Aquifer depletion and contamination are so widespread that have become a global problem. Worse, depletion causes groundwater dependent systems to suffer and loose a portion of their environmental services. Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) has evolved to become the only realistic remediation option, other than stopping extractions, which is often impractical. Yet, actual implementation of MAR is...
Groundwater recharge in Nordic humid regions is mainly dominated by snow melt. Estimating recharge rates and determining evapotranspiration by determining the influence of different vegetation types on soil water fluxes represents a significant challenge. The stable water isotopes δ18O and δ2H can be used to investigate the water fluxes in the unsaturated zone, given that the isotope ratios of...
Guinea-Bissau is a small West African Country characterized by a tropical savannah climate and an almost flat morphology. Although the yearly rainfall is high (around 2000 mm in Bissau), about 30% of the total population has no access to safe water (2015) and several villages are not reached by mechanized drilling programs. Exploitation of groundwater is fundamental to improve this situation,...
Terminal Lake levels fluctuate in time as a result of climate change and/or anthropogenic reasons. This phenomenon has recently occurred in some lakes around the world (e.g. Aral Sea in Uzbekistan, Lake Urmia in Iran, Chad Lake in Africa, Mono Lake in California, etc.), which serve as a discharge base of groundwater basins.
In this study, the effects of extreme fluctuations of the Dead Sea...
The issue of sustainable yield of some wells drilled in hard rocks of the Mediterranean Region was examined. The objective of the study was to verify which information may be obtained from the results of pumping tests in order to define the long-term well functioning. These aquifers might play a strategic role in drinking and irrigation water supplies for the Mediterranean Region in a near...
Presently, two major types of approaches to predicting the response of groundwater resources to (climate) change are available: 1) numerical models of groundwater flow and transport, 2) conceptual hydrological models. The first category is extremely data hungry and applications are time consuming, while the second relies on data-driven calibration and usually lacks adequate descriptions of the...
Over the last decade, transboundary aquifers traversing the Mexico-Texas border have generated growing interest by federal institutions on the Mexico side, and state and federal institutions on the Texas side. Notwithstanding this attention, binational efforts to understand, assess, and manage shared groundwater resources remain limited, sporadic and politically sensitive. On the Mexico side,...
The Rejoso Watershed, located in Pasuruan District, East Java, Indonesia, is facing the issue of the depletion of its groundwater resource at least since 2007. The cause is related to the high number of improper drilled self-flowing wells. These low-cost wells are funded by the local communities and are mostly used for agricultural needs (paddy field, annual crops and livestock).
These...
Unlike most regions in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen receives appreciable quantities of freshwater due of its position within the migration pathway of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Heavy rains of around 600 mm/a on average fall over the densely populated western part of the country, denoted here as the Red Sea Zone (RSZ), where about 90% of the population live in major cities or...
Integrated use of surface and groundwater resources is essential to provide reliable water supply and to sustainably manage the water resources. In the Akaki watershed, groundwater pumping contributes for more than 25% of the water supply to Addis Ababa City, the capital of Ethiopia. The groundwater abstraction is significantly increased without reliable quantification of hydrologic and...
Hydrogeology no longer only relies on understanding of phreatic systems. Highly heterogeneous and anisotropic conditions in soil and rock comprising intergranular, fractured and karstic porosity affect groundwater vulnerability, recharge rates, drainage and dewatering practices, soil corrosivity, natural attenuation of contaminants, and integrity of infrastructure, to name a few examples. ...
Hydrologic systems are strongly influenced by interacting processes that from pore space to watershed scale, but it remains a challenge to describe, model, and observe these processes at high resolution in the field. Recently, the Raman spectra distributed temperature sensing (DTS) for use in hydrologic application presents an opportunity for temperature measurements continuously in both space...
