Application of ordered Weighted Average (OWA) For producing Map of Suitable Groundwater Recharge zones in Salafchegan Study area, Iran

Due to the depletion of groundwater resources in dry climates, establishing an effective procedure to delineate artificial groundwater recharge zones is of great importance. Then, the objective of this study was utilizing Ordered Weight Average (OWA) multi-criteria evaluation method and fuzzification of layers to produce suitability maps of Salafchegan study area located in Qom province. To do this, different data layers including observation wells, soil maps and reports, Digital Elevation Model and landsat-8 OLI, etc. were used. Different ordered weight with different tradeoff (four procedures) were used to create suitability maps. Finally, by using a land-use filter as well as applying condition of proximity to tributaries and lineaments, few zones were chosen as the selected locations to groundwater recharge zones. The risk-averse procedures (first and third procedures) did not introduce any suitable location for groundwater recharge site. However, the second and fourth procedures did suggest 11 and 25 location, respectively. To assess correlations of the information layers and results, principal components analysis was used. Results suggested that the slope and infiltration layers have strong positive correlation (more than 75%) and the electrical conductivity (EC) has a negative correlation with other layers (more than 50%).