An integrated approach for groundwater potential zoning in shallow fracture zone aquifers

Abstract

This study presents an integrated approach for the identification of groundwater occurrences in shallow fracture zone (SFZ) aquifers using remote-sensing, geological, and geophysical data. The Central Eastern Desert of Egypt was selected as a test site for the present study. The distribution of major faults and shear zones was extracted from a fusion image generated by injecting high-spatial resolution phased array L-band synthetic aperture radar (PALSAR) images into Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper images. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) digital elevation model was processed to extract the drainage systems, slope, and topographic wetness index (TWI). The multidate PALSAR imagery acquired during rainy and dry seasons was used to estimate the relative soil moisture content. The lithology, fractures, drainage density, slope, TWI, and soil moisture content were used as thematic layers for groundwater occurrence in the SFZ aquifers. A GIS model of groundwater potential was developed by selecting the most probable locations for groundwater in each layer. The results indicate that the spatial distribution of the existing water wells is in agreement with the model where all wells fall in the regions of high groundwater potential zones. A geophysical survey was conducted using ground penetrating radar (GPR), indicating that the high groundwater potential zones are promising for drilling shallow wells. The adopted approach can be used as a cost-effective tool for groundwater exploration in the SFZ aquifers in the study area and in areas of similar geologic and hydrogeologic settings elsewhere.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Saint Louis University for supporting this work. Many thanks to Dr F. Soliman and Dr M. Rashed from the Suez Canal University of Egypt for their help in field work. The authors are grateful to the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) at NASA for granting the Landsat ETM and ASTER data. We thank the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for granting the PALSAR data.