THE PROBLEM
The drinking water system (AMGA public supply company) for UDINE city (Italy) is alimented by a freatic aquifer placed near the Torre River and a pumping field (surface 1kmq). These groundwaters and the entire drinking water system (150.000 people) are menaced by 2 problems:
1. a big decrease of piezometric levels during the summer periods (4 months/year) which forces AMGA to buy...
Groundwater is an important resource for public, industrial, and agricultural water use. Climate change alters the hydrological cycle and thus also the replenishment of groundwater resources by infiltrating precipitation or surface waters. In Austria, renewable freshwater resources overall exceed by far water use, but in the eastern part of the country considerably lower precipitation and thus...
Fresh groundwater is a renewable resource and must be managed. Who should manage it: users or government? Or both? How should it be managed? Is groundwater scarcity perceived or real? What will happen as the climate changes?
To manage something means to control it. The natural groundwater cycle includes recharge to, storage in and natural discharge from an aquifer – parameters which, at best,...
Achieving sustainable exploitation of thermal aquifers based on good governance is a recurrent challenge faced globally. The Pannonian Basin is a clear example, where some neighbouring countries have delineated thermal groundwater bodies, which must be assessed and managed according to the EU Water Framework Directive. In most cases these thermal aquifers are transboundary, necessitating the...
Sustainable groundwater management has become topical and thrust in the forefront of water resources development and management in recent years, buoyed by the increasing water scarcity resulting from recurrent droughts, over-exploitation and quality deterioration of groundwater resources, especially in semi-arid and arid countries of the developing world. Climate variability and change further...
Many landfills do not have ground seals, so that pollutants leached from waste migrate to the ground and water environment. In most cases, the exploitation of unsealed landfills has ended; however, their impact on the groundwater environment still occurs. Lysimeter studies allow us to determine the size and chemical composition of leachates as well as the leachate water balance.
The lysimeter...
Pre-feasibility studies at a coal basin in Central Anatolia indicate mineable resources of about 265 million tons of coal that can be extracted via underground longwall mining during a mine life of 36 years. Since dry working conditions are prerequisite for a safe and operational mining, prediction of the groundwater inflow rates to the underground panels play a critical role. This study...
Description of hydrogeological systems traditionally relies on a few factors, such as porosity, rock type and the hydraulic parameters, transmissivity and storativity. Some studies include terms for rainfall, recharge and aquifer boundaries. Inconsistency in reporting makes it hard to compare hydrogeological units and reliance on hydraulic parameters fails to consider the assumptions in...
The impact of the ever-changing climate on Earth is already evident in the emergence of weather extremes and increased water demand from the agriculture. These changes and the human responses to it can greatly change many elements of the hydrological cycle. Weather extremes all appear in the amount and intensity of the fallen precipitation, while increased water demand in many areas has led to...
Groundwater-surface water interactions play a key role in determining accurate estimation of groundwater resources. However, the quantification of water exchanges occurring along and across multiple scales of streambeds still represents a big technical challenge. Given the difficulties to directly measure the seepage and/or infiltration volumes, indirect observation of water exchanges becomes...
Groundwater management is important for global and local sustainability, which is shown as large groundwater footprints through the global agricultural trade and local environmental problems due to groundwater depletion, as well as climate change impacts on groundwater resources directly and indirectly, and carbon emissions through human activities using groundwater. Groundwater, energy and...
Two approaches are commonly used for model calibration, namely the zonation and the pilot-points method. While the zonation approach assumes an abrupt spatial change in parameter values, the pilot-points method produces smoothly distributed parameters, however, the number and placement of the pilot-points can be challenging.
The objective of this study is to explore the effect of pilot-points...
Nutrient processes in groundwater are a well known -and widely studied- issue, often contributing to aquifer contamination in densely populated areas worldwide. Nevertheless, stakeholders now almost assume that the problem is not only present, but also difficult to resolve, despite the scientific and political efforts. Therefore, nitrate contamination is almost set aside, compared to new...
