Modelling of favourable zones for the establishment of water points by geographical information system (GIS) and multicriteria analysis (MCA) in the Aboisso area (South-east of Cote d'Ivoire)

Aboisso is faced with drinking water supply problems despite its abundant rainfall (2,000 mm/year) and large river assets. These difficulties are exacerbated by the existence of large pollution sources caused by agro-industrial plantations. This paper mainly deals with the combined approach of geographic information systems and multicriteria analysis to delineate potential groundwater zones in the Aboisso area. The multicriteria analysis method includes both Boolean method and the linear combination of weights based on the comparison per pair. Two types of indicator were used: the evaluation indicators, which combine accessibility, exploitability and availability of the groundwater, and the monitoring indicator, which is represented by groundwater vulnerability to pollution. It appears that the favourable zones for water point establishment represent 54 % of the Aboisso area. This class is distributed throughout the area, with an exception in the East. The uncertainty and sensitivity analyses indicate that parameters causing high sensitivity on the potentiality map are made up of the slope, the total depth and the induced permeability while the topography and depth are the most sensitive parameters for the vulnerability map. This study appears to be a substantial contribution to overcoming the problem of drinkable water, which the rural populations were facing.