Spatial Association of Groundwater Resources and Quaternary Faults Using Weight of Evidence Method (WOE) Case Study of Sirjan Plain

Aims & Backgrounds: The faults and tectonic structures have a major impact on groundwater resources and they play more important role in these factors, which by creating a displacement in the sequence of layers, lead to creation of aquifers. Determination of the relationship between faults and groundwater resources can help to identify new water resources.The aim of this study is to investigate the Spatial Association between Faults and groundwater resources such as Qanats and wells quantitatively and numerically. Methodology: In order to achieve this goal, the statistical weight of evidence method was used. Thus, by providing the quaternary fault layer and the position of Qanats and wells of the study area in the GIS environment, The 1 km buffers around the faults were extracted. In the next step, by performing the operation of overlaying of the Qanats and wells with the Faults layer, the coefficients of weights of evidence method were calculated. Findings:With respect to the changes in the weights and the obtained results, the greatest correlation between the wells and faults is within 1 km of the fault along and the most Spatial Association between the Qanats and faults is within 2 km of the faults along. According to the results, 65% of deep and semi-deep drilled wells in the Sirjan plain are affected by faults, while only 24% of the Qanats in this region are related to the faults.  Conclusion: Therefore, by identifying the fault-related wells and Qanats, it is possible to manage the effects of faults activity and possible earthquakes on the discharge change of the wells and Qanats.