Environ Earth Sci
DOI 10.1007/s12665-014-3109-9
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Using combined AHP–genetic algorithm in artificial groundwater
recharge site selection of Gareh Bygone Plain, Iran
Saeed Rahimi • Majid Shadman Roodposhti •
Rahim Ali Abbaspour
Received: 1 October 2013 / Accepted: 27 January 2014
Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
Abstract Flood spreading is one of the suitable strategies
to control and benefit from floods which in turn improve
the groundwater recharge, makes soil more fertile, and
increases nutrients in soil. It is also a method for reusing
sediment, which is usually wasted. Thus, selection of
suitable areas for flood spreading and directing the flood
water into permeable formations are amongst the most
effective strategies in flood spreading projects. Having
combined analytic hierarchy process (AHP) of multi-cri-
teria decision analysis and genetic algorithm (GA) of
artificial intelligence approaches, this paper addresses the
problem of finding the most suitable area location for flood
spreading operation in the Gareh Bygone Plain of Iran. To
this end, the nine effective geodata layers including slope,
alluvium thickness, geology, morphology, electrical con-
ductivity, land use, drainage density, aquifer transmissiv-
ity, and elevation were prepared in geographic information
system environment. This stage was followed by elimina-
tion of the exclusionary areas for flood spreading while
determining the potentially suitable ones. Having closely
examined the potentially suitable areas using the proposed
methodology, the land suitability map for flood spreading
was produced. The AHP and GA were used for ranking all
the alternatives and weighting the criteria involved,
respectively. The results of the study showed that most
suitable areas for the artificial groundwater recharge are
located in Quaternary Qft2 and Qsf geologic units and in
morphological units of pediment and Alluvial fans with
slopes not exceeding 2 %. Finally, further evidence for the
acceptable efficiency of the integrated AHP–GA method in
locating most suitable flood spreading areas have been
S. Rahimi  M. Shadman Roodposhti  R. Ali Abbaspour (&)
College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
e-mail: abaspour@ut.ac.ir
provided by such significant spatial coincidence between
the produced map and the control areas located near
Kowsar research station, where the earlier flood spreading
projects were successfully performed.
Keywords Flood spreading  AHP  Genetic algorithm 
Gareh Bygone Plain
Introduction
Artificial groundwater recharge is the planned infiltration
of effluents from sanitation systems (e.g. waste stabiliza-
tion ponds, surface, horizontal flow or vertical flow con-
structed wetlands), storm water or surface runoff into the
aquifer to increase the natural replenishment of ground-
water resources. Groundwater recharge is increasing in
popularity as groundwater resources are being depleted and
as saltwater intrusion is becoming a greater threat to coastal
communities (Tilley et al. 2008).
In recent years, researchers in watershed engineering
and other fields have become increasingly interested in
using geographic information system (GIS) to fulfill arti-
ficial groundwater recharge site selection. Along with GIS,
remote sensing and the technology of satellite data pro-
cessing with access to up-to-date and diverse information
are broadly used to deal with management problems (Saraf
and Choudhury 1998). Accordingly, the main purpose of
using remote sensing, GIS, and multi-criteria decision
making (MCDM) together in an integrated approach is to
provide scientific evidence for the site selection processes.
Many studies have found evidence for the efficiency of
the combination of the satellite data, GIS, and MCDM in
locating the optimal zones for flood spreading and other
ground water recharge methods (Krishnamurthy and
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Srinivas 1995; Krishnamurthy et al. 1996; Saraf and Cho-
udhury 1998; Han 2003; Chowdhury et al. 2010; Jamali
et al. 2013). Using GIS and spatial decision support sys-
tems, Ghayoumian et al. (2002, 2005 and 2007), Zehtabian
et al. (2001), Alesheikh et al. (2008) and Sargaonkar et al.
(2011) have located suitable sites for the artificial recharge
of aquifers. Kheirkhah Zarkesh (2005) has developed a
decision support system for flood spreading site selection
and a conceptual model of flood spreading schemes in the
semi-arid areas. Moreover, many studies have been con-
ducted to find appropriate conditions for ground water
recharge site selection (Al-Assa’d and Abdulla 2010; de
Laat and Nonner 2012).
Regarding the fact that the groundwater has long been
believed to be the single most important water resource in
many regions of Iran, this is considered as a major his-
torical limitation in the social and economical development
of the country. Recent studies on the management of water
resources in Iran have shown that out of the 430 billion m3
of the annual precipitation in the country, 20 % is lost
during sudden floods which flow into the playas, lakes, and
seas (Foltz 2002; Mohammadnia and Kowsar 2003). While
several groundwater recharge methods have been devel-
oped including the direct surface recharge, direct subsur-
face recharge, and indirect recharge techniques (Oakford
1985), the direct surface recharge method is one of the
most cost-effective, simple, and commonly used tech-
niques employed for the artificial recharge of aquifers. The
direct surface recharge method contains the surface
spreading of floodwater and is helpful in areas with widely
available land, highly permeable soils, and a shallow