One of the most rational adaptation strategies to global change in Pacific Island Countries appears to be overcoming current challenges by building on the recognised strengths and resilience of island communities, strengthening institutional structures and human resources, while maintaining or enhancing the ecosystems on which island communities depend. Aid agencies and donors have seen the...
The impacts of climate change are significant on both surface and groundwater resources. However, little attention has been given to the effect of climate change on groundwater resources. Therefore, the present study is concerned with the effect of climate change on groundwater recharge and base flow in Muda River Basin, Malaysia. The model simulations were based on 55 years of historical...
Keywords: Episodic recharge, WTF-method, 1D-modelling, climate, Limpopo basin
Determining the long-term sustainability of groundwater use in arid and semi-arid regions with high climate variability requires an understanding of the recharge processes that replenish the aquifers as well as their major drivers significantly affecting their temporal and spatial variability. Four hydrographs that...
The Souss-Massa Basin, an important agriculture area of Morocco, is located in a semi-arid area and its main water resource is the groundwater. Over the last decades, population growth, agriculture development and recurrent droughts have been increasing the pressure on the aquifers of the region.
In the this context of climate variabilities (changes) and increasing demand for water, it is...
In the southwestern part of The Netherlands, a 75-ha-agricultural area called Perkpolder was transformed into a tidal area to restore a salt march ecosystem. In June 2015 the open connection to the sea was realized. This transformation created an average water level increase of about 1.5m and can be seen as a local sea level rise of 1.5m and may have significant effects on the groundwater...
The Research Institute of Applied Earth Sciences of the University of Miskolc, together with the Faculty of Earth Science and Engineering have been working on the PULSE project since 2016. The aim of the project is to allow Hungary’s abandoned or unproductive hydrocarbon exploration wells and drillings to workfor geothermal utilization. After sorting out more than a thousand drillings into the...
Dipl.-Ing. Toralf Fischer, Managing Director TLM hydropuls GmbH
"hydropuls®" is a pulse process for the abrupt expansion of highly compressed gas that increases or restores the productivity of wells or helps in the development of wells. The equipment has been successfully implemented in different parts of the world showing that it improves well efficiency and, consequently, well...
The Neogene aquifer in the Campine area, northeastern Belgium, is a major water resource with many functions. It provides drinking water for the population, irrigation water for agriculture and water for industrial activities and recreational purposes. In addition, owing to its phreatic nature and the shallow groundwater table, it is a water supply for rivers and wetlands as baseflow. The...
The Oulja Coastal Aquifer is part of Sahel Doukkala System Aquifer, is one of the main groundwater coastal aquifers in Morocco. It covers about 160 km2 and has a significant role in satisfying water needs for agriculture and potable water supply in the region. Over years, the need for agricultural water has increased, overexploitation of groundwater resources can put their quality under...
Drinking water supplies in the groundnut basin region of Senegal are mainly derived from Maastrichtian confined aquifer abstraction. However, water quality in this part of the aquifer is problematic with regard to health issue due to relatively high salinity and fluoride at levels exceeding WHO standards. From this fact, Water authority (Senegalese Ministry of Water Resources DGPRE) has...
Transboundary Cijevna River Basin is shared by two countries, upstream Albania and downstream Montenegro. Generally, Cijevna is one of the most important rivers for Montenegro, not because of its river flow but because of its water quality and principal role in recharging of aquifers used as a main source for water supply in entire Skadar basin, which is the largest in Montenegro....
Water and food security are essential to human survival and well-being vis-a-vis sustainable resources management and attainment of the SDGs. This study employed hydrogeochemical and GIS-based assessments of impacts of land use and urbanization on groundwater with emphasis on the resilience and security of coastal water supply in Lagos metropolis, SW-Nigeria.
For the assessment of land-use...
