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Title:	Rainwater harvesting quantification and planning in an arid region using Geographic Information System and remote sensing technologies
Authors:	Khamis Naba Sayl (P79531)
Supervisor:	Nur Shazwani Muhammad, Dr.
Keywords:	West Desert Reservoir Hydrological soil group Location Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia -- Dissertations
Issue Date:	23-Nov-2013
Description:	Planning for rainwater harvesting (RWH) based on several key determinates such as hydrological, environmental, topographic, and socio-economic criteria is a complex issue and can be time consuming, especially when a large watershed is involved. Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) technology have aided and simplified the RWH planning. The West Desert of Iraq is one of the biggest arid regions that has suffered from severe water shortage, mainly due to its climatic condition and lack of water resource planning and management. A rainwater harvesting structure is considered as one of the best solutions to conserve this precious natural resource in the area, which has direct effects on both socio-economic development and ecosystem health. There are three main objectives of this study: (1) to develop a method to estimate the area-volume elevation (AVE) curve for the reservoir, using Digital Elevation Model (DEM) generated from Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) data and integrated it with GIS; (2) to determine the distribution of hydrological soil groups using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model integrated with GIS, RS and survey data; and (3) to identify, select, and rank the locations of potential RWH structures by integrating RS and GIS with a multi-criteria decision technique. The GIS-SRTM method was able to produce reliable AVE curve with a relative error of less than 20%. Additionally, this method saves time and requires minimal data in analyzing spatial parameters. The multiple-output ANN model was able to predict the distributions of hydrologic soil groups in the study area with good accuracy. Model performance was evaluated using the soil classification developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The results show that the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) for clay, silt, and sand were 3.5%, 6.9%, and 9.3% respectively. Clay shows the highest correlation coefficient of 0.8565 and both measured and estimated values are classified into the same hydrologic soil group developed by the USGS. Based on the two proposed models mentioned above, another model was developed to identify, select and rank the locations of RWH structures for a large area. Four indices were considered, i.e. the Evaporation Index, Cost-benefit Index, Sediment Index, and Hydrological Index. Four methods of weighting criteria i.e. Analytic Hierarchy (AHP), Fuzzy-AHP, Rank Order Method (ROM) and the Variance Inverse (VI) were used for ranking process. The sensitivity analysis shows that the VI is the best method for this study area. This study demonstrated the use of GIS and RS technologies to select the most suitable site for RWH structure in an arid region, with a comprehensive consideration of the characteristics and conditions of the study area. The proposed methodology can be used in an area where data availability is scarce and it is fast, reliable and cost-effective.,Ph.D.
Pages:	183
Publisher:	UKM, Bangi
Appears in Collections:	Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment / Fakulti Kejuruteraan dan Alam Bina

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