Application of multimedia methodology for investigation of karst water in highland regions of Ha Giang Province, Vietnam

Ha Giang is one of the largest, northern border provinces of Vietnam, consisting of four districts: Yen Minh, Quan Ba, Dong Van and Meo Vac. This province features varied karst landscape of Carboniferous–Permian limestone. The region has been recognized by UNESCO as one of the 77 geological parks in the world and the second in Southeast Asia on 3 October 2012. In the dry season, little or no rain is recorded; therefore, surface water is very scarce. For this reason, proper delineation and exploitation of the groundwater resource is critical for sustainable water supply. This has been identified as an important challenge under the scientific project KC-08-10 in the national program KC-08. Remote sensing and GIS were used to decipher the signature of karst water in the highland of Ha Giang. Information layers generated were subjected to multi-criteria evaluation using analytic hierarchy process for decision making to identify ideal locations for groundwater prospecting. The study resulted in delineation of ten zones for all regions and 18 ideal drilling sites in Tam Son Town of Quan Ba District. Drilling and resistivity soundings were performed to assess the success of the interpretation. Deep resistivity survey confirmed low resistivity (200–300 Ωm) near the identified potential sites in Tam Son Town of Quan Ba District. Further, successful drilling at site LKTS1 with a discharge of 7–9 l/s is observed, proving the potential of this methodology for rapid exploration of groundwater in water-scare karst terrains of Vietnam.