The origin and salinization of groundwater in multi layered coastal aquifer of Sankaraparani river basin, India was studied using isotopes and geochemical signatures. Groundwater in this region occurs in shallow unconfined and deep confined aquifers. The shallow aquifer comprises of Quaternary Alluvium whereas the deeper aquifer comprises of Tertiary sandstone. Groundwater sampling from...
We have developed a systematic probabilistic framework to spatially assess the potential for sustainable groundwater development. The workflow starts by explicitly defining sustainable groundwater extraction, in our case study, a groundwater abstraction that can provide 1ML/d for 10 years with a salinity of less than 2500 mg/L without causing a drawdown of more than 5% of the saturated...
Groundwater is the source of drinking water for nearly half of the global population and supplies much of the world's irrigation water. Groundwater is complex, out-of-sight and mostly out-of-mind. The GWP (Groundwater Project) is urgently needed to ensure that society achieves the exceedingly difficult task of scientifically-informed, sustainable management and protection of groundwater. The...
Characterization and monitoring of groundwater using boreholes is most effectively and efficiently done when each hole is equipped to measure hydraulic head and water samples can be collected at many depths, with each depth interval sealed off from groundwater above and below to minimize short-circuiting in the natural flow system. Multi depth installations in single boreholes are done using...
The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS) is a transboundary aquifer shared between Libya, Egypt, Sudan and Chad. The NSAS is one of the largest aquifers of the world. Groundwater is the only available water resource for most of the population living within its boundaries, given the extreme aridity that characterizes the region. The NSAS of Northern Chad might correspond to the least...
To solve one of the grand challenges facing society today: energy, water, climate and food, natural scientists and social scientists must work together. A new framework is required for bringing together hydrology and social sciences: This way, economics, administration, law, psychology, arts and humanities, are here combined into social sciences.
From thousands of years (3000 BC)to the...
In Ireland, a Group Water Scheme (GWS) is a private, community-owned water supply. Group Water Schemes form a significant supply type outside Irish cities and large towns, with many rural communities relying on a GWS for their drinking water. Since 2013, a programme to delineate zones of contribution (ZOC) for approximately 260 groundwater supplied GWSs has been carried out across Ireland. The...
Aquifer recharge is one of the most difficult water balance terms of a given territory to be accurately evaluated. But its knowledge and variability are essential for water planning to attend the human and ecological needs. Recharge is not an independent value for a given aquifer when water exchange between aquifers and other water bodies are significant as in this case the value depends on...
Groundwater dependence in the Southeastern region of Brazil has increased during the last 30 years, especially to supply the rising agricultural production and multiple water uses in its growing cities. Knowledge about aquifer recharge is crucial for preventive water resource management, especially under climate change scenarios. Encompassed within the hydrogeological framework of the Parana...
Southern Mediterranean has been considered one of the most vulnerable coastal areas in the world due to flooding episodes, especially in low-lying coastal plains and deltaic areas (Nicholls et al., 1999). During de recent decades, coastal areas are experiencing rapid socio-economic development and hence a population increase. Infrastructures and social activities can be particularly affected....
To improve risk assessment, monitoring, and treatment strategies of contaminated sites in cold climates, we require improved methods for monitoring solute transport and infiltration in the unsaturated zone. Previous studies have documented a highly heterogeneous infiltration during snowmelt this may have a large influence on the risk of contaminating the groundwater in areas where the use of...
There is no quick fix to the global water supply situation. Incidentally, an abundance of fresh water may exist right under our eyes, more specifically in deep coastal aquifers and in submarine aquifers extending far out under the salty oceans. The Kimbiji Aquifer in Tanzania, which extends some 65 km under the Indian Ocean, was discovered in 2005 by Ruden AS Geosolutions. This aquifer is...
The analysis of the impact of observed and predicted climate variability on the total and groundwater runoff of the small river basin in humidal boreal conditions is considered on the basis of a physically based precipitation-runoff model. The model consists of two submodels. Surface precipitation transformations within a representative landscape element are simulated using the first SURFBAL...
