Potential Sites for Hill Reservoirs: An Assessment Methodology Using GIS and Remote Sensing Tools

Abstract

This study investigates the development of a methodology to identify potential sites for hill reservoirs using remote sensing and GIS, in an 1113-km2 area in northeast Tunisia. The general approach has two steps; first, extract the area and mean slope of each watershed of 16 hill reservoirs, and then produce a hill reservoirs suitability map of the entire study area based on these watershed physical characteristics. To determine the watershed area a representative pixel of each hill reservoir was settled and its contributing area was extracted. Moreover, a typical watershed was defined and watersheds mean-slopes were extrapolated to the entire study area. The methodology is validated by nine additional hill reservoirs. These reservoirs lie in the suitable class for potential hill reservoirs in suitability map, which means that the methodology is appropriate to identify hill reservoirs potential sites. This methodology is simple and easily applied and extendable to similar areas in West Asia and North Africa.