Abstract
Water is the most precious resource available for mankind. Due to the rapid increase in population, urbanisation and agricultural expansion place additional demand for water. Groundwater is an alternative source of fresh water available to support a human. However, Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) difficult geography and excessive hard rock formation make it challenging for authorities to carry out groundwater development programs. To combat this complexity, an integrated approach based on remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) application through multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) technique was adopted for exploration and delineation of groundwater potential zones. A range of influential factors including geomorphology, lithology, soil, rainfall, drainage, slope, elevation, land use/land cover and inundation were analysed and integrated in ArcGIS10 through weighted overlay index techniques. A detail data evaluation criteria were developed with suitability rankings and weightings applied to each parameter. Weightage were assigned based on probability influence, i.e., geomorphology—16%, soil—16%, lithology—15%, drainage—15%, rainfall—10%, topographic slope—9%, elevation—9%, land use/land cover—5% and inundation—5%. After weighted overlay operations, a groundwater prospective zonal map layer was generated and classified in terms of very poor, poor, moderate, good and very good. The area occupied are poor—2.38%, very poor—11.21%, moderate—60.75%, good—16.47% and very good—9.19% respectively.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call