Mapping water harvesting potential in moisture-stressed zone of Northeastern Ethiopia using geospatial tools

The northeastern region of Ethiopia faces significant water scarcity challenges, including drought, repeated crop failures, food insecurity, and famine. To address this issue, water harvesting has emerged as a highly viable approach. This study aimed to identify potential sites for water harvesting practices in the moisture-stressed areas of the North Wollo Zone, Ethiopia. The site selection process considered various factors, including topography (slope), hydrology (rainfall, drainage density, and runoff), soil (texture and depth), agronomy (land use and cover), and socioeconomic factors (proximity to roads). An Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) and weighted overlay analysis were employed as the geospatial-based multicriteria decision-making methods. The results showed that less than 1% (13.8 km2) of the study area was highly suitable, while 39.3% (4,802.6 km2) was classified as moderately suitable for water harvesting practices. These moderately suitable areas present promising opportunities for installing water harvesting structures to benefit local communities. However, a significant portion of the study area, 60.2% (7,348.7 km2), was only marginally suitable. Verification of existing water harvesting structures revealed that 74% (28 out of 38) were located in moderately suitable areas, while the remaining 26% were in marginally suitable areas, indicating the community’s adaptive use of available land. The findings highlight that integrating geospatial and multicriteria approaches can effectively guide sustainable water resource planning in drought-prone regions. Future studies should incorporate additional socioeconomic parameters and higher-resolution datasets to refine the identification of suitable water harvesting sites and support evidence-based watershed management strategies.