Groundwater resources in Sub-Saharan Africa are promoted by development organisations as reliable alternatives to ensure water supply for human consumption and agricultural use. National efforts to map and monitor groundwater quality and quantity, however, are not adequate to promote sustainable groundwater management. Within a technical cooperation project, the Federal Institute for...
Irrigation developments in northern Australia have had a checkered history due to many different factors – primarily the highly variable surface water sources and the poor economics of many of the crops grown. With the aim of improving the security of the water sources, the technical and economic feasibility of managed aquifer recharge (MAR) for irrigation development in selected regions in...
Droughts are mainly caused by periods of reduced precipitation and affect both surface and groundwater resources. This drought propagates to the different component of the hydrological cycle. Meteorological drought propagates to surface water and the unsaturated soil zone and to groundwater. This can result in groundwater drought. Groundwater drought can be defined as a temporary decrease in...
Artificial CO2-infused groundwater injections into a shallow aquifer system have been performed twice since 2014 by K-COSEM research group at a site in Eumseong, Korea, which was specially constructed to study environmental impacts of CO2 leakage on shallow aquifer system. The first injection was performed for 6 hours (short-term injection) as pulse-type leakage of CO2 under a natural...
Cempaka tropical Cyclone occurred on 27 November 2017 in the Indian Ocean, just south of Central Java. The cyclon generated an extrem rainfall and flash floods in Southern part of Central Java, including the Gunungsewu Karst Area. The highest rainfall recorded on November 28, 2017 in area is 369 mm/day. This study aimed at analyzing the geomorphological characteristics of affected areas. The...
The deep Maastrichtian aquifer belongs to the Senegalese basin and bears considerable groundwater resource. This system outcrops in the Diass horst zone, is composed of sandstone formations with mean thickness of 250-300 m. It is tapped by several hundred boreholes pumping at rates between 50-200 m3/h for human consumption, agriculture, pastoral and industrial needs. It is characterized by a...
Groundwater governance is a complex process involving the collective influences of opinion on policy and management. Achieving sustainability of water supply from aquifers is major management challenge worldwide that is impacted on the supply-side by changing weather patterns, loss of groundwater inventory because of current and legacy contamination, and because of past over-exploitation. On...
Karst related groundwater flooding represents a significant hazard in many rural communities in Ireland. A series of unprecedented flood events in recent years have reinforced the need to improve our ability to quantify the location and likelihood of flood occurrence. Geological Survey Ireland, in collaboration with Trinity College Dublin and Carlow Institute of Technology, has established a...
Groundwater is an essential component of the hydrological cycle, which behaves slowly, thus providing long-term water storage and subjected to slow evolution. In practice results can be largely irreversible in the case of large aquifers and thick unsaturated zones. Through the interaction with surface water it is a key component to many ecological systems of relevant social and economic value,...
The joint technical cooperation project CREM (Coopération régionale pour une Gestion Durable des Ressources en Eau au Maghreb) of OSS (Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel), BGR (Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources), and GIZ (German Society for International Cooperation) is funded by BMZ (German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) and fosters the...
As pressure on coastal fresh groundwater resources increases, interest in coastal aquifers monitoring rises. The weakest point of coastal aquifers occurs at the fresh-salt water interface induced by seawater intrusion (SWI), highly sensible to any change in the heads of the fresh and salt water bodies. Therefore, the position, width and dynamics of the interface is one of the main features of...
The study area is part of the Western High Atlas. The plain of Ouled Bou Sbaâ is located hundred kilometers west of Marrakesh, it is part of the Atlantic trays area. It is a complex basin, with a succession of synclines and anticlines oriented NE-SW between the mountain chain of the High Atlas and the Tensift river.The compilation of geological data, drilling data, geological sections and the...
Traditionally in North of Portugal, in undifferentiated hydrogeological formations, groundwater has been the main source of small populations. The main sources are natural springs and galleries that intercept fractures in hard rock mountains.