unconfined aquifer (O’Hare et al. 1986).
In this regard, there are at least two major questions to
successively utilize the direct surface recharge approach.
First, ‘‘which land is the most suitable for artificial
groundwater recharge in the region?’’, while the second
and most important question concerns, ‘‘to what extent it is
considered as the most suitable geographic location?’’
As an essential domain, the site selection methods have
always performed a significant role in spatial decision-
making processes. Traditional methods used at the begin-
ning of necessity for site selection appearance, developed
relatively by analysts and specialists based on multi-criteria
methods. A main disadvantage of these methods relates to
dependency of the final results to personal privy of par-
ticipant experts. In addition, using different multi-criteria
methods for one problem could make different results, not
a unique or even similar result. To resolve these issues,
artificial intelligence and soft computing methods were
used for site selection problems, in the context of GIS Geo-
Computing. However, these methods have still their own
drawbacks such as the process of problem solving is a
black box to the users and the final result is sensitive to the
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Environ Earth Sci
objective function. In this paper, selection of optimal sites
for flood spreading involves integrating several compli-
cated parameters, which necessitates the use of GIS in
combination with multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA)
and optimization methods.
This study presents an integrated strategic framework
with emphasis on structuring the decision problem
including careful selection and weighting of criteria and
alternative evaluation. Accordingly, using AHP technique
the qualitative judgment can be quantified to make geodata
layer comparison more intuitionistic using pairwise com-
parison process. Moreover, a number of favorable charac-
teristics of the AHP method could enhance optimization
methods, namely at the level of structuring of the decision
problem and of the determination of weights. Finally, this
article introduces an approach that integrates AHP with GA
of Artificial Intelligence, which could be a useful geospa-
tial tool for integrating multiple features/attributes that
affect the artificial ground water recharge process. It also
should be mentioned that to the best of our knowledge,
nonetheless, the AHP–GA method has not been applied to
the flood spreading site selection thus far.
General situation of the region
The Gareh Bygone Plain (28°300 to 28°450 N and 53°450 to
54°010 E) is located in the south part of Fars province of
Iran (Fig. 1). The mean elevation of the area is 1,476 m
above mean sea level. According to the De Martonne cli-
mate classification, the area represents arid to semi-arid
climate type with the average annual rainfall of 259 mm,
the average annual potential evaporation rate of 2,934 mm
and the average annual temperature of about 20.6 °C.
Gareh Bygone is an area located in the folded Zagros
Mountains stretching like a folded belt from the northeast
to the southwest of the country. In this area, only signs of
the last two geological eras are found. The Mesozoic for-
mation constitutes mountains and hill units and contains
sandstone, limestone, clay stone, siltstone and conglomer-
ate. The Cenozoic formation is composed of alluvial
deposits (with the average depth of 30 m), which in the
forms of alluvial fans and pediments play the major role in
the formation of the aquifers of the basin. The source of the
water of the Gareh Bygone Plain is of both subsurface and
surface types. Bishezard and Chahghuch seasonal rivers are
the surface sources of water, with the former having a
length of 28 km and being the major recharge source of the
aquifers of the region and the latter having a less significant
role. Finally, it should be mentioned that the small amount
and unbalanced distribution of precipitation both spatially
and temporally can lead to serious problems. In other
words, high-intensity rainfalls which result in destructive
Environ Earth Sci
Fig. 1 Locator map of the study area
floods bring about serious damages to downstream towns,
roads, and agriculture, and sometimes even cause casual-
ties (Hayati et al. 2006). Flood spreading on aquifers by
artificial recharging of the aquifers, is an efficient strategy
for controlling floods and managing water shortage and
water resources in the region (ASCE 2001).
Materials and methods
Influencing data layers
First of all, the artificial groundwater recharge site selec-
tion in this study started with the selection and preparation
of nine geodata layers of the study area including slope,
alluvium thickness, geology, morphology, electrical con-
ductivity (EC), land use, drainage density, aquifer trans-
missivity, and elevation (Fig. 2) which were selected based
on the similar earlier studies (Krishnamurthy and Srinivas
1995; Krishnamurthy et al. 1996; Saraf and Choudhury
1998; Han 2003; Chowdhury et al. 2010; Nasiri et al.
2013). Then, a questionnaire was designed to collect nec-
essary information required for artificial groundwater
recharge site selection of Gareh Bygone Plain, including
local experts’ opinions to ensure the practicality and
integrity of the selected geodata layers and also the
importance (weight) of the approved ones. In other words,
weights of the approved geodata layers were subsequently
calculated using pairwise comparisons, based on the local
expert responses to the questionnaires.
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 Environ Earth Sci

