DELINEATION OF GROUND WATER POTENTIAL ZONES USING REMOTE SENSING MALAWI, BLANTYRE CITY

The increase in population Increases the water demand, delineation of groundwater is one of the best approaches for overcoming water scarcity problems. This study delineated the Blantyre city's potential groundwater zones using geographical information systems and remote sensing. Blantyre is one of the most populated cities in Malawi it faces water scarcity problems. using remote sensing, Geographical Information System (GIS), and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) the study evaluated the groundwater potential zones using criteria's which were lineament, slope, land use and land cover, soil, and drainage. Groundwater is the water present beneath the earth's surface in soil pores and the fractures of rock formations (). Groundwater consumption is more reliable and fresher compared to surface water due to it being more convenient and less vulnerable to pollution (MDPI, 2019). Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of Blantyre city was used to generate lineament and the lineament density, the slope map, Hydrography provided was used to generate drainage density. Soil map and land cover land use map were also created using remote sensing data. All the thematic layers were prepared and generated in QGIS and ArcGIS software, the parameters and their classes were assigned weights using AHP techniques, and normalization of weights was conducted and from this, a map of the Groundwater potential zone of Blantyre city was generated.

using remote sensing, Geographical Information System (GIS), and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) the study evaluated the groundwater potential zones using criteria's which were lineament, slope, land use and land cover, soil, and drainage. Groundwater consumption is more reliable and fresher compared to surface water due to it being more convenient and less vulnerable to pollution (MDPI, 2019). Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of Blantyre city was used to generate lineament and the lineament density, the slope map, Hydrography provided was used to generate drainage density. All the thematic layers were prepared and generated in QGIS and ArcGIS software, the parameters and their classes were assigned weights using AHP techniques, and normalization of weights was conducted and from this, a map of the Groundwater potential zone of Blantyre city was generated.

Blantyre City is the largest commercial and industrial capital of Malawi, is in the Shire Highlands and geographical centre of the Southern Region of the country, and lies 35% east of Greenwich Meridian and 15 ̊ 42 south of the Equator.it covers an area of 2,012 km2. it’s the second largest city with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants as of 2018. Blantyre is one of the cities having problems of water scarcity, Blantyre Water Board (BWB) supplies about 79,410mE of water per day from Shire River to Blantyre. Water supply to individuals is on an application basis. The supply network is old frequent pipe bursts that require Constant maintenance which is expensive around 74 percent of public schools have piped water supply.

Traditional authority: Blantyre City

District: Blantyre

Coordinates: -15.7955, 35.04405