ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Site-Specific Aquifer Characterization
and Identification of Potential Groundwater
Areas in Pakistan
Hafiz Umar Farid1, Zahid Mahmood-Khan1, Akhtar Ali1,
Muhammad Mubeen2, Muhammad Naveed Anjum3
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1Department of Agricultural Engineering, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan-Pakistan
2Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Vehari, Pakistan
3Division of Hydrology Water-Land Resources in Cold and Arid Regions, Cold and Arid Region Environmental
and Engineering Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China
Submission date: 2016-06-05
Final revision date: 2016-08-08
Acceptance date: 2016-08-12
Online publication date: 2017-01-31
Publication date: 2017-01-31
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2017;26(1):17-27
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ABSTRACT
Detailed knowledge about site-specific aquifer characteristics, subsurface lithology, and groundwater
potential can help to determine the depth and location of fresh groundwater quality. The present research
study was carried out by conducting 80 vertical electrical sounding surveys (VESs) in Rahim Yar Khan
District (RYK), Punjab, Pakistan to distinguish the fresh groundwater aquifer from saline groundwater
and to evaluate the aquifer protective capacity (APC) of overburden. 1XID software (Interpex, USA) was
used to accomplish the interpretation of VES data. The VES interpreted data was used to prepare spatial
distribution maps of aquifer apparent resistivity (AR), layer thickness, longitudinal conductance (LC), and
transverse resistance (TR) for the second, third, and fourth subsurface layers using ArcGIS 10.1. The results
showed that the greater part of the study area (65%) had four subsurface geo-electric layers. The spatial
distribution maps for AR showed that the fresh groundwater quality was present on the northwestern and
northeastern sides of the study area for all the layers. The results also indicated that the APC of overburden
increased with the increase of depth from the ground surface. Layer 4 with thickness of 57.09 m showed
good APC in the northern and central parts with LC values of >0.7 mhos. Similarly, the higher values of TR
showed higher yield potential in the north-eastern part as compared to the southern part. Overall analysis
indicated that the spatial distribution maps of AR, layer thickness, LC, and TR should be helpful for future
groundwater development in terms of quality and quantity.