Fig. 2 Nine input geodata layers involving: a slope (°), b alluvium thickness (m), c geology, d morphology, e electrical conductivity (lmhos/
cm), f land use, g drainage density (km/km-2), h aquifer transmissivity (m2/day) and i elevation (m)

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Environ Earth Sci
Slope
Surface runoff velocity is directly related to land slope.
Hence, slope is one of the most effective factors in the
artificial groundwater recharge site selection (Alesheikh
et al. 2008). National and international studies show that
the areas with slope range from 1 to 5 percent are suitable
for flood spreading (Krishnamurthy et al. 1996; Nasiri et al.
2013). Consequently, the slope map of the study area is
prepared from the 30 m SRTM DEM and is shown in
Fig. 2a.
Alluvium thickness
The thickness of alluvium is another major factor in flood
spreading and groundwater recharge. In general, the greater
the thickness of alluvium, the larger the amount of
groundwater storage. In other words, if all the parameters
are appropriate except the alluvium thickness, flood
spreading may cause saturation of the recharged layer
(Ghayoumian et al. 2007; Nasiri et al. 2013). The alluvium
thickness map of the study area is shown in Fig. 2b.
Geology
Since different geological units have different suitability
values or potential for flood spreading and groundwater
recharge, geology is one of the important factors for arti-
ficial groundwater recharge site selection. Therefore,
geology and the types of geological formations in the
region have important roles in selecting flood spreading
sites (Fig. 2c). Because of enjoying good permeability,
transmissivity and high water storage capacity, limestone
and coarse alluviums present good conditions for
recharging aquifers. Coarse (sand and gravel) and pervious
or karstic formations typically enjoy better hydraulic con-
ductivities and aquifer transmissivity, and the regions with
young alluvial are known to be suitable sites for flood
spreading (Nasiri et al. 2013).
Morphology
Morphological maps are one of the most important end
products of investigations made by geomorphologists on a
territory. Moreover, at the present moment, in places
where no subsurface information could be obtained, geo-
morphological maps can be used as an appropriate crite-
rion for artificial groundwater recharge site selection
(Nasiri et al. 2013). Vast plains with moderate slopes,
pediments, and alluvial fans are considered the best loca-
tions for developing artificial aquifer recharge projects.
The area under study includes geomorphological units of
floodplains, alluvial fans, pediments, rocky outcrops, and
hills. Floodplain, alluvial fans, and pediment constitute
5.1, 3.3, and 33.6 % of the area, respectively, while hills
and rocky outcrops comprise the remaining 58 %
(Fig. 2d).
Electrical conductivity
Electrical conductivity is a measurement of total dissolved
solids (TDS), or the total amount of dissolved material in
an aqueous solution, which relates to the ability of the
material to conduct electrical current through it. This
implies the quality of groundwater which demonstrates the
amount of chemicals and biological impurities and is a
major factor in specifying water for certain uses (Nasiri
et al. 2013). Consequently, in the present study, EC has
been employed as a parameter for assessing water quality
index (Fig. 2e). It also should be mentioned that although
both EC and TDS were measured and their maps provided,
only EC was used as the water quality index, hence TDS
and EC showed the same trend of change.
Land use
Land use is also one of the key factors in the artificial
groundwater recharge site selection. From the land use
point of view, the Gareh Bygone Plain includes river bed,
residential areas, range land, and irrigated and dry farming
(Fig. 2f). Undertaking artificial recharge projects is feasible
in areas with an appropriate density of vegetation coverage
because these regions not only recharge water into aquifers
but also prevent the surface soil erosion. Poor rangelands,
on the other hand, are not proper places for artificial
recharge projects due to the increasing rate of soil erosion
(Alesheikh et al. 2008; Nasiri et al. 2013).
Drainage density
Drainage density is the total length of all the streams and
rivers in a drainage basin divided by the total area of the
drainage basin and calculated through the following
formula:
P
Li
l¼ ; ð1Þ
A
where L is the length of each stream segment and A is
the area of drainage basin. There is an inverse relation-
ship between drainage density and permeability. More-
over, it is clear that the higher the permeability, the
lower the drainage density, and vice versa. Accordingly,
drainage density can be considered an indirect indicator
of the suitability of an area for artificial groundwater
recharge (Nasiri et al. 2013). Drainage density for all the
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 Environ Earth Sci

