Application of analytical hierarchy process to assess groundwater potential for a sustainable management in the...

Number of wells drilled by private and public stakeholders, as well as nongovernmental organizations in the Menoua Division are unproductive. This is due to the lack of preliminary surveys assessing groundwater potential (GWP). A combined remote sensing (RS) and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) approach handled on a geographic information system (GIS) environment is efficient for such an investigation. For this article, seven environmental parameters, with significant contribution to groundwater occurrence, are integrated. Those parameters are drainage density, elevation, lineament density, land use/land cover (LULC), rainfall, slope, and topographic wetness index (TWI). RS and GIS techniques said to be quick and simple for exploring GWP whatever the geological settings, have the advantage of investigating large areas with little financial resources. Although these techniques are widely used in the world, this is the first time they are applied in the Menoua Division. The outcome, which is a sound GWP map, has been sorted into five zones: very low potential for 13 %, low potential for 27 %, medium potential also for 27 %, high potential for 23 %, and very high potential for 11 % of the Menoua Division. This may help to reduce the rate of noncompliant hydrogeophysical surveys and the number of unproductive boreholes by converging hydrogeophysical surveys on high GWP sites.