Assessment Of Potential Groundwater Zone Using Integrated Gis And Remote Sensing Techniques In Sekota Wereda Northern Ethiopia.

Due to complex and erratic nature of groundwater occurrences in volcanic rock terrains,rngroundwater development in form of boreholes/wells without the necessary pre-drillingrnhydrogeological investigations usually results in failure. Therefore, there is the need for adequaterncharacterization of aquifers and delineation of groundwater potential zones in such volcanic rockrnsetting. This study employed the integration of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), remoternsensing (RS) and geographical information system (GIS) techniques to delineate groundwaterrnpotential zones in volcanic rock terrain of N-Ethiopia, Amhara Regional State, Wag Himra Zonernof Sekota Wereda, and validation of the result with existing borehole/well yield data. The studyrnapproach involved integration of seven different thematic layers (lithology, land form, soil,rndrainage density, lineament density, land use and slope) based on weights assignment andrnnormalization with respect to the relative contribution of the different themes to groundwaterrnoccurrence using Saaty’s analytic hierarchy approach. Following weigh normalization andrnranking, the thematic maps were integrated using ArcGIS 10.1 software to generate the overallrngroundwater potential map for the study area.rnFinally, groundwater potential zones are classified into three categories namely low, moderate,rnand high zone. It is observed that 10.03% (167.5 km2) of the study area falls under ‘low’rngroundwater potential zone. Approximately 1190.8 km2 area accounting for 71.4% of the studyrnarea falls under ‘moderate’ category and ‘high’ groundwater potential zone encompasses an arearnof 309.8 km2 accounting for 18.57 % of the total study area.rnFinally, the model generated groundwater potential zones are validated with potential yield datarnof various wells in the study area. The validation clearly highlights the efficiency of thernintegrated RS and GIS methods employed in this study as useful modern approach for properrngroundwater resources evaluation; providing quick prospective guides for groundwaterrnexploration and exploitation in such volcanic rock setting.

Get Full Work

Report copyright infringement or plagiarism