GIS applications to identifying and zoning groundwater exploitation Case Study: Namdan Plain, Eghlid

Current drought events and extreme extraction of underground water during the last few years have led to considerable reduction of underground water levels in many parts of Iran. The problem is more tangible in semi-arid areas where the lives of flora and fauna are closely related to the underground waters. Namdan plain located in Fars province is a fertile agriculture area which encounters the reduction of underground water levels due to high extraction and consumption of such waters. The rate of reduction is different according to different parts of the study area. Therefore, identification of areas with high reduction rates is a clear necessity in order to make any rational decisions for improving the underground water resources. The present study has applied GIS to zoning the area into three parts namely permitted, provisioned, and prohibited in terms of underground water extraction. The zoning classification was based on annual monitoring and interpolation of changes occurred in water levels of wells in the study area during 1997 to 2011. The results show that there is a direct relation between the location of deep wells and spatial distribution of prohibited and provisioned areas of underground water extraction. Spatially there were1131 (87%) deep wells out of 1311 in the mentioned zones which attracts the serious attentions of authorities to act more controls on the extraction of underground water in the study area.