An integration of GIS and remote sensing in groundwater investigations: A case study in Burdur, Turkey Erhan Sener · Aysen Davraz · Mehmet Ozcelik Abstract The importance of groundwater is growing based on an increasing need and decreasing spring dis- charges in the Burdur area. Remote Sensing and the Ge- ographic Information System (GIS) have been used for investigation of springs, which are an important ground- water source. The chemical composition of groundwater is not of drinking water quality in Burdur city and water in the Burdur residential area is being obtained from the Cine plain. The purpose of this study was to investigate new water sources by using remote sensing and GIS methods. Ge- ology, lineament and land use maps of the research area were prepared using the Landsat TM satellite image composed of different analyses on the TM 7–4-1 band. In addition, contours, creeks, roads and springs were digi- tized using a topographic map of 1/100,000 scale to produce a drainage density map. A groundwater potential map was produced which integrated thematic maps, such as annual rainfall, geology, lineament density, land use, topography, slope and drainage density. According to this investigation, the surrounding villages of Askeriye, Bug- duz, Gelincik, Taskapı and Kayaaltı were determined to be important from the point of view of groundwater po- tential in the research area. Keywords Burdur · Geographical Information System · Groundwater Exploration · Remote Sensing Introduction Remote Sensing and the Geographical Information Sys- tem (GIS) with their advantages of spatial, spectral and temporal availability and manipulation of data covering large and inaccessible areas within a short time have become very handy tools in accessing, monitoring and conserving groundwater resources. It also has been found that remote sensing, besides helping in targeting potential zones for groundwater exploration, provides input to- wards estimation of the total groundwater resources in an area. It was the purpose of this investigation to discover new water resources in Burdur, located in the southwest of Turkey, using remote sensing and geographical informa- tion system (GIS) methods (Fig. 1). The research was done in an area of approximately 437 km 2 . Drinking water in Burdur has been obtained from wells and springs about 10 km south of Burdur in the Cine plain . Due to the over development of wells in the Cine plain a decrease of groundwater levels has been observed. Separately, local management plan the needs for water supply to settle- ments on the Cine plain. Therefore, it is necessary to find new water sources for Burdur. Methodology This research was accomplished by using the Erdas Image 8.4 process software, Arc GIS 8.2 and Arc View 3.2 (3D analyst and spatial analyst extensions) and SPSS 11 sta- tistical programs at the Suleyman Demirel University Remote Sensing Centre in Turkey. In this study, Landsat ETM+ (178–34 scenes) from the year 2000 images and a 1/100,000 scaled topographical map of Isparta- M24 have been used. In addition, annual rainfall data for the sur- rounding area was used for the annual rainfall map. The topographical map was digitized using the Arc Info 7.2.1 version software program. Topological changes and co- ordinate transform were corrected and the data converted to Arc View software program with the 3.2 version. In this study, four stages were applied: collection, satellite image processing, digitizing—building a database and spatial analyses (Fig. 2). Satellite Data Analysis Satellite data provides quick and useful baseline infor- mation on the parameters controlling the occurrence and movement of groundwater, e.g. geology, geomorphology, soils, landuse, lineaments etc. Received: 31 July 2003 / Accepted: 21 July 2004 Published online: 6 November 2004  Springer-Verlag 2004 E. Sener · A. Davraz ( ) ) · M. Ozcelik Department of Geological Engineering, Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey e-mail: adavraz@mmf.sdu.edu.tr Hydrogeology Journal (2005) 13:826–834 DOI 10.1007/s10040-004-0378-5