Identification of Groundwater Potential Zones Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques: A Case Study of the Shatt Al-Arab Basin

Abstract

Rapid population growth has raised the groundwater resources demand for socio-economic development in the Shatt Al-Arab basin. The sustainable management of groundwater resources requires precise quantitative evaluation, which can be achieved by applying scientific principles and modern techniques. An integrated concept has been used in the current study to identify the groundwater potential zones (GWPZs) in the Shatt Al-Arab basin using remote sensing (RS), geographic information system (GIS), and analytic hierarchy process (AHP). For this purpose, nine groundwater occurrence and movement controlling parameters (i.e., lithology, rainfall, geomorphology, slope, drainage density, soil, land use/land cover, distance to river, and lineament density) were prepared and transformed into raster data using ArcGIS software. These nine parameters (thematic layers) were allocated weights proportional to their importance. Furthermore, the hierarchical ranking was conducted using a pairwise comparison matrix of the AHP in order to estimate the final normalized weights of these layers. We used the overlay weighted sum technique to integrate the layers for the creation of the GWPZs map of the study area. The map has been categorized into five zones (viz., very good, good, moderate, poor, and very poor) representing 4, 51, 35, 9, and 1% of the study area, respectively. Finally, for assessing the effectiveness of the model, the GWPZs map was validated using depth to groundwater data for 99 wells distributed over the basin. The validation results confirm that the applied approach provides significantly solid results that can help in perspective planning and sustainable utilization of the groundwater resources in this water-stressed region.

An Approach to Delineate Potential Groundwater Zones in Kilinochchi District, Sri Lanka, Using GIS Techniques

“…Despite numerous methods for exploring groundwater resources, for example, drilling, geological, hydrogeological and geophysical methods [8], the most generally used techniques for investigating groundwater resources are drilled tests and stratigraphic investigation [6,9,30]. These methods require extensive time, money, resources, and expert participation [8,9,[30][31][32]. The usage of GIS and RS is, on the other hand, less expensive, more responsive, and more convenient [8,9,33,34].…”

“…The usage of GIS and RS is, on the other hand, less expensive, more responsive, and more convenient [8,9,33,34]. RS is a potentially helpful tool for gathering Spatio-temporal data from a specific location in a short period [30]. The use of remote sensing data in hydrological investigations can give information on spatial and temporal scales, which is necessary for effective analysis, prediction, and validation of hydrological models [30].…”

“…RS is a potentially helpful tool for gathering Spatio-temporal data from a specific location in a short period [30]. The use of remote sensing data in hydrological investigations can give information on spatial and temporal scales, which is necessary for effective analysis, prediction, and validation of hydrological models [30]. Satellite imagery's capacity to span vast spatial scales is vital for depicting physiographic and structural characteristics, which are essential requirements for delineating potential groundwater zones [30] and have been used by various researchers [35][36][37][38][39][40][41].…”

Mapping Interflow Potential and the Validation of Index-Overlay Weightings by Using Coupled Surface Water and Groundwater Flow Model

“…With the recent advances in Geographical Information Systems (GISs), index-overlay models are especially helpful for creating various types of potential maps in the fields of groundwater resource potential [12][13][14]. A GIS associated with useful tools enables the overlay and integration of multiple maps, representing the selected parameters to account for the groundwater potential [15][16][17]. The development of interflow potential maps can follow the same concept as groundwater potential.…”

Visual Evaluation of Regional Tourism Attractiveness Based On Transportation: a GIS Quantitative Analysis Method

“…With the development and widespread application of big data, GIS is gradually used in tourism informatization research, tourism planning, and development [19][20][21], making it possible to quantify and visualize tourism transportation network planning. It became possible to combine mathematical modeling with GIS such as AHP [22][23], arti cial neural networks [24][25], and other mathematical methods [26] to evaluate the tourism resources quantitatively, and then provided data support for tourism resource development and planning, and realized the sustainable development of regional tourism. Many scholars have established evaluation systems by AHP, Delphi method, and GIS and have examined the evaluation indexes [8,27,28].…”