Delineation of groundwater potential zones using remote sensing and GIS-based data-driven models

The rapid increase in human population has increased the groundwater resources demand for drinking, agricultural and industrial purposes. The main purpose of this study is to produce groundwater potential map (GPM) using weights-of-evidence (WOE) and evidential belief function (EBF) models based on geographic information system in the Azna Plain, Lorestan Province, Iran. A total number of 370 groundwater wells with discharge more than 10 m³s^?1were considered and out of them, 256 (70%) were randomly selected for training purpose, while the remaining114 (30%) were used for validating the model. In next step, the effective factors on the groundwater potential such as altitude, slope aspect, slope angle, curvature, distance from rivers, drainage density, topographic wetness index, fault distance, fault density, lithology and land use were derived from the spatial geodatabases. Subsequently, the GPM was produced using WOE and EBF models. Finally, the validation of the GPMs was carried out using areas under the ROC curve (AUC). Results showed that the GPM prepared using WOE model has the success rate of 73.62%. Similarly, the AUC plot showed 76.21% prediction accuracy for the EBF model which means both the models performed fairly good predication accuracy. The GPMs are useful sources for planners and engineers in water resource management, land use planning and hazard mitigation purpose.     

Arabs versus Jews in Galilee: Competition for regional resources

This paper suggests that the State of Israel is neither pluralistic nor neutral when it comes to the allocation of regional resources between the two groups of its citizenry, Jewish and Arab. The study focuses on the state's N region, Galilee, where the unequal distribution of land, water, and local budgets as regional resources between Jewish and Arab settlements reflects a geography of power along lines of ethnic cleavage. Rather than being a neutral agent in resource distribution and allocation, the central government plays a key role in allocatinal policies distinctly skewed in favor of the Jewish population in Galilee, resulting in highly uneven development patterns and other disparities.Paper originally presented at the IBG Annual conference, Glasgow, 3–6 January 1990     

The development of the ‘planned bedouin settlement’ in Israel 1964–1982: evaluation and characteristics

Tribal traditions are facing a severe crisis in modern society. The bedouin in Israel form a small group (13%) within the state's Arab minority, and they completed their transition stage towards settled habits in the middle of the present century with the establishment of a relatively high number of villages and hamlets. For a variety of reasons such a high number of settlements is considered ‘undesirable’ by the state. It is the object of this paper to examine the state planning of bedouin settlement as a part of the policy of concentrating bedouin groups. It also sheds light on tribal reaction towards this policy.     

The spatial pattern of Bedouin Sedentarization in Israel

The bedouin in Israel form a small group (13%) within the state's Arab minority, and they completed their transition stage towards settled habits in the middle of the present century with the establishment of a relatively high number of villages and hamlets. It is the object of this paper to examine and define the nature of these patterns of rural settlements, which emerged in the two distinctive areas of Galilee and the Negev.The discussion in this paper is confined to the period of the state of Israel (1948–83), when changes in both the processes and the patterns of bedouin sedentarization took place under entirely new political conditions. After the establishment of the Jewish State of Israel in 1948, both Galilee and Negev bedouin sedentarization was completed within a period of a single decade (1950–60). However, the sedentarization pattern has further evolved during the past two decades and is likely to continue to do so until the end of the present century.In the Israeli period, the pattern of bedouin sedentarization has developed in two distinct directions. First, the bedouin themselves have built permanent structures for residential purposes, a process usually referred to as spontaneous bedouin settlement. Secondly, the state authorities have planned and established settlements. In this planned bedouin settlement, the state has been dominant in shaping the pattern. It is important to note that most bedouin settlement in Israel belong in the first category where the whole tribe or individual groups were the initiators of their settlements. This paper which was written by an author who belongs to the bedouin community, is based mostly upon fresh evidence from field research data, and is the first attempt to indicate the importance of the role of the state in shaping the settlement pattern. It is hoped to contribute to the study of nomadism as well as to the study of the Arabs in Israel.Paper presented at the 25th International Geographical Congress Paris 27–31 August 1984. The author would like to thank the Centre for Arab Heritage without whose support his attendance at this conference would not have been possible.     

