Groundwater Potential Mapping in Fractured Aquifers Using Remote Sensing and GIS Technology in the Moulouya Region, Morocco

Abstract

Water scarcity remains the main obstacle to sustainable development in regions under arid and semiarid climate conditions. This study focuses on the assessment of groundwater potentiality in the Middle Moulouya and the higher part of Lower Moulouya, Morocco, by using remote sensing (RS) and geographical information system (GIS) techniques. This is a multicriteria approach, based on the analysis of five principal factors controlling the existence of groundwater resources, namely fracturing, lithology, drainage, topography and rainfall, and their comparison with the hydrogeological data of 179 boreholes. The use of a dynamic parameter weighting algorithm allowed to obtain a Groundwater Potential Index model with considerable correlation coefficient (r= 0.73) between calculated values of GPI, from considered factors and observed water yields in boreholes.