APPLICATION OF THE OVERLAY WEIGHTED MODEL AND BOOLEAN LOGIC TO DETERMINE THE BEST LOCATIONS FOR ARTIFICIAL RECHARGE OF GROUNDWATER <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.4090/juee.2011.v5n2.057066">(doi: 10.4090/juee.2011.v5n2.057066)</a>

Abstract

Finding the best locations for artificial recharge of groundwater in a semi-arid area is one of the most challenges which water engineers concern about as these areas suffer from shortage in water supply and groundwater recharge. This study presents two ways to go about performing analysis; creating a suitability map to find out the suitability of every location on the map and another way is querying the created data sets to obtain a Boolean result of true or false map. The study area is Sadat City which is located in a semi arid area in the western desert fringes of The Nile delta in the north west of Egypt. Thematic layers for number of parameters were prepared from some maps and satellite images by the remote sensing techniques. These layers were classified, weighted and integrated in ArcGIS environment and by the means of the overlay weighted model a suitability map which is classified into number of priority zones was obtained. This map was compared with the true-false map of Boolean logic and the result was that the weighted model gives more flexible and more accurate suitability map. However Boolean logic is much easier and not time consuming, so it can be used as first estimations for the best locations and the final decision for the suggested location can be confirmed by more field reconnaissance.