Abstract
Groundwater is considered as the main portion of the water supply in arid and semi-arid regions. The Sfax plain area is part of the arid/semi-arid areas of Tunisia that are subject to the impact of climatic and human pressures. Water scarcity in combination with groundwater exploitation is a major concern in this region. Therefore, sustainable management and protection of groundwater resources, it necessary. The delineation of groundwater potential (GP) zones becomes an increasingly important tool for implementing successful management programs. The purpose of the present paper is to assess the potential zone of groundwater resources in the study area. An efficient approach using geographical information system (GIS), hydrological modelling and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) was developed. At first, six groundwater parameters that affect groundwater occurrences are derived from the spatial geodatabase. Those parameters are: Infiltration rate estimated from a GIS linked model, lineament density, drainage density, slope, rainfall and Land use/land cover. Then, the assigned weights of thematic layers based on expert knowledge were normalized by eigenvector technique of AHP. The parameter layers were integrated and modeled using a weighted linear combination (WLC). The resulting map was classified into four categories: very low, low, good, and excellent. The results showed that about 26% of the study area falls under very-low-potential zone, with 30% on low-potential zone, 21% with good potential zone, and 23% falling under excellent zone. The results of the analysis were validated using pumping rate data and curve trend of sensitivity classes theory validation of outcomes indicated a good prediction accuracy. The results of the present study can serve to prepare a comprehensive groundwater development and management plans proving its efficacy in this art of exploratory investigations.
Highlights
Groundwater is considered one of the most valuable natural resources [1] and dependable sources of water supply in all climatic regions of all over the world [2]
AgriFlux is a model that takes into account the spatial variability of the input parameters using their statistical distribution in a Monte Carlo approach [57]
The results revealed that infiltration rate is the most influential parameter accounting for (40%), lineament density at (30%), drainage density (12%) followed by slope, precipitation and land use
Summary
Groundwater is considered one of the most valuable natural resources [1] and dependable sources of water supply in all climatic regions of all over the world [2]. In the semi-arid environment of the Sfax basin, the groundwater constitutes the main in demand, certainly with the scarity of surface water supply. During the two last decades, the region of Sfax knew an important population and economic activities increase. This development has imposed severe stress on freshwater resources available both in terms of quantity and quality. Faced with this threat of degradation and overexploitation, an assessment of this resource is extremely significant for sustainable management [3]. Sustainable groundwater potential mapping emphasizes locating the potential groundwater zones and focus the optimum utilization of resources without affecting the aquifer systems [5]
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