A geospatial approach to delineate lineaments on the granite gneissic terrain of Mpwapwa district, Dodoma, central Tanzania

The study sought to utilise Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing, and a blend of manual and automatic techniques to delineate and analyse the spatial distribution and orientation of lineaments within the terrain of Mpwapwa District. The study employed various techniques, including the Optimum Index Factor (OIF), Band Combination, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and Directional Filtering on the Landsat 8 imagery, and Hill Shading technique was used on Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Digital Elevation Model (SRTM DEM). These techniques were employed in the processing steps for both manual and automatic lineament extraction, utilizing various software tools. Lineament control and validation were executed using digitized geological maps, topographical maps, and Google Earth images. The results revealed lineaments with a total length of 2060.6 km, non-uniformly distributed and predominantly present in hard rock lithologies, such as migmatitic granite, migmatitic biotite gneiss, biotite gneiss, granitoid gneiss, and porphyroblastic gneiss. The findings further indicate that NE-SW and NW-SE are the dominant lineament trends. Additionally, the study revealed that areas with medium, high, and very high lineament density and intersection are primarily located in the southwest and northeast parts of the Mpwapwa District. Meanwhile, regions with low lineament density are spread through the entire district. In this study, GIS and remote sensing emerged as valuable tools for identifying and mapping lineaments within a challenging hydrogeological setting. Findings from this study will serve as a foundational framework for subsequent geological and hydrogeological investigations in the area of study.