Integration of Groundwater Flow Modeling and GIS

Abstract

The development of a sufficient understanding on which to base decisions or make predictions often requires consideration of a multitude of data of different types and with varying levels of uncertainty. The data for the development of numerical groundwater flow model includes time-constant parameters and time-variant parameters. The time-constant parameters were mainly extracted from thematic data layers generated from GIS and image processing of remote sensing data. Integrated approaches in GIS play a rapidly increasing role in the field of hydrology and water resources development. It provides suitable alternatives for efficient management of large and complex databases developed in different model environments. Remote sensing (RS) technology is capable of providing base for quantitative analysis of an environmental process with some degree of accuracy. It provides an economic and efficient tool for landcover mapping and has its advantages in planning and management of water resources (Ashraf and Ahmad 2008 & Ahmad et al., 2011). One of the greatest advantages of using remote sensing data for hydrological investigations and monitoring is its ability to generate information in spatial and temporal domain. Though, the presence of groundwater cannot be directly ascertained from RS surveys, however, satellite data (GRACEGravity Recovery and Climate Experiment and GOCE-Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) provides quick and useful baseline information on the parameters that control the occurrence and movement of groundwater such as geomorphology, direction of groundwater flows, lineaments, soils, landcover/landuse and hydrology etc.