Integration of Geospatial Technologies and Fuzzy-AHP Analysis to Assess Groundwater Potential in the Sirwa Massif, Anti-Atlas Region, Morocco

Abstract

Climate change has significantly impacted the availability of freshwater in several countries, particularly the African continent. In parallel, the increasing demand for water supply for domestic uses, irrigation and industry is putting more pressure on water reserves, leading to even more water scarcity. Groundwater on the other hand, still holds great potential for water supply reinforcement. aquifers remain largely underexploited in many regions, especially in inaccessible hard rock terrains. In this sense, remote sensing offers a cost-effective way to map groundwater occurrence in these geologically complex terrains. This research aims to delineate groundwater potential in the Sirwa massif, Anti-Atlas, Morocco. initially, a spatial analysis incorporating remote sensing and geophysical data was performed to create nine factors that impact groundwater occurrence including the lithology, fault density, lineament density, node density, slope, distance from rivers, drainage density, topographic wetness index, land use/land cover. Followed by a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process to evaluate the degree of influence of each factor on groundwater occurrence. The groundwater potential map shows that less than 8% of the total study area has high to very high groundwater potential. The remaining surface area (92%) is split between moderate (35.59%) and poor to very poor groundwater potential (55.51%). The predicted map was validated through receiver operating characteristic (ROC) using active borewell data (a success rate of 79.1%). Ultimately, the results shed light on suitable sites for groundwater resources, helping stakeholders to reduce the scale of prospection and make informed decisions for sustainable water management.