The subterranean drainage is driven by a fracture network that can be continuous and not largely conditioned by water courses. The recharge occurs...
Agriculture is a significant part of California’s economic engine. It accounts for $100 billion in agriculture related business each year. Given California’s Mediterranean climate, large-scale managed aquifer recharge (MAR) is a critical element of sustainably managing water resources in California’s agricultural heartland. Conjunctive management of surface water flows in the Salinas and...
This study examines the teleconnections between the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), East Atlantic (EA), and Scandinavia (SCAND) climate patterns and groundwater level fluctuations in Portugal. Precipitation and piezometric records (1987–2016) from two aquifer systems, Leirosa- Monte Real in the north and Querenca-Silves in the south, are analyzed using wavelet transform methods and singular...
In this study we use a novel approach to evaluate the source(s) of nitrate contamination in a complex coastal environment. Given a low hydraulic gradient, tidal influences, and highly permeable sand and gravel aquifers, a conventional investigation was unable to discern whether a farm was the source of nitrate contamination in surrounding domestic wells. Alternatively, other potential sources...
Hydraulic Tomography (HT) has become one of the most robust methods to characterize the heterogeneity in hydraulic parameters such as hydraulic conductivity and specific storage. However, in order to obtain high resolution hydraulic parameter estimates, several pumping/injection tests with sufficient monitoring densities are necessary. In highly heterogeneous media, even with large numbers of...
A regional approach was presented in this paper for the spatiotemporally distributed assessment of soil moisture changes in an arid area where ecosystems are highly groundwater dependent. To achieve this, the recent trends (from year 2002 to 2016) of soil moisture in Golmud River Basin were assessed using a combination of remote sensing and CLDAS data.
The Golmud River Basin is located in...
Groundwater heat pump (GWHP) with doublet can be used as a highly efficient heat exchanger for air-conditioning according to the hydrogeology of installation site. As an open loop type geothermal heat pump a lot of systems have been installed over the world but it is hardly adapted in South Korea because of the lack of awareness, complex regulation and doubt in technology. We studied on the...
Water, energy, and food are the most critically important resources for society, particularly in meeting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The demand for these resources will increase in future decades because of climate change, population growth, and socioeconomic forces. This growing demand is creating more trade-offs and conflicts, particularly among groundwater resources and...
Agriculture in the coastal plain of Bangladesh faces a number of serious challenges, among which the issue of seawater intrusion that is exacerbated by the effects of climate change. During the dry season most of the surface water bodies of the vast delta area become saline or brackish, making the water unsuitable for irrigation. Farmers are therefore limited to one or two harvests of rainfed...
Global air-temperature changes over the last 150 years and in particular during the last 30 – 40 years are well documented world-wide. In alpine areas in Europe the increase in air-temperature is even higher in the range of 2° C. Very few studies exist about groundwater temperature changes due to global warming. The increase or decrease in temperature at the point of discharge depends besides...
Darfur landscape is characterized mostly by semi-arid climate and intensively used land: rainfall is concentrated in few months of the year; vegetation coverage is low and erosion rates are high. Conflicts, population growth and poverty also lead to increasing competition on the usage of natural resources. Planning and developing natural resources requires thus an integrated approach which...
The Transdanubian Range is a complex, thick karst aquifer, which can be characterized by hydraulic interrelationships. Because of mining, a large amount of groundwater was extracted from this area in the second part of the 20th century for a preventive purpose. At the end of the 90's, the mining was stopped, and the rising of karst water has begun, which led to serious economic and...
Groundwater resources management has been a growing concern and scheme as the consequences of climate change and other anthropogenic forces have heavily impacted freshwater resources, especially in semi-arid regions. The adoption of managed aquifer recharge (MAR) still remain at its earliest stages of assessment in developing countries, e.g., Lebanon, where only a few studies have been...
