Abstract
ABSTRACTGroundwater is a most important resource in arid and semi-arid regions and is required for drinking, irrigation and industrialization. Assessing the potential zone of groundwater recharge is extremely crucial for the protection of water quality and the management of groundwater systems. To identify the groundwater potential zone in the study area, thematic layers of lithology, slope, karst degrees, land cover, lineament and drainage density were generated using topographic maps, thematic maps, field data and satellite image, and were prepared, classified, weighted and integrated in a geographic information system (GIS) environment by the means of fuzzy logic. The fuzzy membership values have been assigned to different thematic layers according to their classification on respect for their contribution and their occurrence in groundwater. Based on the generated groundwater potential map, it was found that about 8% of the investigation area was categorized as very high potential for groundwater recharge, 31% as high, 28% as moderate, 17% as low and 16% as very low potential for groundwater recharge. Finally, the results were verified using well-yield data. The highest recharge potential area is located towards the downstream regions related to more fractured and karstified limestone.
Highlights
Water resources in Morocco are unevenly distributed over its regions and heavily dependent on climatic variations
The remote sensing technique using aerial photographs and satellite imagery has proved significant in the field of hydrogeological investigation (Singh & Singh 1980; Edet et al 1998)
geographic information system (GIS) provides a single platform for combining these data types for visualization, mapping, analysis and decision-making
Summary
Water resources in Morocco are unevenly distributed over its regions and heavily dependent on climatic variations. Pollution from households, industry and agriculture poses an ever-greater threat. Increased demand for drinking water for agriculture, industry and tourism has led to the overuse of water resources, with major implications for the country’s socio-economic development. Groundwater is a most important resource in arid and semi-arid environment and is required for drinking, irrigation and industrialization. Remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) provide important data and tools for groundwater exploration (Krishnamurthy et al 1996; Teevw 1999; Jaiswal et al 2003; Singh & Prakash 2003; Sener et al 2005; Chowdhury et al 2009; Ganapuram et al 2009). Identification of groundwater occurrence location using remote sensing data is based on geological structures, geomorphology and hydrology
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