Prospectivity Modeling of Karstic Groundwater in the southeast of Damavand Mountain, Iran

Due to the unsustainable groundwater utilization in the alluvial water resources, groundwater exploration in the karstic areas is the key concern for many developing countries. The purpose of this study is groundwater prospectivity modeling for recognizing karstic water-bearing zones in the southeast of Damavand Mountain, Iran. To do so, seven major geological and hydrogeolgical factors, including lithology, slope, distance from faults, vegetation, temperature, precipitation, and fracture density were considered. Then, all these thematic layers were weighted and combined using fuzzy logic and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) operators by employing GIS software to generate four different models. Finally, the zoning map was classified into three classes (low, medium, and high), and the resultant maps verified by discharges of karstic springs in the study area. The results indicated that AHP-Fuzzy method has better performance than other models. According to this model, around 62.23% of the study area is classified as being at low and 15.72% as moderate groundwater potential while the remainder is categorized as high potential. The proposed model provides an appropriate approach to assess the groundwater potential for the study area, therefore, it can be concluded that RS and GIS coupling with other algorithms such as fuzzy and AHP are reliable tools in evaluation of karstic groundwater resource potential areas.