Large areas of Palestine have been experiencing semi-arid climatic conditions due to frequent drought in many countries of the eastern Mediterranean basin for more than two decades. As a unique political context, the policies of Israeli ocupation on the water resources in Palestine are creating additional problems which place severe pressure on the surface water and groundwater. Constructing dams is a possible solution for water harvesting to tackle the problem of water scarcity in semi-arid areas. Considering the complexity of dam site selection, Geographic Information System (GIS) was used in combination with Remote Sensing (RS) techniques as tools for slecting dam locations in Daraja catchment area east of Bethlehem in south West Bank. Total annual rainwater amount of about 40،,41،,11 m drains into the Dead Sea basin. GIS mapping software such as ArcGIS , Arc Hydro and Google Earth have been applied, where precipitation, topography, geological structure layer, soil type, land cover and drainage order were considered as criteria in this study. The results of the study proposed dams as a preliminary site selection and include different scenarios due to the geopolitical divisions in the West Bank areas.

Title

Journal of Geographical Researches

Publisher

Ministry of Higher Education

Publisher Country

Iraq

Publication Type

Prtinted only

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Year

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Pages

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