A research project with the objective to identify and map hydrologic recharge zones (areas where underground water is stored), in a watershed in Guatemala. In this project, we applied supervised classification to Lansat 7 imagery for land cover mapping. During the fieldwork phase, we collected 135 samples of soil and conducted a laboratory analysis to determine its physical properties, conducted several infiltration tests, and evaluate the quality of water in several springs. We developed a GIS-based methodology for identification of recharge zones. Results included recharge zone maps, a model in ModelBuilder for automating the application of the method to other areas, and scenario-based analysis for estimating the impact of land cover changes. A complete report of this project (in Spanish) is available here.
Below some of the resulting maps.
Scenario I: Effect on restoring forest cover in areas with high recharge potential
