SELECTING SUITABLE SITE FOR CONSTRUCTION A WATER RESERVOIR FOR IRRIGATION IN KASUNGU DISTRICT USING GIS MODEL BUILDER

Farming is one of activity happen in Kasungu district and most crop grown in this area including tobacco, Chitete, Kamwana, Mangazi and Nkhulande area the villages where I was study in order to selecting a suitable area for constructing suitable site for water reservoir. Water problem in Kasungu is one of the problems the farmer faces since Kasungu district depend on farming like tobacco. Just because tobacco required a lot of water starting from nursery up to the time when will be transplanted therefore Kasungu district does not have enough water for the farmer to irrigate their crops. The main objective of the study was to selecting suitable site for constructing a irrigation dam using geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing as well as spatial analysis. After the site has selected and the irrigation dam has constructed it help to solve a lot of problem that the farmer facing due to lack of enough water for their irrigation.
This study involved the use of various datasets both raster and vector data from different sources like download from NASA website. Computer with ArcGis software installed should be needed and some data like digital elevation model (DEM). There are some factors that was consided when choosing a suitable site for constructing a water reservoir like terrain, condition of the soil, land cover, land use, transport condition, river as the source of water.
All the data was collected both qualitative data and all the information will be loaded into the arcgis software in order to analysis the condition of that area in order to come with planning, analysis, data conversion where vector can be converted into raster data.

Farming is one of activity happen in Kasungu district and most crop grown in this area including tobacco, Chitete, Kamwana, Mangazi and Nkhulande area the villages where I was study in order to selecting a suitable area for constructing suitable site for water reservoir. Just because tobacco required a lot of water starting from nursery up to the time when will be transplanted therefore Kasungu district does not have enough water for the farmer to irrigate their crops. There are some factors that was consided when choosing a suitable site for constructing a water reservoir like terrain, condition of the soil, land cover, land use, transport condition, river as the source of water. All the data was collected both qualitative data and all the information will be loaded into the arcgis software in order to analysis the condition of that area in order to come with planning, analysis, data conversion where vector can be converted into raster data.

Malawi is divided into twenty-eight districts divided into three regions, one of which is Kasungu District in the Central region. It is bordered on the west by Zambia, on the south by Mchinji, Dowa, and Lilongwe district, on the north by Mzimba, and on the east by Nkhotakota and Ntchisi district.
It is the only district in Malawi that has more district boundaries than the rest of the region. Malawi's capital, Lilongwe, is about 127 kilometers from the district headquarters (NSO Atlas, 2002). Kasungu district is home to many tobacco farmers and occupies 7,878 square kilometers, accounting for 8.4% of Malawi's total land area. Farming but due to the condition of the area its dry and many peoples, they struggle to irrigate their crop due lack of enough (Kasungu SEP, 2013).

District: Kasungu

Coordinates: -12.97585, 33.4741