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GIS based software solution for ground water studies: GWIS
P.V. Shivraj1 & P. Jothimani2 Pentasoft Technologies Limited, Tidel Park, Taramani, Chennai- 600 113, India 1shivraj@pentasofttech.com & 2jothimani@pentasofttech.com
Abstract Accurate and reliable groundwater resource information are critical to planners and decision-makers at all levels of government, researchers, developers and the business community. Most of the developing countries including India are focussing on improved data management, precise analysis and effective dissemination of data, and initiated steps towards meeting these demands. In order to cater the requirements an attempt has been made to develop a comprehensive Ground Water Information System (gWIS) with extensive capabilities of GIS through a case study of river basin. gWIS is an indegenously developed package which will address the above requirements. The data/information requirements are at macro to micro levels viz River basin and Watershed as well as administrative units (State, District, Taluk, Village). gWIS is a 32-bit Windows-based ground water data management and analysis software that can comprehensively manage, evaluate and present most types of ground water information both spatially and non-spatially. The efficiency of this software lies in it's easy to use interface developed using Visual Basic and a high-performance ground water database in Oracle. This software enables you to organize the different aspects of ground water related data viz. hydrological, lithological, meteorological, hydrochemical, geophysical, well inventory, Pumptest etc.. both spatially and non spatially. Introduction The information society, transforming many traditional structures and services, increases the speed and volume of data exchanges, facilitates their integration and develops active user/data interactions. It also popularizes and generalizes the need for information. The huge investment in the areas of ground water exploration, development, management, planning etc. at state and national levels in India aims to meet the requirement of water as drinking and irrigation generates enormous amount of data. An integrated approach is very much required for any ground water studies due to the complex nature of land and water. This type of study involves data from meteorology, water level, water quality, surface hydrology, aquifer characteristics, lithology, resistivity, well construction and designing, well inventory, socio-economic etc. The need for software to handle both spatial and non-spatial data and later analysis of these data for the decision making is very much required. Pentasoft Technologies Limited, Chennai during the end of year 2000, indigenously developed gWIS in the area of ground water. This software helps you in ground water related data processing and management. gWIS, structurally 3 tier, developed for the people working in the area of ground water studies. Tier 1. Spatial Data - GIS Environment Tier 2. Non-spatial Data - MIS Environment Tier 3. Analysis - Expert System Environment gWIS is flexible, user-controlled, sophisticated, and versatile. It's an object oriented, relational database and tailored to use as a surface and ground water information system suitable for Indian scenario. The software integrates classical ground water information (basic details, water level, lithology, geophysics, pump test, well construction and design, water quality, well inventory etc.) with geographic display. The software is programmed as a windows application, and it uses all windows resources: memory management, fonts, colors, screen, printer, and plotter drivers, etc. It is input and output device independent, and has no memory limitations except for the ones that are intrinsic to any windows application. The database can be filtered; that is, a large set of information can be reduced to subset having user-selected attributes on any part of the data. One of the immediate use of the software is to create basic spatial and non-spatial database and generation of documents and reports, with all data processed in graphs, maps, and tables for further characterization and evaluation of sites, contaminant potentials, need for remediation and water development potential. How It Works 
In addition to ground water data processing, maps generated from various GIS platforms can be integrated with "gWIS" for spatial representation and visualization. Various location and thematic content maps become an integral part of the ground water database. The exchange of information with other software package is enabled via import and export options. The following layers have been included in the development of gWIS for an effective data management and analysis for ground water study.
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