Mr. Sikandar Hayat, Ms. Hana Ben Mahrez, Ms. Zsóka Szabó, Dr. Ádám Tóth and Prof. Judit Mádl SzÅ‘nyi
Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Science, Department of Geology, Hungary
Erzsébet Tóth Endowed Hydrogeology Chair
The climate change along with the rapid increase in population and mismanagement of water resources resulted in a decline in the quality and quantity of groundwater worldwide. According to NASA, 33% of the world’s major basins are overexploited. Managed A quifer R echarge (MAR) techniques coupled with effective watershed management can solve the problem of declining water table. MAR is defined by Gale, 2005 as “Intentional storage and treatment of water in aquifers”.
The MAR suitability map is the first step towards the sustainable groundwater management plan to alleviate the water table. The integration o f GIS and remote sensing has been proved useful in assessing, preserving, and monitoring groundwater resources while
minimizing labor, money, and time. The goal of this study is to review the development of MAR in the province of Baluchistan, Pakistan, and to produce the MAR suitability map of two coastal basins of Baluchistan, Poralai and Hangol basins, using Geographical Information System Multicriteria Decision Analysis (GIS MCDA). Both of the basins are suffering from water table decline and saltwater i ntrusion. First, the online INOWAS online platform is used to narrow down the suitable MAR options by choosing 1) Source of w ater, 2) Soil type, 3) Land use, 4) Purpose, 5) Typical scale. Then the six influencing factors including geology, slope, land use, precipitation, drainage density, and soil have been identified and the raster map of each factor is scored and weighted using M ulti I nfluencing F actor (MIF) method. All the factors are integrated according to their weightage by using ‘Weighted Overlay Ana lysis’ tool in ArcGIS to produce a MAR suitability map.
The results depict that most of the Poralai basin and a small part of Hingol b asin is suitable for the implementation of MAR especially trenches, furrows, leaky suitable for the implementation of MAR especially trenches, furrows, leaky dams, and trenches. This MAR suitabilitdams, and trenches. This MAR suitability map can serve as the preliminary y map can serve as the preliminary guideline for a detailed study of Poralai and Hguideline for a detailed study of Poralai and Haangol basins to effectively ngol basins to effectively implement MAR methods.
Acknowledgement:
This research is part of a project that hasThis research is part of a project that has received funding from the European received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 810980.agreement No 810980.