Lineaments Analysis to Identify Favourable Areas for Groundwater in Kano City, Northwestern Nigeria

Abstract

This work was carried out to investigate groundwater potentials of Kano city using lineament analysis, and to study the relationship between the characteristics and occurrence of groundwater in aquifers of about 200m deep in crystalline basement rocks of the area by examining the possibility of groundwater occurrence at such depths; despite the general understanding that fractures closes with depth. It shows the use of LANDSAT ETM+ imagery and geological map to investigate areas favorable for groundwater development.  This was achieved by plotting the lineament trends, and lineament density to know the groundwater potentials. Rose (azimuth-frequency) diagram of the lineaments delineated on the imagery shows trends in the directions of N-S, E-W, NE-SW, and NW-SE. The dominant trend is NW-SE. The analyses have shown that the study area has numerous fractures whose major trends are mainly in north-south and northwestern-southeastern directions. Lineament density map shows the cross-cutting lineaments are relatively high in areas around the north-eastern and south-western parts of the study area but low in the other areas. The zones of high lineament intersection density are feasible zones for groundwater prospecting.  The positions of deep boreholes on the map of the area do not coincide with the cross cutting lineaments, and are therefore the yields of the deep boreholes are not sustainable.

Keywords: Lineaments, groundwater, boreholes, aquifer, fractures