An Improved Approach for Predicting the Groundwater Potentiality in the Low Desert Lands; El-Marashda Area, Northwest Qena City, Egypt

Abstract The harsh environment of Egypt makes the potentiality assessment of the groundwater of high concern where the groundwater considered as the foremost water supply for irrigation and domestic purposes. In the present work, the frequency ratio (FR), analytical hierarchy process (AHP), and evidential belief function (EBF) models were integrated with Geographic Information System (GIS) and Ternary Image (TI) model as a new integrated approach for evaluating groundwater potentiality. The accuracy of our model was compared applying the area under the curve (AUC). The prediction rates of AUC that acquired for AHP, FR, EBF, and TI were about 72 %, 77 %, 67 % and 79.13 %, respectively. Consequently, the Ternary image potential zoning map classified well the Northwest Qena city area depending on the water occurrences. The models validation output demonstrates that both AHP and TI proved an efficiency for groundwater potentials zones. Our new integrated approach can be implemented in the similar harsh areas for water resources potentiality prediction in Africa and other alike areas.