Groundwater potential mapping using remote sensing and GIS-based, in Halabja City, Kurdistan, Iraq
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Groundwater potential mapping using remote sensing and GIS-based, in Halabja City, Kurdistan, Iraq Diary Ali Mohammed Al-Manmi 1 & Lanja Farooq Rauf 2
Received: 10 September 2015 / Accepted: 8 February 2016 / Published online: 26 April 2016 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2016
Abstract Management of groundwater resources requires modern techniques and scientific principles. Geographic information system (GIS)-based multi-criteria and analytic hierarchy approaches are implemented to identify promising areas for groundwater potential in Halabja city, Kurdistan region. A thematic map of each input factor was produced, derived from various sources including maps of geology, structure, and hydrogeology. The input layers were ranked according to their relative importance in controlling groundwater potential. Each factor is divided into classes based on hydrogeological properties. The classes then are weighted according to their relative importance to groundwater potential. The groundwater potential analysis reveals three distinct zones representing high, moderate, and low groundwater potential in the study area. The delineated groundwater potential map is finally verified using the available extraction rates of 95 wells. Results of such verifications proved that the groundwater potential zones identified by GIS and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) techniques are reliable and representative.
Keywords Potential map . GIS . AHP . Groundwater management . Halabja . Kurdistan
* Lanja Farooq Rauf [email protected] Diary Ali Mohammed Al-Manmi [email protected]
1
Faculty of Science and Science Education, School of Science, Department of Geology, University of Sulaimani, Sulaimani, Iraq
2
Kurdistan Institution for Strategic Studies and Scientific Research, Sulaimani, Iraq
Introduction Water is the only common and global resource that interests all the living bodies of the world including humans, flora, and fauna (Tanik et al. 2010). Without water, survival is not possible. It is among the primary natural resources that recognize no political borders. The two components of the water are namely quality and quantity (Tanik et al. 2010). Water resources in semi-arid areas, like Halabja city, suffer increasing pressure induced by the increasing population, urbanization, and land use shift to more intensive production of crops and livestock. Groundwater is a critical resource in the area of interest as well as many other regions, where in recent years, the use of limited supply has grown year by year. Optimal management of water resources is difficult. For the sustainable management of groundwater resources, the amount of recharge received by an aquifer is by far the most prominent parameter required. This parameter is usually the least wellknown quantity in hydrogeology, especially in semi-arid environments. Unfortunately, it cannot be measured directly on any reasonable spatial scale. So, many years of effort have failed to find a single, reliable method for measuring groundwater recharge due t
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