Journal of Geographic Information System, 2022, 14, 113-133
https://www.scirp.org/journal/jgis
ISSN Online: 2151-1969
ISSN Print: 2151-1950
DOI: 10.4236/jgis.2022.142007 Mar. 3, 2022 113 Journal of Geographic Information System
A GIS-Agriflux Modeling and AHP Techniques
for Groundwater Potential Zones Mapping
Nadia Trabelsi
1*
, Imen Hentati
1
, Ibtissem Triki
1
, Moncef Zairi
1
, Olivier Banton
2
1
Laboratoire Eau, Energie, Environnement, Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia
2
Laboratoire d’Hydrogéologie d’Avignon, Avignon, France
Abstract
Groundwater is considered as the main portion of the water supply in arid
and semi-arid regions. The Sfax plain area is part of the arid/semi-arid areas
of Tunisia that are subject to the impact of climatic and human pressures.
Water scarcity in combination with groundwater exploitation is a major con-
cern in this region. Therefore, sustainable management and protection of
groundwater resources, it necessary. The delineation of groundwater potential
(GP) zones becomes an increasingly important tool for implementing success-
ful management programs. The purpose of the present paper is to assess the
potential zone of groundwater resources in the study area. An efficient ap-
proach using geographical information system (GIS), hydrological modelling
and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) was developed. At first, six ground-
water parameters that affect groundwater occurrences are derived from the
spatial geodatabase. Those parameters are: Infiltration rate estimated from a
GIS linked model, lineament density, drainage density, slope, rainfall and Land
use/land cover. Then, the assigned weights of thematic layers based on expert
knowledge were normalized by eigenvector technique of AHP. The parameter
layers were integrated and modeled using a weighted linear combination
(WLC). The resulting map was classified into four categories: very low, low,
good, and excellent. The results showed that about 26% of the study area falls
under very-low-potential zone, with 30% on low-potential zone, 21% with
good potential zone, and 23% falling under excellent zone. The results of the
analysis were validated using pumping rate data and curve trend of sensitivity
classes theory validation of outcomes indicated a good prediction accuracy.
The results of the present study can serve to prepare a comprehensive ground-
water development and management plans proving its efficacy in this art of
exploratory investigations.
How to cite this paper: Trabelsi, N., Hen-
tati, I., Triki, I., Zairi, M. and Banton, O.
(2022) A GIS-Agriflux Modeling and AHP
Techniques for Groundwater Potential Zones
Mapping. Journal of Geographic Informa-
tion System, 14, 113-133.
https://doi.org/10.4236/jgis.2022.142007
Received: December 29, 2021
Accepted: February 28, 2022
Published: March 3, 2022
Copyright © 2022 by author(s) and
Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution International
License (CC BY 4.0).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Open Access