Delineation of groundwater productivity zones with the integration of GIS and remote sensing methods, Bazian Basin, Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Abstract EN

Groundwater is an essential source of fresh water in the semiarid areas and it contributes to the water supply for several purposes.

Bazian basin has become an attractive area for the large companies to invest especially the cement and Iron factories.

Hence there is an intensive withdrawal of groundwater.

The objectives of this work are to categorize and delineation the productivity areas with the aid of remote sensing and geographic information system methodologies.

The Analytica hierarchy process AHP method is used for mapping of groundwater potential zones which the most broadly used Multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) models.

Six thematic layers are introduced to the GIS platform which area soil, drainage density, land use\land cover, geology, geomorphology, slope.

Based on the relative effect of controlling groundwater productivity the input layers were ranked.

Each factor is classified into classes based on hydrogeological properties.

The importance of each thematic layer and its weight is discussed for the location groundwater potential zones using groundwater conditions.

The results revealed three productivity areas, low, moderate, and high and they cover 20.14%, 38.5%, and 41.4% of the total area respectively.

Besides, the northeast and southwest parts of the basin characterized by low groundwater potential while the moderate zone of the potential area covers the central and some part of the west of the area of interest.

The model is validated by testing the available discharge of 78 wells, and it showed that most of the high yield wells are located inside the high groundwater potential zone.

The validation results are verified that the groundwater productivity areas recognized by the GIS (AHP) method are reliable and practical.