GIS Based System for Evaluating Groundwater Quality in the Gaza Strip

Abstract

Problems inGazawater supply and sanitation have recently reached crisis levels, and are largely connected to the deteriorating economical, political and security situations. The potable water supply in the Gaza Strip will be depleted in 5-10 years. This calls for strengthening the Palestinian Environmental Programmes by adaptation of sustainability which is rapidly becoming a key decision driver in local and regional planning, while planning is based on information, more than 80 percent of information is geographically referenced, as faced with an overabundance of raw information, Gaza water planners are awakening to the value of geographic analysis and spatial visualization. Inclusion of information technology as part of the tools for WRM is becoming a necessity using the advances in computer technologies which made geographic information services a reachable goal, based on resources such as the MapWinGIS to support GIS functions in totally unique GIS-enabled applications, this will increase the quality of information provided to WRM and decision-makers, thus development of a tailored, process-based GIS application will be of great help. This application product is a prototype developed, using Visual Basic, map objects and map files generated from ARCInfo. It has a set of menus and buttons with which managers may query the geographic database. In this instance, data files supplied by CMWU have been integrated with the map files prepared by PWA into a geographic database. Monitoring of chloride as water quality indicator with respect to current practices may then be followed while information accessed by managers as well as decision-makers can be updated. The easier it is to extend a GIS platform, the more usable it will be for scientists and engineers who are not programmers. Thus, providing spatial solutions needs to be domain-specific and easy-to-use through incorporating the power of a comprehensive GIS into a user-friendly experience.