Identification of Groundwater Potential Zones Using GIS and Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Techniques: A Case Study of the Shabelle River Basin (Somalia)

In addition to supplying the water that people need daily, groundwater also affects agricultural methods, preserves natural balance, and promotes industrial development. The 108,300 km2 Shabelle River Basin served as the site of the current study. Monitoring, evaluating, and conserving groundwater supplies for water resource management and development is made possible by the effective integration of remote sensing data and GIS in hydro-geological research. The Shabelle basin area's Ground Water Potential Zones were defined by combining seven thematic layers—geology, land use/land cover, drainage density, slope, lineament density, rainfall distribution map, and soil map—into a GIS platform using the spatial analyst tool in Arc GIS 10.8. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) technique is used to find the weighted values for each parameter and its sub-parameters based on the relative importance of the influencing elements for groundwater recharge. Four groups were identified on the final groundwater potential zonation map of the study area: low potential zones of 1,548.7 km² (1.43%), moderate potential zones of 25,786.23 km² (23.81%), high potential zones of 22,353.12 km² (20.64%), and very high potential zones of 55,341.3 km² (54.10%). According to this study, high and very high groundwater potential zones dominate in the basin in 75% of the entire studied region. These zones are found in the basin's northern and central regions, where low slopes, fractured geological formations, and porous soil are present. However, because to their steep slopes, strong geological formations, and low rainfall zones, the south and southwest regions of the basin have poor potential zones. When well data was utilized to validate the accuracy of this data, there was a high degree of agreement between the expected and observed well performance. The Shabelle river basin's water management policies, effective use of natural resources, physical design, and sustainable groundwater development should all benefit greatly from the findings, particularly as the adverse effects of climate change on human life become closer. Anywhere else in the world, the study's methodologies can be used. The findings of this study can be applied to future research on agriculture, basin management, sustainable groundwater, and the interaction between groundwater and climate change.