Wastewater leakage problem associated with sewage treatment plants deterioration has become prominent. We develop and apply procedures of GIS and direct current resistivity (DCR) techniques to investigate the wastewater seepage appearance in a semiarid urban environment. In the first stage, all surface geological and structural information is manipulated using GIS to produce geomorphological and geological maps. Waterlogged sites resulting in land degradation are distinguished by monitoring land-use/land-cover (LU/LC) changes. In the second stage, the DCR method has been performed to characterize the subsurface layer distributions and structures considering the results of GIS and LU/LC mapping data. Because the geophysical inverse problem is usually illposed, the active constrain balancing (ACB) approach and genetic algorithms (GA) are applied to optimize the inversion results. In the presence of high conductive layers, the limitation of DCR imaging in detecting the subsurface structure is demonstrated from the synthetic data. Moreover, we demonstrate that the joint use of CA with structure-based model (SBM) is helpful in recognition of subsurface layer distributions with non-smooth interfaces. However, ACB approach is more practical for lateral heterogeneities determination within the same rock unit than SBM with CA approach. The results indicate that the waterlogged areas and wastewater migration pathways are mainly controlled by the drainage networks and subsurface structures. Notably, the integrated approach allows us to assess geotechnical problems and to propose a suitable location for wastewater discharge management. Finally, the study can be considered as a scientific basis for desert urbanization and rational urban development planning. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier B.V.