Identification of hydrogeochemical processes and pollution sources of groundwater resources in the Marand plain,northwest of Iran

The main aims of the present study are to identify the major factors affecting hydrogeochemistry of groundwater resources in the Marand plain, NW Iran and to evaluate the potential sources of major and trace elements using multivariate statistical analysis such as hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) and factor analysis (FA). To achieve these goals, groundwater samples were collected in three sampling periods in September 2013, May 2014 and September 2014 and analyzed with regard to ions (e.g., Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺ and K⁺, HCO₃ ^?, SO₄ ^2?, Cl^?, F^? and NO₃ ^?) and trace metals (e.g., Cr, Pb, Cd, Mn, Fe, Al and As). The piper diagrams show that the majority of samples belong to Na–Cl water type and are followed by Ca–HCO₃ and mixed Ca–Na–HCO₃. Cross-plots show that weathering and dissolution of different rocks and minerals, ion exchange, reverse ion exchange and anthropogenic activities, especially agricultural activities, influence the hydrogeochemistry of the study area. The results of the FA demonstrate that 6 factors with 81.7% of total variance are effective in the overall hydrogeochemistry, which are attributed to geogenic and anthropogenic impacts. The HCA categorizes the samples into two clusters. Samples of cluster C1, which appear to have higher values of some trace metals like Pb and As, are spatially located at the eastern and central parts of the plain, while samples of cluster C2, which express the salinization of the groundwater, are situated mainly westward with few local exceptions.     

Petrography,geochemistry, and provenance of the Chalki rocks in Kurdistan region,North Iraq

Outcrops of the Paleozoic Chalki volcanic rocks are restricted to part of the northern Thrust Zone of Iraq close to Iraqi-Turkish border. Petrographically, the volcanic rocks from the Chalki area are mainly layered, appearing fresh in the field and exhibiting some basaltic lava flows. Porphyritic, amygdaloidal, and microlite-porphyric are the main observed textures. Phenocrysts of primary phases (i.e., olivine, iron oxides) are in a groundmass of feldspars and clinopyroxene. Chalki Formation is intercalated with Pirispiki Formation which consists of thin to medium bedded, greenish gray marl, red mudstone, and veins of calcite. The Chalki rocks are mafic of theolitic basalt type. Geochemically, they have high chromium and nickel concentrations in most samples. Rare earth element (REE) patterns illustrate parallel to sub-parallel, moderately fractionated REE patterns. The low heavy REE (HREE) contents in the studied samples appear to be due to partial melting of metamorphosed oceanic crust leaving HREE-rich accessory minerals (i.e., garnet) as a residual phase in the source. No Eu anomalies were observed in the Chalki samples which may indicate a back-arc basin pattern. The non-subduction signature of the Chalki rocks is confirmed by the Nb/Yb versus Th/Yb diagram, which shows that most of the studied rocks fall in the compositional field of non-arc-related rocks—well within the field of the mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB)-ocean island basalt (OIB) mantle array.     

Applicability of generalized additive model in groundwater potential modelling and comparison its performance by bivariate statistical methods

Groundwater is the most valuable natural resource in arid areas. Therefore, any attempt to investigate potential zones of groundwater for further management of water supply is necessary. Hence, many researchers have worked on this subject all around the world. On the other hand, the Generalized Additive Model (GAM) has been applied to environmental and ecological modelling, but its applicability to other kinds of predictive modelling such as groundwater potential mapping has not yet been investigated. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of GAM model and then its comparison with three popular GIS-based bivariate statistical methods, namely Frequency Ratio (FR), Statistical Index (SI) and Weight-of-Evidence (WOE) for producing groundwater spring potential map (GSPM) in Lorestan Province Iran. To achieve this, out of 6439 existed springs, 4291 spring locations were selected for training phase and the remaining 2147 springs for model evaluation. Next, the thematic layers of 12 effective spring parameters including altitude, plan curvature, slope angle, slope aspect, drainage density, distance from rivers, topographic wetness index, fault density, distance from fault, lithology, soil and land use/land cover were mapped and integrated using the ArcGIS 10.2 software to generate a groundwater prospect map using mentioned approaches. The produced GSPMs were then classified into four distinct groundwater potential zones, namely low, moderate, high and very high classes. The results of the analysis were finally validated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve technique. The results indicated that out of four models, SI is superior (prediction accuracy of 85.4%) following by FR, GAM and WOE, respectively (prediction accuracy of 83.7, 77 and 76.3%). The result of groundwater spring potential map is helpful as a guide for engineers in water resources management and land use planning in order to select suitable areas to implement development schemes and also government entities.