Contribution of the fuzzy algebraic model to the sustainable management of groundwater resources in the Adamawa watershed

Abstract

Study region: The study area is located between longitudes 11–16° E and latitudes 6–8° N in the heart of Central Africa. The Adamawa Plateau is a junction watershed for Cameroon and its neighboring countries. It plays an important hydrogeological role at an international level as it hosts transboundary aquifers extending from the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the Central African Republic on a total area of 6700 km2. It is so-nicknamed the ''water tower'' of Central Africa. Study focus: Because of the failure of the water supply system in the region, households, the local population, and regional authorities are exploiting groundwater resources. Unfortunately, an important number of wells and boreholes are reported to be unproductive because of the nonexistence of preliminary hydrogeophysical investigation. Such investigations are expensive, time-consuming, and require cut-edge technology and expertise. The present study focuses on the assessment of groundwater potential (GWP) throughout the Adamawa region to identify localities with important water yields New hydrological insights for the region: Contrarily to the previous investigations conducted in the region, this study uses the fuzzy algebraic model to combine six hydro-parameters contributing to groundwater occurrence in a GIS environment to assess GWP. As a result, the region is classified into four suitability levels: high, moderate, low, and null covering 54.76 %, 31.66 %, 12.24 %, and 1.32 % of the total study area respectively

Keywords

• Central Africa
• GIS environment
• Groundwater potential
• Hydro-parameters