Identification of Potential Natural Aquifer Recharge Sites in Islamabad, Pakistan, by Integrating GIS and RS Techniques

Islamabad is essentially the only well-planned city in Pakistan, but groundwater depletion has become a serious issue there because of the rapid increase in population, poor water management, and deforestation. The current water demand of the city is about 220 million gallons per day, with the Capit...

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Main Authors: Farooq Alam, Muhammad Azmat, Riaz Zarin, Shakil Ahmad, Abdur Raziq, Hsu-Wen Vincent Young, Kim-Anh Nguyen, Yuei-An Liou
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-11-01
Series:Remote Sensing
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/23/6051
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author Farooq Alam
Muhammad Azmat
Riaz Zarin
Shakil Ahmad
Abdur Raziq
Hsu-Wen Vincent Young
Kim-Anh Nguyen
Yuei-An Liou
author_facet Farooq Alam
Muhammad Azmat
Riaz Zarin
Shakil Ahmad
Abdur Raziq
Hsu-Wen Vincent Young
Kim-Anh Nguyen
Yuei-An Liou
author_sort Farooq Alam
collection DOAJ
description Islamabad is essentially the only well-planned city in Pakistan, but groundwater depletion has become a serious issue there because of the rapid increase in population, poor water management, and deforestation. The current water demand of the city is about 220 million gallons per day, with the Capital Development Authority (CDA) providing up to 70 million gallons per day. The need for water is mostly fulfilled through groundwater sources, such as water bores and commercial tube wells. Hence, identifying recharge sites for natural aquifers is a significant component of groundwater required to overcome the water crisis. Therefore, this study aims to identify potential sites for natural aquifer recharge by using analytical hierarchy process (AHP), weighted linear combination (WLC), and fuzzy logic methods. To achieve the stated objective, seven local influencing factors including soil, slope, water table, population density, land use land cover (LULC), drainage density, and elevation have been utilized in this study. AHP was utilized for the evaluation of the relative importance of the above-mentioned factors, while fuzzy logic was applied for the standardization of these factors. Finally, the AHP-WLC and fuzzy logic approaches were used to merge factor maps in order to identify suitable sites for natural aquifer recharge in Islamabad City. Two different suitability maps were constructed from both techniques, and on each of the resulting maps, the subregions were categorized into five classes: not suitable, less suitable, moderate, suitable, and most suitable. Based on the AHP-WLC results, 5% of the whole study area is deemed most suitable for natural aquifer recharge (NAR), whereas from the fuzzy logic results, 10% of the study area is marked as most suitable. In contrast, 37% and 32% of the whole study area were identified as suitable by the AHP-WLC and fuzzy logic methods, respectively. While both techniques can obtain satisfactory outcomes, the suitability map from fuzzy logic has produced more precise results. Hence, we propose to CDA-Islamabad here different sites for recharge wells based on the results of fuzzy logic. As recommended by this study, to date CDA has constructed twelve recharge wells.
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spelling doaj.art-3f33ea2d41be45eeb335824614dba2d42023-11-24T12:04:55ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922022-11-011423605110.3390/rs14236051Identification of Potential Natural Aquifer Recharge Sites in Islamabad, Pakistan, by Integrating GIS and RS TechniquesFarooq Alam0Muhammad Azmat1Riaz Zarin2Shakil Ahmad3Abdur Raziq4Hsu-Wen Vincent Young5Kim-Anh Nguyen6Yuei-An Liou7School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (SCEE), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad 44000, PakistanSchool of Civil and Environmental Engineering (SCEE), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad 44000, PakistanElementary & Secondary Education Department Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Chitral 17200, PakistanSchool of Civil and Environmental Engineering (SCEE), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad 44000, PakistanDepartment of Geography, Islamia College University, Peshawar 25120, PakistanDepartment of Electronic Engineering, Chung Yuan Christian University, No. 200, Zhongbei Rd., Jhongli District, Taoyuan City 320314, TaiwanCenter for Space and Remote Sensing Research, National Central University, No. 300, Jhongda Rd., Jhongli District, Taoyuan City 320317, TaiwanCenter for Space and Remote Sensing Research, National Central University, No. 300, Jhongda Rd., Jhongli District, Taoyuan City 320317, TaiwanIslamabad is essentially the only well-planned city in Pakistan, but groundwater depletion has become a serious issue there because of the rapid increase in population, poor water management, and deforestation. The current water demand of the city is about 220 million gallons per day, with the Capital Development Authority (CDA) providing up to 70 million gallons per day. The need for water is mostly fulfilled through groundwater sources, such as water bores and commercial tube wells. Hence, identifying recharge sites for natural aquifers is a significant component of groundwater required to overcome the water crisis. Therefore, this study aims to identify potential sites for natural aquifer recharge by using analytical hierarchy process (AHP), weighted linear combination (WLC), and fuzzy logic methods. To achieve the stated objective, seven local influencing factors including soil, slope, water table, population density, land use land cover (LULC), drainage density, and elevation have been utilized in this study. AHP was utilized for the evaluation of the relative importance of the above-mentioned factors, while fuzzy logic was applied for the standardization of these factors. Finally, the AHP-WLC and fuzzy logic approaches were used to merge factor maps in order to identify suitable sites for natural aquifer recharge in Islamabad City. Two different suitability maps were constructed from both techniques, and on each of the resulting maps, the subregions were categorized into five classes: not suitable, less suitable, moderate, suitable, and most suitable. Based on the AHP-WLC results, 5% of the whole study area is deemed most suitable for natural aquifer recharge (NAR), whereas from the fuzzy logic results, 10% of the study area is marked as most suitable. In contrast, 37% and 32% of the whole study area were identified as suitable by the AHP-WLC and fuzzy logic methods, respectively. While both techniques can obtain satisfactory outcomes, the suitability map from fuzzy logic has produced more precise results. Hence, we propose to CDA-Islamabad here different sites for recharge wells based on the results of fuzzy logic. As recommended by this study, to date CDA has constructed twelve recharge wells.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/23/6051natural aquifer rechargefuzzy logicanalytical hierarchy processweighted linear combination
spellingShingle Farooq Alam
Muhammad Azmat
Riaz Zarin
Shakil Ahmad
Abdur Raziq
Hsu-Wen Vincent Young
Kim-Anh Nguyen
Yuei-An Liou
Identification of Potential Natural Aquifer Recharge Sites in Islamabad, Pakistan, by Integrating GIS and RS Techniques
Remote Sensing
natural aquifer recharge
fuzzy logic
analytical hierarchy process
weighted linear combination
title Identification of Potential Natural Aquifer Recharge Sites in Islamabad, Pakistan, by Integrating GIS and RS Techniques
title_full Identification of Potential Natural Aquifer Recharge Sites in Islamabad, Pakistan, by Integrating GIS and RS Techniques
title_fullStr Identification of Potential Natural Aquifer Recharge Sites in Islamabad, Pakistan, by Integrating GIS and RS Techniques
title_full_unstemmed Identification of Potential Natural Aquifer Recharge Sites in Islamabad, Pakistan, by Integrating GIS and RS Techniques
title_short Identification of Potential Natural Aquifer Recharge Sites in Islamabad, Pakistan, by Integrating GIS and RS Techniques
title_sort identification of potential natural aquifer recharge sites in islamabad pakistan by integrating gis and rs techniques
topic natural aquifer recharge
fuzzy logic
analytical hierarchy process
weighted linear combination
url https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/23/6051
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