Characterization of groundwater potential zones using analytic hierarchy process and integrated geomatic techniques in Central Middle Atlas (Morocco)

Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is an invaluable tool that has been applied by different specialists to upgrade their administration capacity. Managing groundwater resources particularly under arid land faces several limitations and problems such as the implications of various spatial factors, which lead managers to utilize multicriteria decision. In this research, a consistent approach was applied to identify groundwater potential (GWP) areas through the use of AHP, geographic information system (GIS), and (RS) techniques in the Central Middle Atlas, Morocco. First of all, the efficient groundwater potential thematic layers including lithology (Lt), karst (K), height above the nearest drainage (HAND) geomorphology, which is called HG, and lineament density (LD) were derived through spatial databases. Then, the weights assigned to the thematic layers on the basis of expert knowledge were standardized by the AHP’s eigen vector technique. To calculate the groundwater potential index, the weighted linear combination (WLC) method was implemented in a GIS environment. The study found that only 3.88% of the study area had very good groundwater potential and 17.22% had a good potential, in addition to 20.20% with moderate potential, whereas in the most part of the region, 29.89% is within poor groundwater potential, and 18.60% are within very poor groundwater potential and 10.49% with non-potential. The very good GWP areas are located where the land cover majority is forests. The good, moderate, and poor GWP zones are located in areas where the land cover majority is shrublands. The poor and non-potential GWP zones are located in areas where the land cover majority is cropland.