Environmental Suitability Analysis for Geothermal Development: A Case Study for Suswa Geothermal Project, Kenya

Abstract

Geothermal development is a phenomenon that entails targeting and drilling of geothermal wells and eventual construction of geothermal power stations. For this to happen, certain environmental factors have to be considered. In the Suswa geothermal prospect area, available data were categorized into two datasets; physical (slope, hydrology and faults), and socio-economical (population centers, cultural sites and access roads). Geographical Information System (GIS) analysis tools were used to identify and generate environmental dataset that contains restrictive data layers and classification of these layers are taken into account for future development of geothermal. A knowledge-driven weighted overlay integration method within a GIS was used, to determine the spatial association between physical and socio-economical and technical evidences to determine potential areas for geothermal development.