Assessment of informativeness of groundwater monitoring in developing regions (Gaza Strip case study)

Groundwater resource management and planning requires appropriate and accurate data. These data, which can be collected by monitoring networks, may contain too little, enough or redundant information. This study aims to evaluate the monitoring cycle in the Gaza Strip (a developing region) using the entropy theory. The approach employed in this study involves gathering data needs for groundwater resource management and planning in the Gaza Strip through a questionnaire (survey). The questionnaire outlined the groundwater management and planning objectives, tasks and the data which had to be collected through monitoring activities in the Gaza Strip (monitoring cycle). This article also proposes a flowchart, which is used to evaluate the relation between the objectives, the tasks, the data and the monitoring activities using the entropy theory. The evaluation affirms the informativeness of the collected data when they contain enough, too little or redundant information. From this study it can be concluded that in the Gaza Strip the institutional set-up of the water sector needs to be strengthened, and more data should be collected and the existing monitoring networks should be redesigned for the informativeness of the data.