The over-exploitation and contamination of groundwater continue to threaten the long-term sustainability of our precious water resources, in spite of the best efforts made by various agencies. This has many serious implications to the economic development of a country like India. Lack of judicious planning and integration of environmental consideration to ground water development projects are primarily responsible for such a state of affair in the ground water sector. Geographical Information Systems could be of immense help in planning sustainable ground water management strategies, especially in hard rock areas with limited ground water potential. Data collected from Satellite Imagery and through field investigations have been integrated, on a GIS platform, for demarcation and prioritization of areas suitable for ground water development and ground water augmentation. An attempt has also been made to assess the vulnerability of the area to ground water contamination. This paper demonstrates the utility of GIS in planning judicious management of ground water resources in a typical hard rock area of Chamarajanagar Taluk, Karnataka, state India.
