Identification of rainwater harvesting sites using the analytic hierarchy process and geographic information systems in the Khemisset semi-arid region, Morocco

The dynamics of water scarcity constitute a fundamental problem that is being aggravated by climate change, especially in arid areas.The application of rainwater harvesting (RWH) in combination with geographic information systems (GIS) facilitates the determination of areas where rainwater harvesting can be realistically adopted.This new approach enables the effective and precise delineation of zones most appropriate for the installation of rainwater harvesting systems.This research suggests an approach that involves an analytic hierarchy process with GIS and remote sensing (RS) methods for identifying potential sites for RWH according to various socio-economic criteria.The research was carried out in the Khemisset province in the western part of Morocco.A comprehensive potential RWH map was created considering 12 significant parameters like land use and land cover, soil texture, slope, elevation, drainage density, Geology, rainfall, stream order, distance to faults, distance to roads, and distance to residential areas.All these parameters were assigned some weights in ArcGIS 10.8 software.This process enabled the incorporation of all the thematic maps and resulted in a combined RWH map for the given study area.The research findings indicated that around 48% of the entire study area was found to be moderately suitable for RWH.The validation of the RWH map by checking it against existing dams confirmed that the used methodology had a high capability to identify appropriate locations for RWH.