Water resources are under tremendous pressure as a result of the growing demand for water to meet human needs. Hence, it is necessary to delineate groundwater potential zones (GWPZs) to sustainably develop and manage groundwater resources. In this study, the geospatial-based analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and frequency ratio (FR) techniques were used to identify the GWPZs. Seven factors (geology, rainfall, slope, lineament density, soil, drainage density, and land use/land cover), which partially or entirely influence the groundwater potentiality of an area, were accessed separately and later combined to create GWPZ maps. Weights and ranks were assigned to the factors to perform the AHP model using existing knowledge. The FR was performed by calculating the percentage ratio between the dependent variable (boreholes) and the independent variable (factors). The preparation of the contributing factors and the creation of the resulting models was done using ArcGIS 10.8. The final GWPZ maps were classified into five zones: very low, low, moderate, high, and very high. About 80 boreholes in the study area were randomly subset into training and testing datasets; 58% were used for model training, and the remaining 42% were used for validation purposes. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for the GWPZs models were generated, and the areas under the curves (AUC) were calculated. Validation of the models shows that the FR model is more efficient (85.3% accuracy) than the AHP model (83.2% accuracy). The findings show that the AHP and FR models are reliable and can be adopted to characterize GWPZs in arid or semi-arid environments.

The study is aimed at evaluating the groundwater accumulations present in Alice using magnetic and electrical resistivity measurements to examine the trends of structural elements and characterize the groundwater resource for borehole drilling. The magnetic maps show a low magnetic linear structure moving northwest to southeast direction, which may be caused by fractures. The linear high intensities were probably caused by dolerite dykes, while dolerite sills caused broader high-intensity areas. The depth slices show that the near-surface magnetic structures are visible to a depth of about 19 m, and the deep-seated structures are found at a depth of about 31 m, possibly deeper. Twenty-five vertical electrical soundings (VES) of the Schlumberger array were measured with AB/2 varying between 1.5 m and 250 m across the study area. The VES interpretation showed four geoelectric layers composed of HK and HA curve types. The geoelectric layer’s thicknesses are (1) topsoil from 0.4 to 1.8 m, (2) weathered layer from 0.8 to 17.5 m, and (3) weathered/fractured layer from 9.9 to 143.9 m; the third layer could be the productive water-bearing zones, and (4) bedrock layer has an infinite thickness. The layers have resistivity values of 20-5752 Ωm, 3-51 Ωm, 136-352 Ωm, and 44-60428 Ωm, respectively. A correlation of the VES with the borehole log indicated a well-matched result. The magnetic and electrical resistivity surveys provided a detailed subsurface structure and helped identify possible fractures that could act as a passage for groundwater.

Groundwater is crucial for the growth of any country. It is a vital resource for drinking water, agriculture, industry, and economic development. However, delineating the groundwater potential zones requires a systematic approach. This study assessed the groundwater potential zones (GWPZ) in the Ntabankulu municipality using remote sensing, geographic information systems, and analytical hierarchical process (AHP) techniques. Six groundwater controlling parameters were integrated to assess groundwater potential zones, including lithology, slope, lineaments density, land use/land cover, drainage density, and rainfall. The AHP pairwise comparison matrix was utilized to determine the normalized weight of the parameters. The parameters and their classes were assigned ranks, taking into account their influence on groundwater accumulation. The resultant GWPZ map was generated by integrating the parameters and their assigned weights in ArcGIS 10.8 software. The final map from the AHP technique showed five GWPZ, including very poor (13.06%), poor (25.36%), moderate (26.93%), good (22.72%), and very good (11.93%). Validation was done by using the existing 242 boreholes in the study area. Furthermore, the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve was plotted, and the area under the curve (AUC) analysis indicated a satisfactory accuracy prediction (AUC = 61%). The results of this study will assist in developing a proper plan for sustainable utilization of groundwater resources within the Ntabankulu municipality.

Study region: Alfred Nzo District, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Study focus: The study aimed to identify groundwater potential zones in the Alfred Nzo District using advanced geographic information systems and remote sensing applications by integrating relative frequency ratio (RF) with predictor rate and Shannon entropy (SE) models. Seven influential factors that are thought to control groundwater availability in the Alfred Nzo District were considered to identify groundwater potential zones. These factors are drainage density, lineament density, rainfall, slope, land use and land cover, lithology, and soil class. The factors were weighted in the RF and SE approaches. About 70 % of boreholes were used as training datasets, and 30 % were used for validation. Groundwater potential zones were delineated by integrating all these factors and their corresponding weights in ArcGIS software. The accuracy of each model was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curve and area under curve techniques. New hydrological insights for the region Five groundwater potential zones were found in the research area, which includes very poor, poor, moderate, good, and very good, by RF and SE models. The results of the models revealed that the SE model, with a success rate of 79.80 %, performed better than the RF, with a success rate of 75.10 %. The results of this research could be helpful in adequately managing groundwater resources in the research area.

Aquifers’ storability potential in Alice, comprising rocks of the Beaufort Group in the Karoo Supergroup, is examined based on the mineralogical and diagenetic implications of sandstones and mudstones. This investigation is focused on SEM + EDX analysis, petrographic study, porosity, and density determination. The SEM + EDX and petrographic studies show that the rocks are fractured and porous and contain minerals like quartz, feldspar, lithics, mica, kaolinite, calcite, and illite. The primary diagenetic processes that affect the groundwater storage of the rocks are cementation via authigenic minerals, mineral replacement, the dissolution of minerals, and recrystallization. The existence of fractured and dissolution pores improves the groundwater storage capacity. Ten rock samples were selected for density and porosity measurements. The porosity result shows that mudstone has the highest porosity value of 2.56%, while sandstone has the lowest porosity value of 0.85%. This is due to mudstone having numerous pore spaces compared to sandstone. The density of mudstone ranges from 2.5763 to 2.6978 g/cm³, while the density of sandstone ranges from 2.5908 to 2.6820 g/cm³. The secondary porosity is the main porosity for the reservoir rocks. The pores and fractures observed in the rocks act as channels for groundwater, which influence the aquifers’ storability in the study area. The techniques used in this research help us to efficiently understand the factors that control aquifers’ storability to assist with groundwater exploration.