An integrated geomatics approach to groundwater potential delineation in the Akoko-Edo Area, Nigeria

Abstract

A groundwater prospect map was developed for the Akoko-Edo Local Government Area in Edo State in Nigeria using topographic, geological and soil maps for the area and remote sensing imagery. LandSat-OLI image were subjected to haze reduction and preprocessing algorithms, respectively. Reclassified raster layers of lineaments density, lithology, slope steepness, drainage density, geomorphology, topographic wetness index, land use/land cover and soil were generated from the acquired datasets. All these themes and their individual features were then assigned weights according to their relative importance in groundwater occurrence and the corresponding normalized weights were obtained based on the Saaty’s Analytical Hierarchical Process. These parameters were then combined using weighted overlay tool in ArcGIS 10.3 to produce groundwater potential map of the study area. The results showed that 0.02% of the area is likely to have poor prospects of finding a suitable groundwater resource, 24% of the area is likely to have fair prospects, 64% of the area is likely to have moderate prospects and 12% of the area is likely to have good prospects. The study concludes that geomatics application can play an important role with geophysical survey in groundwater exploration.