Junior Tumare
Technical Instructor-I
Department of surveying and Land Studies The Papua New Guinea University of Technology Papua
New Guinea

Abstract
Application of Remote Sensing and GIS for Ground Water Potential Zone investigation in Bulolo-Wau Gold mine surrounding, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea

Groundwater is one of the most valuable natural resources, which supports human health, economic development and ecological diversity. In the present study, an attempt has been made to evaluate groundwater potential of Bulolo-Wau surrounding, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea, The study area compresses an area of 2715.10 sq.km. It has a population of 25000 persons (Census 2010 est.). Ground water is an important source of water supply throughout the world. Due to rapid growth in population, industrialization and increasing agricultural demand, the future requirement of water will be enormous.

A systematic planning of groundwater exploitation using modern techniques is essential for proper utilization and management of this precious but shrinking natural resource. With the advent of powerful and high-speed personal computers, efficient techniques for water management have evolved, of which Geoinformatics technology includes RS (Remote Sensing), GIS (Geographic Information System) and GPS (Global Positioning System) are of great significance. In the present study, an attempt has been made to delineate possible groundwater potential zones in the study area, using Geoinformatics technology. The thematic layers considered in this study are lithology, landform, drainage density, vegetation, hydro-geomorphic/hydrologic soils groups soil, land slope, altitude and Land use/Land cover, which were prepared using the Landsat ETM+, SRTM and conventional data.
Analysis of groundwater potential zones shows that the very high groundwater potential zones constitute 3.47% of the study area. The regions were mainly north-west to south east diagonal direction. The hydrologic parameters-based groundwater potential zone map indicates 22.67% of the study area constitutes high potential, 30.14% moderate potential and 29.92% low potential zone. This study also provides a methodological approach for an evaluation of the water resources in hard rock terrain and enables an opening of the scope for further development and management practices.