Geospatial hydrological analysis in GIS environment for selecting potential water harvest sites : the case of Badrah-Wasit

Abstract EN

In this study, GIS technique and remote sensing data have been integrated to create a suitability map for the probable sites of water harvesting in Badrah-Wasit, Eastern Iraq.

Hydrological analysis used to find the potential water-harvesting sites, as well as to improve the water resource management.

In this research, five criteria have been used, which is a stream order, slope, distance to roads, rainfall and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index.

These thematic layers were evaluated with the multi-criteria analysis method, then combine and process together using weighted overlay method, then assigned suitable weights and integrated into a GIS to generate a suitability map.

As a result, the region has been classified into three zones: high suitability zone (2%), moderate suitability zone (27%), and low suitability zone (35%) depending on the specific criteria used for this purpose and have high potential in terms of their suitability for water harvesting.