micro-watersheds in the study area ranged from 0.7 to

2.3 km/km2 (Fig. 2g).

Aquifer transmissivity

Transmissivity, as one of the hydraulic properties of

aquifer relates to the ability of an aquifer to transmit water
through its entire saturated thickness. It is defined as
hydraulic conductivity multiplied with the saturated layer
thickness of the aquifer:
T ¼ K  D; ð2Þ
where K is hydraulic conductivity and D is saturated layer
thickness. Here, aquifer hydraulic conductivity was asses-
sed through the pumping test, which is the best and the
most precise method for the measurement of hydraulic
conductivity. This coefficient is indicated by different
quantities but it typically ranges from 10 to 10,000 m2/day
(Nasiri et al. 2013). Aquifer transmissivity in Gareh
Bygone Plain varies as a function of the differences in the
thickness of the saturated layer (Fig. 2g).

Proposed methodology

Proposed methodology has two steps. In the first step, using

pairwise comparison process through the analytical hier-
archy process (AHP) method, the qualitative judgment has
been qualified to make comparison more intuitionistic. In
the next step, obtained results have been used as weights of
geodata layers in genetic algorithm.
Fig. 3 Flowchart of binary GA (Haupt and Haupt 2004)
representation of the variables, the binary method is presented
first. (Haupt and Haupt 2004) The components of the GA are
shown as a flowchart in Fig. 3.

