INTEGRATED REMOTE SENSING AND ELECTRICAL GEOPHYSICS FOR GROUNDWATER EXPLORATION IN CRYSTALLINE BASEMENT AQUIFERS OF BURKINA FASO (WEST AFRICAN SAHEL)

Rural communities in Burkina Faso depend almost exclusively on groundwater due to the scarcity and poor quality of surface waters, often affected by diffuse pollution. This resource remains highly vulnerable to the combined effects of climate variability, socioeconomic development, and increasing anthropogenic pressures. Groundwater exploitation in basement terrains is complicated by strong geological heterogeneity, with a drilling failure rate of about 20% based on a dataset of 368 boreholes. The national access rate, targeted at 80% in 2025, declined to 71.9% in 2015 and only slightly improved to 76.4% in 2020. 
This study combines remote sensing and 1D electrical geophysical techniques to improve hydrogeological prospecting. The main objective is to determine whether it is possible to correlate geological lineaments with potential preferential groundwater flow zones, and to assess the thickness and nature of weathered zones.
Lineaments were mapped from Landsat imagery through manual and automatic extraction. Results were validated through electrical profiling and vertical electrical soundings (VES) using Wenner and Gradient configurations.
The results reveal a predominance of NE-SW and NW-SE oriented lineaments, correlated with low resistivity zones (100-600 Ω·m) associated with weathered and/or fractured zones. Approximately 25% of successful boreholes coincide with these intersections. Geophysical anomalies of “U” and “H” types were identified as potential drilling targets, although highly conductive anomalies in some cases correspond to clay rich or clogged zones, explaining unproductive boreholes.
This approach provides a useful framework for improving groundwater targeting in basement regions.