Groundwater modelling in Bidi Bidi settlement
Abstract
Groundwater is an essential part of the hydrologic functions and an important element for
socioeconomic development. Groundwater plays significant role in arid and semi-arid regions
worldwide by providing for both human consumption and the preservation of the ecology. The
semi-arid Bidi bidi refugee camp is no exception. Observations from this settlement are that there
is a water shortage which is attributed to groundwater level decline caused by poor water
groundwater monitoring. Hence, an alternative groundwater monitoring system should be
implemented in cases where such a system is not in place.
The estimation of trends in groundwater resource is important for sustainable utilization and
management. Groundwater potential zones in the study area were delineated using Geographical
Information Systems (GIS) and Remote sensing (RS) techniques. Various thematic layers, such as
geology, elevation, slope, lineament, land use type and drainage density, were created; and
integrated in ArcMap 10.2 on a scale of 1 to 5 according to their relative significance to
groundwater potential. The integrated map generated five categories, which are, very low, low,
moderate, high and very high. The groundwater potential sites were related to groundwater level
data(borehole data) acquired from Ministry of Water and Environment.