitable areas for applying and adapting artificial recharge structures (ARS) to increase groundwater through the decision-making and geospatial approach in Kadapa district, South India. The main components for preparing ARS maps for the identification of suitable charging structures are geospatial and decision-making. These weights are focused on its effect on future groundwater recharge in the field analysis with expert opinions on ARS. 42Further, the weights are standardized with the analytical hierarchical process AHP approach to identify the ARS to improve sustainable development policies. In the study, recharge areas are divided into different types, such as low, moderate, high, and very high groundwater recharge potential. The ARS of the present study shows that 1.18% (1.99 km2) of the area is found to be very high, and the high zone for artificial groundwater recharge fell to 54.14% (91.06 km2). On the other hand, 44.36% (74.61 km2) and 0.32% (0.55 km2) of the whole area fall under moderate and poor individual ARS. Hence, the current modified method helps to quickly identify a location for SWC structures and manage groundwater resources for sustainable growth in the arid and semiarid regions.
