Water harvesting (WH) and aquifer recharge (AR) have been promoted in recent decades as solutions to the overexploitation of groundwater resources in many countries around the world. Remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) technologies with multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) enable the analysis of many parameters to identify potential WH and AR sites and suitable zones for site-specific and cost-effective recharge structures. Iraq is located within an arid and semiarid region and thus suffers from water scarcity and absent surface water resources. The use of RS and GIS technology for detection of appropriate sites for WH and AR could potentially increase water availability. The criteria selected for determining appropriate WH and AR areas were runoff, drainage, geology, groundwater depth, slope, soil texture, and land use/land cover. The selection of these criteria was found to be more important and more frequent in a literature review for WH and AR, and the weightage of each criterion should be based on the opinion of experts. The obtained results indicated only five optimum sites for check dam construction for WH, due to their locations in suitable land class, slope (< 15%), and soil type (sandy clay loam) conducive to soil and water preservation and groundwater accretion. Six optimum sites were proposed for AR to build percolation tanks, due to their locations within the outcrops of the Al-Dammam and Um Erdhuma Formations because these formations contain fractures, which recharge groundwater directly. In addition, the selected sites were situated in sandy silt loam soils (which are highly appropriate for recharging groundwater systems) barren land with slope of < 10%, and second- and third-order drainages. These prevent damage to percolation tanks owing to high runoff rate. Many sites of wells and boreholes were chosen at outcrop locations of the Al-Dammam and Um Erdhuma Formations because of directly infiltrating runoff water into the aquifer and to decrease the velocity of runoff water and protect the check dam from corruption.

近几十年来，作为解决世界上许多国家过度开采地下水资源的解决方案，人们已提倡集水（WH）和含水层补给（AR）。借助多标准决策分析（MCDA）的遥感（RS）和地理信息系统（GIS）技术，可以分析许多参数，以识别潜在的WH和AR站点以及针对特定站点和具有成本效益的补给结构的合适区域。伊拉克位于干旱和半干旱地区，因此缺水和缺乏地表水资源。使用RS和GIS技术检测WH和AR的适当地点可能会增加水的可利用性。用于确定适当的WH和AR区域的标准是径流，排水，地质，地下水深度，坡度，土壤质地，和土地利用/土地覆盖。在对WH和AR的文献综述中，发现这些标准的选择更为重要且更为频繁，每个标准的权重应基于专家的意见。获得的结果表明，由于WH的检查坝建设位置合适，其坡度（<15％）和土壤类型（砂质壤土）有利于水土保持和地下水积聚，因此只有五个最佳位置。由于它们位于Al-Dammam和Um Erdhuma地层露头内的位置，因此建议为AR建造渗滤池的六个最佳地点，因为这些地层均含有裂缝，可以直接补充地下水。此外，选定的地点位于砂质粉壤土（非常适合给地下水系统补水），坡度小于10％的贫瘠土地以及二阶和三阶排水系统中。这些防止了由于高径流率对渗滤池的损害。在Al-Dammam和Um Erdhuma地层的露头位置选择了许多井孔和钻孔位置，因为它们直接将径流水渗入含水层，并降低径流水的速度并保护止水坝不受破坏。