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.