General method of genetic algorithm

The computation of genetic algorithm (GA) is an iterative
process which simulates the process of genetic selection and
natural elimination in biologic evolution. Candidate solutions
are retained and ranked for the each iteration according to
their eligibility. Consequently, a fitness function is used to
remove unqualified solutions. Genetic algorithms belong to
the larger class of evolutionary algorithms (EA), which gen-
erate solutions to optimization problems using techniques
inspired by natural evolution, such as selection, crossover, and
mutation. Such GA operators are then performed on those
qualified solutions to estimate new candidate solutions of the
next generation. The above process is carried out repeatedly
until certain convergence condition is met. Genetic algorithm
has two type of representation of variable: Binary and con-
tinuous representation. Both algorithms follow the same
menu of modeling genetic recombination and natural selec-
tion. One represents variables as an encoded binary string and
works with the binary strings to minimize the cost, while the
other works with the continuous variables themselves to
minimize the cost. Since GAs originated with a binary
Model implementation
Assuming that the artificial groundwater recharge site
selection of Gareh Bygone Plain could be based on the
proposed methodology, a 3-step procedure has been applied.
Step 1, includes necessary data preparation of selected
geodata layers to further facilitate the implementation of
genetic algorithm. In step 2, hierarchical structure to esti-
mate the weights of geodata layers was constructed
employing AHP. In Step 3, preprocessed, weighted geodata
layers had been used as input layers, to reach the optimal site
for the artificial groundwater recharge using genetic algo-
rithm. These steps are described in detail as the following
subsections.
Preprocessing and standardizing
To facilitate the implementation of GA, it is necessary to
perform data preprocessing and standardization. Spatial
data models are useful for convenient layer display, but
may not be suitable for the implementation of searching

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Environ Earth Sci

in genetic algorithm (Yeh et al. 1995). Therefore, the
spatial data provided by GIS database need to be pre-
processed and re-modeled before they can be used for
GA. Accordingly, all derived FS geodata layers were
converted into proper raster format with 30 m 9 30 m
resolution, and after subsequent data normalization (in an
interval of [0,1]), the spatial datasets were processed in
ArcGIS.
Assessment of weights with AHP
To express the relative importance of each geodata layer
and to derive the relative weights, the basic idea of per-
forming pairwise comparison is a pedagogical and intuitive
participatory approach. The result of interview with local
experts expresses that with which intensity aij a geodata
layer gi is more or less important than another geodata
layer aj, using the fundamental scale of absolute numbers
from 1 to 9 (Saaty and Vargas 2001), quantitatively defined
and explained (Tables 1, 2).
Coding and decoding the chromosomes and define
objective function
The binary GA works with bits. The variable x has a value
represented by a string of bits that is Ngene long. If
Ngene = 10 and X has limits defined by 1 \X \1024,
then a gene with 10 bits has 2Ngene ¼ 1024 possible values
(Fig. 5).
Here, x and y coordinate of each geodata layer repre-
sents chromosome dimensionality. In other words,
regarding the total area of study region, data accuracy and
data dimensionality each of these two variables (i.e. x and
y) has been determined by a 10 bite string composed of
binary numbers. Accordingly, Fig. 5 shows structure of a
sample chromosome.
In our optimization problem, each chromosome is pre-
sented in a string of 20 bits that are decoded by Eq. 3
(illustrated in Fig. 6):
X
w1
x¼ 2i zwi ; ð3Þ
i¼0

Application of GA in the Gareh Bygone flood spreading
After weighting the FS geodata layers, in the next step, the
modified GA is implemented to select the most suitable site
for FS. Figure 4 shows an overall flowchart of GA
implementation for artificial ground water recharge site
selection.
where x represents the decoded number, z is the binary
string and w is the number of binary characters in that
string.
To illustrate the working principles of GAs, artificial
groundwater recharge site selection of Gareh Bygone Plain
is considered as a constrained optimization problem. The
linear programming of the problem is as follows:

8 h i   9
>
> 0:175 Slope þ 0:149 Alluvium Thickness >
>
>
> ðx; yÞ ðx; yÞ >
>
>
> >
>
>
> þ 0:147½Geology >
>
>
< ðx; yÞ  þ 0:140½Geomorphologyðx; yÞ 
>
=
Minf ðx; yÞ ¼ h i
>
> þ 0:122½ECðx; yÞ  þ 0:077½LUðx;yÞ  þ 0:078 Drainage Densityðx; yÞ >>
>
> >
>
>
> >
>
>
> h i   >
>
>
: þ 0:065 AquiferTransmissivityðx; yÞ þ 0:048 Elevationðx; yÞ >
;

s.t.
0\Slope\2
ð4Þ
0\drainage density\0:25
0\EC\3000
1120\elevation\1250
400\aquifer transmissivity\600
Alluvium thickness [ 50
Geomorphology ¼ flood plainjalluvial fan
Geology ¼ QgjQgscjQscgjQbjQc
LU ¼ Low density range;

