Combining GIS with multicriteria decision making for siting water harvesting ponds in Northern Jordan

Jordan is characterised as a 'water scarce' country. It is considered as one of the lowest countries in the world on a per capita basis. The available water resources per capita are falling as a result of population growth and are projected to fall from less than 160 m(3) per capita per year at present to about 90 m3 per capita per year by 2025. Water harvesting has been practiced in Jordan for thousands of years. There are indications of early water harvesting structures believed to have been constructed over 9000 years ago. There is a need to establish water harvesting projects at various places in Jordan to collect more surface water for domestic, agricultural and livestock watering usages. The selection of best sites for water harvesting schemes must be based on certain criteria that take into consideration the socio-economic and the physical characteristics of the targeted area. This research aimed to use both the Weighted Linear Combination and the Boolean techniques within GIS environment to select suitable areas in Northern Jordan for establishing water harvesting ponds. This resulted in having ca. 25% of the study area (64,184.8 ha) with high potential for constructing water harvesting ponds. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.