Finding Potential Groundwater Resources Using Fuzzy Logic (Case Study: South Khorasan province)

Propagation of south khorasan province in recent years and also locatingthis province in arid and semi-arid areas, requires to water resource strategies. One of strategies for water resource management, identify areas with different water potentials to utilize them according to their capacity. The goals of this research, zonation areas have water potential in south-khorasan province with effective factors in groundwater aquifer nutrition using fuzzy logic and GIS technic. 16 factors had been used in 4 groups (geology, hydrology, geographic and human) then classified in 5 classes from low to very high potential. Finally 43 basins of province classified based on groundwater potential maps and correlated with results of exploration wells and then prepared map water potential map of province. About 17% (27×103 km2) of province areas located at high and very high water potential classes that match with quaternary sediments and areas with high fracture density. Also very low potential class correlate with areas have high topography, hard lithology and desert areas.