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 Environ Earth Sci

where f(x, y) is chromosome costs in problem solving and
(x, y) are x and y coordinates of corresponding chromosome
in constructed evaluation matrix.
Generate initial population
Population size has significant impact on the final result and
performance of genetic algorithm. According to the Schema
Theorem (Chen 1996), given the population size M, the
genetic operators are able to produce M3 schemas. Based on
this fact, more and more building blocks can be generated
and optimized till the optimal solution is found. Here, in the
present study, 100 random chromosomes (Npop) consisting
of 20 bits (Nbits) string have been selected using ‘Rand’ and
‘Round’ (Eq. 5). Then, 10 first numbers of each chromo-
some strings have been used as x coordinate and the rest as y
coordinate, respectively (Fig. 5).
  
Pop ¼ round rand Npop ; Nbits : ð5Þ
Find cost for each chromosome
A cost function simply generates an output from a set of
input variables (a chromosome). The cost function also
may be a mathematical function, an experiment, or a game
(Haupt and Haupt 2004). Here, variables are x and y in each
data layer, then:
Cost ¼ f ðP1; P2Þ ¼ f ðChromosomesðx; yÞ in each layerÞ:
ð6Þ
in this case, P1 and P2 are problem variables that show
coordinate of pixels in geodata layers
Natural selection
Natural selection which has been represented by other phrases
namely, ‘‘survival of the fittest’’, translates into discarding the
chromosomes with highest costs. In this regards, the Npop
costs and associated chromosomes are ranked from the lowest
cost to the highest in the first step. Then, the best are selected
to continue, while the rest of them are deleted. The selection
rate, Xrate, is the fraction of Npop that survives for the next step
of mating. The number of chromosomes that are kept each
generation is (Haupt and Haupt 2004):
Nkeep ¼ Nrate  Npop : ð7Þ
Natural selection occurs in each generation or iteration of
the algorithm. Of the Npop chromosomes in a generation,
only the top Nkeep survive for mating and the bottom
Npop - Nkeep are discarded to make pool for the new off-
spring. Deciding how many chromosomes to keep is
somewhat arbitrary. Letting only a few chromosomes sur-
vive to the next generation limits the available genes in the
offspring. Keeping too many chromosomes allows bad
performers a chance to contribute their traits to the next
generation. It is common to keep 50 % (Xrate = 0.5) in the
natural selection process (Sivanandam and Deepa 2007).
Accordingly, in the present study, the population has been
sorted by descending fitness values within which the first
50 % were selected as candidates for further examination.

Table 1 AHP evaluation matrix of nine geodata layers involving: Selection

(a) slope, (b) alluvium thickness, (c) geology, (d) morphology,
(e) electrical conductivity, (f) land use, (g) drainage density, GA simulates the ‘‘survival of the fittest’’ theory to make a
(h) aquifer transmissivity and (i) elevation search process. Therefore, GA is naturally suitable for
a b c d E f g h i solving maximization or minimization problems. In this
step of GA application in the Gareh Bygone flood
A 1 2.2 1.5 1.3 1.3 3 1.5 1.5 3
spreading, the fitness value of each chromosome (square
B 0.45 1 1.1 1.3 1.5 3 2 2.4 2.4
matrix composed of 23 9 23 pixels) has been determined
C 0.66 0.91 1 1.5 1.4 2.4 2 2.4 2.4
by the active fitness conditions and retrieved further.
D 0.76 0.77 0.66 1 1.5 2.4 2.6 2.6 2
Afterwards, two chromosomes were selected from the
E 0.76 0.66 0.71 0.66 1 2.8 2 2 2
mating pool of Nkeep chromosomes to produce two new
F 0.33 0.33 0.41 0.41 0.35 1 1.8 2 2.2
offspring. Pairing takes place using weighted random
G 0.66 0.5 0.5 0.38 0.5 0.55 1 2 2.2
pairing in the mating population until Npop - Nkeep off-
H 0.66 0.41 0.41 0.38 0.5 0.5 0.5 1 2.4 spring are born to replace the discarded chromosomes. The
I 0.33 0.41 0.41 0.5 0.5 0.45 0.45 0.41 1 probabilities assigned to the chromosome in the mating
Inconsistency ratio: 0.04 pool are inversely proportional to their cost. In other words,

