This paper on the GIS Development site provides information on the attempt that has been made to develop a comprehensive Ground Water Information System (GWIS) with extensive capabilities of GIS through the case study of a river basin. GWIS is an indigenously 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 one to organise the different aspects of ground water related data viz. hydrological, lithological, meteorological, hydrochemical, geophysical, well inventory, Pumptest etc. both spatially and non spatially.
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. An attempt to develop this software can be said to be an important and a positive step in this direction.