HYDROGEOPHYSICAL EVALUATION OF GROUNDWATER POTENTIAL OF MAKURDI AND ITS ENVIRONS USING VES AND GIS, NORTHCENTRAL NIGERIA

The development of groundwater resources is crucial to the economic and social well-being of the rural population as well as the health implications that lack of access to potable water portend. In this study, traditional hydrogeological mapping and the geographic information system (GIS) technique were combined for a better prediction of the groundwater potential of the Southwestern part of Makurdi where the study area lies. Results from the geologic, hydrogeologic mapping and hydrogeophysical survey were integrated with the groundwater occurrence controlling factors derived from field work and remote sensing to delineate the groundwater potential zones. A total of 23 locations were studied and sampled which was used to generate the geologic map of the area, aquifer parameters and the geo-electric layers. These data were compared to the remotely sensed data to produce the hydrogeological map of the area. Using the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP), the groundwater potential of the area was categorized into four units; poor, fair, good and excellent. 37% of the area under study shows very poor to poor groundwater potential, 40% indicates fair potential and 23% displayed good to excellent potentials. From the vertical electrical sounding curve analysis, weathered (unconfined) and weathered/fractured (unconfined) aquifer types were identified in the area. Hence, the developed groundwater potential map in this study can be harnessed for optimal groundwater resource management of the Southwestern part of Makurdi.