Table 2 The calculated weight vector from AHP

Slope Alluvium thickness Geology Morphology EC LU Drainage density Transmissivity Elevation

0.175 0.149 0.147 0.140 0.122 0.077 0.078 0.065 0.048

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Fig. 4 Flowchart of proposed methodology to determine optimal sites for flood spreading

Fig. 5 Coding the

chromosomes with 2 genes
(20 bits)

Fig. 6 Decoding of a chromosome with 2 genes (20 bits)

123

Fig. 7 Single-point crossover
illustration regarding the 7th
chromosome as crossover point
a chromosome with the lowest cost has the greatest prob-
ability of mating, while the chromosome with the highest
cost has the lowest probability of mating. A random
number determines which chromosome is selected. This
type of weighting is often referred as roulette wheel
weighting (Haupt 2004). For this goal, we have used rank
weighting method of weighted random pairing that is
named roulette wheel ranking squared. This approach is
problem independent and finds the probability from the
rank, n, of the chromosome (Haupt and Haupt 2004):
ðNkeep ðn þ 1ÞÞ2 ð50  ðn þ 1ÞÞ2
Pn ¼ PNkeep 2 ¼ : ð8Þ
n¼1 n
38025
Then, a random number between zero and one is generated.
Starting at the top of the list, the first chromosome with a
cumulative probability that is greater than the random
number is selected for the mating pool.
Mating
Mating is the creation of one or more child(ren) from the
parents selected in the pairing process. The genetic makeup
of the population is limited by the current members of the
population. The most common form of mating involves two
parents that produce two children. A crossover point, or
kinetochore, is randomly selected between the first and last
bits of the parents’ chromosomes (Haupt and Haupt 2004).
After selection of elite parents, there are three possible
actions which further evolve the selected population: create
a new randomized individual, clone an existing individual or
mate a randomly chosen pair of individuals to produce a
new individual. Here, in the present study, the latter action
was applied to produce a new individual out of the mating
pool. Similar to the gene recombination, which plays an
essential role during the process of natural biologic evolu-
tion, the crossover is the most significant operation in the
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Environ Earth Sci
genetic search strategy. It determines the major behavior of
optimization process. Several crossover schemes are used,
such as one-point crossover, two-point crossover, and multi-
point crossover. However, as a common criterion, any
crossover operator should ensure that the proper genes of
good individuals be inherited by the new individuals of next
generation. A big crossover probability may improve genetic
algorithms capability to search new solution space, while
increase the likelihood of disordering the combination of
good genes. However, if the crossover probability is set too
small, search process may be trapped in a dull status and is
prone to ceasing (Wu and Shan 2000; Wu et al. 2004).
To recombine two strings to get a better string, here, one
crossover point has been selected as GA operator. As a result,
a random number ranging from 1 to 19 has been selected and
considered as crossover point. Then, binary string from
beginning of chromosome to the crossover point is copied
from one parent (father chromosome), the rest is copied from
the second parent (mother chromosome) (Fig. 7).
Mutation
Binary mutations randomly change a bit in a chromosome
(Haupt 2004). Mutation is the second way a GA explores a
cost surface. A single point mutation changes a 1 to a 0,
and vice versa. Mutation points are randomly selected from
theNrate. Npop total number of bits in the population matrix.
Mutations do not occur on the final iteration (Haupt and
Haupt 2004).
To add new information in a random way to the genetic
search process and ultimately help to avoid getting trapped at
local optima, we have used 0.1 mutation probability rate
(l = 0.1). It also should be noted that selection of this
mutation rate was achieved using a trial-and-error approach.
Mutation may cause the chromosomes of individuals to be
different from those of their parent individuals (Fig. 8).
Environ Earth Sci

