GEOSPATIAL ASSESMENT OF GROUNDWATER POTENTIAL IN JOS SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA
GEOSPATIAL ASSESMENT OF GROUNDWATER POTENTIAL IN JOS SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA
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Date
2017-02
Authors
IKEGWUONU, Stanley Edozie
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Abstract
The drying up of the hand dug wells in Jos South L.G.A worsens the problem of water scarcity which is becoming progressively intense with growing population. This has been attributed to poor assessment of groundwater potential zones prior to water exploration in the area and there is no known study that investigated groundwater potential in the area. In this study, an attempt has been made to assess the possible groundwater potential zones in the Jos South Local Government Area, Plateau State using geospatial techniques. The data used include topographic map, satellite imageries and literatures while the thematic layers considered in this study include elevation, rainfall, drainage density, lineament density, geology, soil, slope steepness and landuse/landcover. All the thematic layers were then assigned weights according to their relative importance in groundwater occurrence and the corresponding normalized weights were obtained based on Saaty’s Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Eight thematic maps of factors contributing to groundwater recharge were generated and integrated in ArcGIS 10.1 environment using weighed sum overlay in spatial analyst tool. The resulted groundwater potential zoning map was validated based on existing geophysical investigation data of the study area, by determining the relationship between the results obtained using Remote Sensing and geographic information sysytem technology with that of electrical resistivity. Nine (9) electrical resistivity (one for each location) in Vom, Rayfield, Dutsen Kato, Barkin Columbai, Bukuru, Gyel, Kuru, Du and Shen were overlaid on the groundwater potential map generated from the integration of the various thematic maps. The coverage of the groundwater potential was estimated using the geometry calculator. Areas with larger value of aquifer thickness have high groundwater potential and areas with low aquifer thickness have low groundwater potential. Vom which has
aquifer thickness of 45m has the highest groundwater potential from electrical resistivity also has very high ground water from GIS method. On the other hand, Dutsen Kato and Du which both have aquifer thickness of 25m each were found to have low groundwater potential by resistivity method and very low from the GIS and remote sensing technique too. Thus, very good groundwater potential zones were identified in the Northern and Northeastern areas around Rayfield and Bukuru respectively, while the areas with low potential lie in the Western areas around Gyel. Very good groundwater potential zones in the study area occupies 14.1%, good potential occupies 22.4%, moderate occupies 15.0% while fair and low constitute of 23.9% and 24.6% respectively. Since the very good groundwater potential zones were identified in the Northern, North-eastern and Southern parts of the study area, it is important that the decision makers consider these areas when conducting groundwater exploration
Description
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA, IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM AND REMOTE SENSING
DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY,
FACULTY OF SCIENCE,
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY,
ZARIA, NIGERIA
Keywords
GEOSPATIAL ASSESMENT,, GROUNDWATER POTENTIAL,, JOS SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA,, PLATEAU STATE,, NIGERIA