Assessment of groundwater potential of the Obafemi Awolowo University Estate, Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Assessment of the groundwater potential of the OAU Estate involving digital image processing of Landsat 8 imagery, and geophysical and hydrogeological investigations were carried out. Landsat 8 imagery was processed to produce hydrolineament map. Topographic parameters including drainage density and slope gradient were derived from SPOT DEM using ArcGIS 10.3 software, and used to generate drainage density and slope gradient maps. The lithology of the study area was extracted from existing geological map. One hundred and four Vertical Electrical Sounding data were analyzed quantitatively using partial curve matching technique and computer assisted 1-D forward modelling and the results used to generate overburden thickness and coefficient of anisotropy maps. The hydrolineament, drainage density, slope gradient, lithology, overburden thickness and coefficient of anisotropy maps were developed into thematic maps and used to generate the groundwater potential map. The groundwater potential of the study area was classified as low- (61%), moderate- (32%) and high- (7%) with corresponding yields of 1.5 L/s, respectively.

Keywords

• Aquifer yield
• Basement relief
• Groundwater flow system
• Groundwater potential
• Hydrolineament
• Osun State