Master thesis

Wang Peiran (2017)
Application of GIS-MCDA for MAR suitability mapping in China. Master thesis, Technische Universität Dresden, September 2017

Abstract

China's freshwater resource is 2.8 trillion m³, however, due to high population, the water resource per capita is limited. Also because of the uneven distributed water resource and water demand, some parts of China are under severe water stress. Based on this fact, managed aquifer recharge (MAR) is being considered to replenish groundwater storage of the country, slow down land subsidence and also prevent and retard sea water intrusion. The present study used GIS multi - criteria decision analysis (GIS - MCDA) method to identify suitable sites for the implementation of the MAR type spreading method. Suitable sites were identified by six criteria: aquifer type, soil texture, land use , slope, ground water quality and national reserve zones. Aquifer type, land use, slope and national reserve zones were used as constraints to single out the unavailable sites. Aquifer type, soil texture, land use , slope, groundwater quality were used as alternatives to create a final suitability map. Among different alternatives, stepwise function was used for standardization, pairwise comparison was used for criterion weighing and defining proportion for alternatives as well as weighted linear combination was used as decision rules. The results show that 82% of the feasible area is suitable for implementing spreading MAR. The highly suitable areas locate in the north part of China, especially northwest part of China. Most areas are moderate suitable and distributed throughout the country. The areas with low suitability are mainly in North China Plain and northeast part of China, due to the limitation of aquifer type. 25 existing MAR sites are plotted in current study and 43% of them are located in highly suitable area, the result showing a good fit between the suitability map and the existing sites.