RS and GIS analysis of the groundwater potential zones in the Upper Blue Nile River Basin, Ethiopia

Study Region: Tributary of Abay basin, Upper Blue Nile River Basin, Ethiopia. Study focus: The study is aimed to assess and classify groundwater potential zones (GWPZ) of Guder watershed, the Upper Blue Nile (UBN) River Basin using remote sensing (RS) and GIS techniques. Geomorphology, land use/cover, Lithology, soil type, drainage density, soil texture, slope, lineament, rainfall, and elevation are all used to create groundwater potential zones. Based on Saaty's AHP method, expert judgment, and their relative influence on groundwater occur-rence, the attributes of these influencing factors were given appropriate weightage according to quantile classification. New hydrological insights for the region: The GWPZ was classified as a very poor, poor, moderate, good, and very good class. This study found that approximately 33.58% of the Guder River basin falls into the good and very good GWPZ classes, with a similar value of 16.79%, whereas values of 23.3%, 20.2%, and 22.9% were represented by very poor, poor, and moderate GWPZ respectively. Field data like borehole test data was used to validate GWPZ. R2 and kappa statistics estimated values of 73% and 76.7%, respectively, confirmed the study's findings. This study confirms GIS and RS techniques as a successful model of GWPZ delineation that can be applied to other Ethiopian basins.