Search

Groundwater 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]