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DOI 10.1007/s00254-008-1504-9
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Received: 3 May 2008 / Accepted: 27 July 2008 / Published online: 12 August 2008
Springer-Verlag 2008
Abstract Water resources in Taiwan are unevenly distributed in spatial and temporal domains. Effectively
utilizing the water resources is an imperative task due to
climate change. At present, groundwater contributes 34%
of the total annual water supply and is an important fresh
water resource. However, over-exploitation has decreased
groundwater availability and has led to land subsidence.
Assessing the potential zone of groundwater recharge is
extremely important for the protection of water quality and
the management of groundwater systems. The Chih-Pen
Creek basin in eastern Taiwan is examined in this study to
assess its groundwater resources potential. Remote sensing
and the geographical information system (GIS) are used to
integrate five contributing factors: lithology, land cover/
land use, lineaments, drainage, and slope. The weights
of factors contributing to the groundwater recharge are
derived using aerial photos, geology maps, a land use
database, and field verification. The resultant map of the
groundwater potential zone demonstrates that the highest
recharge potential area is located towards the downstream
regions in the basin because of the high infiltration rates
caused by gravelly sand and agricultural land use in these
regions. In contrast, the least effective recharge potential
area is in upstream regions due to the low infiltration of
limestone.
Introduction
Groundwater recharge refers to the entry of water from the
unsaturated zone into the saturated zone below the water
table surface, together with the associated flow away from
the water table within the saturated zone (Freeze and
Cherry 1979). Recharge occurs when water flows past the
groundwater level and infiltrates into the saturated zone. It
is an extremely important water component of the circulation cycle in nature. Many factors affect the occurrence
and movement of groundwater in a region including
topography, lithology, geological structures, depth of
weathering, extent of fractures, primary porosity, secondary porosity, slope, drainage patterns, landform, land use/
land cover, and climate (Mukherjee 1996; Jaiswal et al.
2003). On-site hydrogeology experiments and geophysics
surveys help to explain the process of groundwater
recharge and evaluate the spatialtemporal difference in
the study region. However, these surveys often focus on a
single affecting factor or an indirect site-specific experiment for groundwater recharge, reducing the reliability
of the explanation. Recently, remote sensing has been
increasingly employed to replace on-site exploration or
experiments. Remote sensing not only provides a widerange scale of the spacetime distribution of observations,
but also saves time and money (Murthy 2000; Leblanc
et al. 2003; Tweed et al. 2007). Sener et al. (2005) pointed
out that remote sensing can effectively identify the characteristics of the surface of the earth (such as lineaments
and geology) and can also be used to examine groundwater recharge. Bierwirth and Welsh (2000) applied remote
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186
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Methodology
Study approach
Remote sensing technology, such as aerial photos, was
used in the present study to identify the geological features,
topography, and distribution of the rivers in the region.
Additionally, the Land Utilization Survey Database, geologic maps, and on-site investigation were adopted to
quantitatively and qualitatively describe the hydro-geological conditions of the area. The different polygons in the
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Table 1 Factors influencing groundwater recharge classified criteria
Factor
Basis of categorization
Lithology
Land cover/land
use
Lineaments
Lineament-density value
Drainage
Drainage-density value
Slope
Slope gradient
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Lineaments
The analysis of lineaments has been applied extensively to
explain geological status since geological images were
first utilized in the 1930s. Lineaments are generally
referred to in the analysis of remote sensing of fractures or
structures. Lineament photos from satellites and aerial
photos have similar characteristics but the results of the
explanation in on-site may be different. Lineaments are
currently not fully defined. OLeary et al. (1976) has
defined lineaments as the simple and complex linear
properties of geological structures such as faults, cleavages, fractures, and various surfaces of discontinuity, that
are arranged in a straight line or a slight curve, as detected
by remote sensing. Many non-geological structures, such
as roads and channels, cause errors in the analysis of
lineaments. Therefore, geologic maps and on-site investigations must be used to eliminate possible errors.
Lineaments may be used to infer groundwater movement
and storage. Lattman and Parizek (1964) were the first to
adopt a lineaments map to exploit groundwater. Thereafter, many scholars have applied this approach in
complicated geological regions (Solomon and Quiel
2006). The present study used lineament-length density
(Ld, L-1) (Greenbaum 1985), which represents the total
length of lineaments in a unit area, as:
iP
n
Li
Ld i1
A
iP
n
Li denotes the total length of lineaments (L) and
where
i1
Drainage
The structural analysis of a drainage network helps assess
the characteristics of the groundwater recharge zone. The
quality of a drainage network depends on lithology, which
provides an important index of the percolation rate. The
drainage-length density (Dd, L-1), as defined by Greenbaum (1985), indicates the total drainage-length in a unit
area, and is determined by:
iP
n
Dd
where
Si
i1
iP
n
i1
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and it lies between longitudes 121050 121500 E and latitudes 22350 22450 N. Figure 4 shows the geographical
location of the Chih-Pen Creek basin. The research region
belongs to the tropical marine climate, with a mean annual
temperature of 24.5C and an average annual precipitation
for 19712006 of 1,800 mm year-1. During the summer,
southwest monsoons occur and typhoons bring heavy
rainfall. The northeast monsoon brings vapor from the
Pacific Ocean during the winter. Because water vapor is
blocked by the Central Mountains of Taiwan, there is little
rainfall in the winter. Therefore, the wet and dry seasons
are very distinct in this region. The wet season is from May
to October, and the dry season is from November to April.
Evapotranspiration is approximately 750 mm year-1. The
maximum streamflow on annual hydrographs occurs during
August and September, and the minimum flow occurs
during January and February (Yeh et al. 2007).
Fig. 3 GIS technology used in spatial integration and analysis to
demarcate basin groundwater recharge potential zone
Study area
Geographical position and meteorological hydrology
The study area, the Chih-Pen Creek basin, is in the
southeast of Taiwan. The basin encompasses an area of
about 198.4 km2. The length of the river is about 39.3 km
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Fig. 5 Three-dimensional
topographic map of the
Chih-Pen Creek basin
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Calculation process
Proposed relative
rates
Lithology
3 9 1.0 = 3.0
3.0
Land cover/land
use
2.5
Lineaments
2 9 1.0 = 2.0
2.0
Drainage
1.5
Slope
1.5
R10.5
191
Calculation process
Proposed score
of each influencing
factor
Lithology
100 9 (3/10.5) = 29
29
100 9 (2.5/10.5) = 24
24
Lineaments
Drainage
100 9 (2/10.5) = 19
100 9 (1.5/10.5) = 14
19
14
Slope
100 9 (1.5/10.5) = 14
14
R100
Slope gradient
Domain of effect
5590
Lineament
density
4
7
1535
11
015
14
4
1.53.0
3.04.5
11
[4.5
14
0.40.8
13
0.81.2
19
Proposed
weight
of effect
3555
6
12
18
24
7
15
Marble
22
Gravelly sand
29
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Analysis of slope
The slope analysis function in GIS was used to assess the
variation of slope in the Chih-Pen Creek basin using data
from the Digital Terrain Model (DTM) database in Taiwan.
The Council of Agriculture authorized the Aerial Survey
Office of Forestry Bureau to measure and produce the
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