Comparing the Efficiency of Evidential Belief Function and Weight of Evidence Models for Groundwater Potential Mapping

The purpose of the current study is comparing the efficiency of evidential belief function and weight of evidence models to delineate the groundwater potential area of Bushehr plain in Bushehr province. First, location of wells were collected. Then, 70% of the wells were used randomly for modeling, and the remaining 30% for model evaluation. Using effective factors, the groundwater potential map was drawn by performing the efficiency of the evidential belief function and Weight of evidence models t in 10.1ArcGIS software. Finally, the resulting groundwater potential maps were validated using ROC. The results showed that the area under the ROC curve in the model of evidential belief function is 80% and in the model of Weight of evidence is 86%. Comparison of these results showed that both models have acceptable accuracy, but the Weight of evidence has a relatively better performance and the resulting map is more accurate than the evidential belief function model. The results of this research can be helpful for future management of water resources.