Groundwater Potential Assessment Using GIS and Remote Sensing Techniques: Case Study of West Arsi Zone, Ethiopia

Groundwater is a crucial source of water supply due to its continuous availability, reasonable natural quality, and being easily diverted directly to the poor community more cheaply and quickly. The West Arsi Zone residents remain surface water dependent due to traditional exploration of groundwater, which is a tedious approach in terms of resources and time. This study uses remote sensing data and geographic information system techniques to evaluate the groundwater potential of the study area. This technique is a fast, accurate, and feasible technique. Groundwater potential and recharge zone influencing parameters were derived from Operational Land Imager 8, digital elevation models, soil data, lithological data, and rainfall data. Borehole data were used for results validation. With spatial analysis tools, the parameters affecting groundwater potential (LULC, soil, lithology, rainfall, drainage density, lineament density, slope, and elevation) were mapped and organized. The weight of the parameters according to percent of influence on groundwater potential and recharge was determined by Analytical Hierarchy Process according to their relative influence. For weights allocated to each parameter, the consistency ratio obtained was 0.033, which is less than 0.1, showing the weight allocated to each parameter is acceptable. In the weighted overlay analysis, from a percent influence point of view, slope, land use/cover, and lithology are equally important and account for 24% each, while the soil group has the lowest percent of influence, which accounts only 2% according to this study. The generated groundwater potential map has four ranks, 2, 3, 4, and 5, in which its classes are Low, Moderate, High, and Very High, respectively, based on its groundwater potential availability rank and class. The area coverage is 9825.84 ha (0.79%), 440,726.49 ha (35.46%), 761,438.61 ha (61.27%), and 30,748.68 ha (2.47%) of the study area, respectively. Accordingly, the western part of district is expected to have very high groundwater potential. High groundwater potential is concentrated in the central and western parts whereas moderate groundwater potential distribution is dominant in the eastern part of the area. The validation result of 87.61% confirms the very good agreement among the groundwater record data and groundwater potential classes delineated.