International Science Community Association Research Journal of Recent Sciences 2277 - 2502 4 7 2015 July 2 Using Remote Sensing and GIS-Multicriteria decision Analysis for Groundwater Potential Mapping in the Middle Atlas Plateaus, Morocco 33 41 EN Mirtalebipour SayedeZaynab 1 Department of Psychology,Tonekabon Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon, IRAN Tayebeh Ferdowsi 2 University of Tehran, Tehran, IRAN Pouretemad Hamidreza 3 Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, IRAN MaryamSadeghi Afrakati 4 Pourhamzeh Mohsen 1 Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, IRAN Babaei Bahman 2 Mohsen Faizi 3 Azimi SeyyedAli 1 Islamic Azad University of Central Tehran Branch, Tehran, IRAN Mir-Khalili SeyyedMahmoud 2 Department of Law, Farabi college, University of Tehran, IRAN Majid Karimian 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Khomeinishahr branch, Islamic Azad University-Khomeinishahr- Isfahan, IRAN Yaghoubi Yaghoub 2 Department of Material Engineering University of Tarbiat Modares, Tehran, IRAN Eftekhari Mohsen 3 Yazdanian SeyyedMansour 1 Accounting Department, Islamic Azad University-Khorasgan Branch Iran, Esfahan, IRAN Hosseini AzamSadat 2 Hachem AouraghMy 1 Department of Geo-engineering and Environmental Geology, Faculty of Sciences, Meknes, P.O. 11201 Zitoune-Meknes-50000, MOROCCO Essahlaoui Ali 2 ElOuali Abdelhadi 3 Abdellah ElHmaidi 4 Kamel Said 5 > Research Paper 2014 1 20 2015 July 2 The remote sensing technology and GIS tools have been developed recently for planning and management of water resources. In This study, the groundwater potential zones were delineated by integrating various thematic maps generated from remote sensing data (Landsat ETM+, Aster DEM) along with the existing maps. All the thematic layers combined with a GIS environment, were then assigned weights according to their relative importance in groundwater occurrence and the corresponding normalized weights were obtained based on the Saaty's analytical hierarchy process. The groundwater potential zones demonstrates that the highest recharge potential area is located in the northern plateaus and towards the down streams in the region because of the high infiltration rates caused by the importance of fracturing within dolomitic limestone in these regions is an attempt to map groundwater potential zones in the Middle Atlas Plateaus and could help the concerned decision-makers to identify areas suitable for circulation of vital groundwater. Copyright@ International Science Community Association