How can we ascertain availability of ground water using GIS.

Question

hi, I was reading some of the GIS post in network and this question came to my mind. Do any one have used GIS for ground water mapping or measuring or locating the sources etc?

dany tade · Answer

thanks everyone for the replies. I am not a GIS expert, I am curious to know more about it. Your comments helped me.thanks to water network team as well.

Andrew Raal · Answer

Jackvan John: That is a very broad question, not sure what you are after? If one one has system of monitoring wells GIS can be used for plotting quality data even modelling pollution plumes. Depth to groundwater and change over time can be contoured and displayed. Many countries have have a system of registering boreholes/wells that contain data like location, depth yield etc that are managed and viewed within GIS. Locating water is an extensive topic, geohydrologist usually use geophysics to locate groundwater - data from geophysics is usually processed within a GIS system. Remote sensing (aerial or satellite imaging) can be used to locate surface features or structures that have potential for trapping or containing water like dyke and fault zones. Areas where excessive groundwater extraction has occurred can result in surface subsidence, GIS systems can be used to process and view subsidence surveys. I know of a gis project where groundwater flow into marine environments was being identified by using night time thermal infra red scanning by determining water temperature differences. Whatever your groundwater issue is there is likely some technology available to locate, monitor measure and GIS is usually a tool of choice to analyse and display the data.

Rhiannon M. · Answer

The aim of GIS is to store geographically refence data as different layers. These different data layers may be manipulated and visualy accessed as output data. The usefulness of output data, is depend on the input data. Using GIS for ground water quantity assessment is relatively old method, but while depending on the areal photos you need to get ground survey done for ground truths too. Geographical mapping id done and then you can study these map. I am posting here a paper which will give you a detail idea on that.http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/submitted/etd-01312007-152347/unrestricted/02chapter2.pdf hope it is useful

Tamara Goerge · Answer

Geographical Information Systems are capable of storing, manipulating, and displaying geographically referenced information. GIS combines spatial database management, statistical analysis and cartographic modelling capabilities within computer hardware and software configurations. UsingGIS, complex analysis between layers or maps is possible and hence attempts have been made for ground water potential assessment in various parts of the world. You can find many studies on the topic, read paper which wll clear how to use this tool. http://www.academia.edu/443271/GIS_Based_Ground_Water_Quantity_Assessment_Model