Fig. 8 Mutation process

illustration

Fig. 9 Schematic representation of proposed FS site selection and suitability analysis

Convergence

The number of generations that evolve depends on whether

an acceptable solution is reached or a set number of iter-
ations are exceeded. After a while all the chromosomes and
associated costs would become the same if it were not for
mutations. At this point, the algorithm should be stopped
(Haupt and Haupt 2004). In this step, we achieve new
offspring with 100 chromosomes. Accordingly, to further
achieve our goal, we have examined objective fitness
function composed of several weighted fitness conditions.
In case the optimal solution could not be found in this Fig. 10 Repetition of GA in artificial groundwater recharges site
generation, this generational process is repeated until a selection of Gareh Bygone Plain

123

Fig. 11 Output map of AHP–GA application in artificial groundwater recharge site selection
Fig. 12 Resultant 3D output of
chromosome cost
termination condition and optimum solution has been
reached. Here, we define 2 conditions that algorithm must
have one or both of them to stop. The main criterion is that
results should not be changed during 50 iterations of
algorithm. If this criterion is not satisfied during 300 iter-
ations, the algorithm stops.
Results and discussion
The overall process of combined AHP–GA application in
the artificial groundwater recharge site selection of Gareh
Bygone Plain has been schematically presented in Fig. 9.
123
Environ Earth Sci
The nine collected geodata layers related to casual FS
projects involving slope, alluvium thickness, geology,
morphology, electrical conductivity, land use, drainage
density, aquifer transmissivity, and elevation were prepared
and analyzed in GIS environment in the present work.
Having collected the geodata layers according to the flow-
chart, the nine geodata layers were converted into the raster
format in the GIS environment to implement AHP–GA, and
the preliminary data preprocessing and standardizing of
selected geodata layer were performed on them. Following
this, the pixel values of the raster datasets related to the FS
site selection criteria were extracted and stored in nine sep-
arate spatial matrixes in a database.
Environ Earth Sci
Afterward, to implement artificial groundwater recharge
site selection using the proposed methodology, the database
was imported into the MATLAB for further programming
procedure. The objective function optimization was calcu-
lated for all alternatives using MATLAB programming.
Finally, the output was converted to a raster dataset which was
a square matrix (23 9 23 pixels, equal to 104 hectare) which
in fact indicates the most suitable land (Figs. 10, 11, 12).
It must be noted that geographical coincidence of Gareh
Bygone flood spreading station with the optimum area
indicates reliability of the proposed methodology for FS
site selection.
Conclusion
In the arid and semi-arid areas, rainfall distribution is
bimodal and highly skewed with the highest, rainfall
amounts, and intensity, being received in the winters and
springs. The annual evaporation is high, and exceeds annual
rainfall for most part of the year. Therefore, FS can be
considered as one of the suitable methods for flood man-
agement and water harvesting that increases the ground-
water recharge, makes soil more fertile and increases
nutrients in soil. Considering the groundwater-based agri-
cultural activities in the Gareh Bygone Plain and the loca-
tion of the region in the arid zone of Iran, the present study
aimed to prevent the water loss in the region by determining
suitable flood spreading sites and using the floodwater
optimally. Having used combinational AHP–GA methods
in GIS environment, the suitable FS areas were located. The
AHP method was used to quantify the subjective judgments
of FS-related criteria weights, whereas the GA method was
employed to further evaluate priorities of available alter-
natives based on the weights obtained from the AHP.
According to the obtained results, the proposed optimal area
coincides with parts of Kowsar research station in Gareh
Bygone Plain which has been previously used for the arti-
ficial ground water recharge through FS projects and
already showed the promising result. It is located in pedi-
ment and alluvial geomorphological units and quaternary
Qgsc geological units where the slope value is not more
than 2 degree (5 %). Finally, it can be concluded that the
proposed method can be considered as a promising tool for
hydrologists in selecting suitable flood spreading sites and
in the planning and management of groundwater resources.
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