Gis and Remote Sensing for Groundwater: a Case of Moyale -teltele Sub-basin of Genale Dawa River Basin, South Ethiopia

An integrated approach with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) was adopted to assess the groundwater potential in the southern lowlands of Ethiopia, Moyale-Teltele sub-basin of the Genale Dawa river basin. Six geologic, physiographic, and hydrologic factors were applied namely: lithology, structure, geomorphology, slope, land cover, and drainage. Satty?s Analytical Hierarchy Process was utilized in giving ranks and weights to the layers and different classes in them. Weighted Overlay Analysis was implemented in ArcGIS to combine the thematic layers and produce the groundwater potential map of the area. This result was further verified by groundwater yield data of boreholes and springs collected in the field and from previous reports. The validation revealed that the result was in well conformity with the actual yield of the wells and springs.