Potential location of renewable groundwater in Urmia Lake basin by AHP analysis and spatial fuzzy technique (case study: Urmia plain)

Groundwater resources have long been used by humans as a reliable alternative due to their higher reliability and lower fluctuations, and have declined quantitatively and qualitatively in recent decades due to over-harvesting. In this study, the potential of groundwater resources in Urmia Lake basin was studied using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and hybrid model of fuzzy logic- Analytical Hierarchy Process. It is necessary to reduce the negative interaction between the lake and the surrounding groundwater resources as much as possible by managing the abstraction of groundwater and identifying the sensitive areas of the aquifers of this basin and identifying the harvestable areas. First, the effective layers in groundwater potential (layers of height, slope model, land use, river distance, river density, geology, precipitation, evaporation and groundwater level) were prepared by ArcGIS. The results of study showed that in the AHP and the combined model of fuzzy logic, about 18.9% and 25.33% of the region's surface have high potential and are suitable for drilling wells, respectively. Finally, the ROC curve was used to determine the accuracy of the final maps. The accuracy of the final maps prepared by the AHP method and fuzzy logic-AHP was 0.775 and 0.812, respectively, and Fuzzy logic-AHP method had better performance in groundwater potential finding than Analytical Hierarchy Process.