GIS-based multi-criteria decision making for delineation of potential groundwater recharge zones for sustainable resource management in the Eastern Mediterranean: a case study

In light of population growth and climate change, groundwater is one of the most important water resources globally. Groundwater is crucial for sustaining many vital sectors in Syria, including industrial and agricultural sectors. However, groundwater exploitation has significantly escalated to meet different water needs especially in the post-war period and the earthquake disaster. Therefore, the goal was this study delineation of the groundwater potential zones (GPZs) by integrating the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method in a geographic information systems (GIS) within the AlAlqerdaha river basin in western Syria. In this study, ten criteria were used to map the spatial distribution of GPZs, including slope, geomorphology, drainage density, land use/land cover (LU/LC), lineament density, lithology, rainfall, soil, curvature and topographic wetness index (TWI). GPZs map was validated by using the location of 74 wells and the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (ROC). The findings suggest that the study area is divided into five GPZs: very low, 21.39 km² (10.87%); low, 52.45 km² (26.65%); moderate, 65.64 km² (33.35%); high, 40.45 km² (20.55%) and very high, 16.90 km² (8.58%). High and very high zones mainly corresponded to the western regions of the study area. The conducted spatial modeling indicated that the AHP-based GPZs map showed a remarkably acceptable correlation with wells locations (AUC = 87.7%, n = 74), demonstrating the precision of the AHP–GIS as a rating method. The results of this study provide objective and constructive outputs that can help decision-makers to optimally manage groundwater resources in the post-war phase in Syria.