Airborne electromagnetics (AEM) has previously been demonstrated effective at defining stratigraphy (coarse texture versus silts and clays, channels versus linear features), and for delineating water quality (brackish water resources and seawater intrusion), especially when integrated with borehole geophysical logs, lithology from well drilling and construction, and water quality data....
Prediction of the groundwater level is needed for management of groundwater resources or monitoring in specific site such as pollution area. Neural network of machine learning technique is one of the fancy and powerful tool to estimate or predict the groundwater level in hydrology. There are various kinds of architecture in neural networks such as Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Deep Neural...
Over the years, research community has been in search for a valid phenomenon to explain the occurrences of saline groundwater and brines within the evaporate-deficit but shale rich sedimentary units of the Benue Trough, Nigeria (BTN). Thus, this study is an attempt at unraveling the origin and possible diagenetic reworking of the primary saline source as precursor of saline groundwater...
The increasing use of groundwater as an alternative source to meet the water demand leads to the necessity of availability studies and the influence of climate variations to aquifer recharge. Assessment of aquifer behavior in face of climate change scenarios may provide invaluable information and can assist in the planning and management of these resources. The objective of this work is to use...
Nitrate (NO3) is a common contaminant in groundwater and surface water worldwide. Denitrification is a microbial respiratory process in which dissolved NO3 is reduced to nitrogen gas (N2). Research has shown that MAR can enhance natural attenuation of nitrates by accelerating denitrification that occurs during groundwater recharge and groundwater flow. However, very few MAR sites aim primarily...
High mountain karst aquifers generate important natural water resources that are used in the low zones to satisfy the demand of both the users depending on this resource and the existing downstream ecosystems. These hydrological systems are highly vulnerable, especially those located in the drought-prone Mediterranean area, where climate change is expected to have a significant negative effect...
Groundwater numerical modeling is the essential technique of groundwater movement research and groundwater resource assessments. By modeling the groundwater movement of Beijing, By the first joint modeling of Beijing groundwater in mountain and plain areas in this paper, the hierarchical evaluation of groundwater resources has been realized, and the impact of groundwater level variation on...
This study deals with the spring waters flow in münsterland in west of Germany in the area extended between Baumberge and Schöppinger berg, which represented closed groundwater system and fractured pore system. Eight springs, four in Baumberge (Arning ost, Aring west, Stever a, Stever new), and four in Schöppinger berg (Schwarthof, Wearning, Leerbach and Kirche ). The springs have been...
This study was carried out in the Miryang City, Korea where had the characteristics of urban and rural functions. The study area is surrounded by high mountains except the southern part which forms the flat area around the large Nakdong River. The city area is about 800km2 and about 5,200 wells are developed there. 325 wells were investigated for the sustainable development and effective...
Reliable recharge assessment for sound hydrogeological analysis in arid and semi-arid area is a challenge due to the complex process requiring of intensive data mining and especially in face of limited access to data sets or only short data periods available. This has forced researchers to improve the available data using remote sensing products for input data (e.g., TRMM, CMORPH, TMPA)....
Groundwater is a critical water resource for human survival and social-economic development in arid and semi-arid areas. With the development of economy and the continuous increase of population, and especially to meet irrigation demands, aquifers are subject to intensive exploitation in the Yanqi Basin, in the central region of Xinjiang, China. The decreasing groundwater table changes the...
The Bauru Aquifer System is characterized as a sedimentary aquifer, of predominantly free condition, whose recharge is associated with the direct infiltration of precipitation. This aquifer is the main source of public and private water supply in the western portion of São Paulo state, a Brazilian industrial and agricultural pole. The Bauru aquifer has been monitored as part of the Groundwater...
Groundwater is an important source of drinking water in Belgium. In some regions, locally produced groundwater is the source of 100% of the drinking water supply. One of the most important aquifers in the eastern part of Belgium is the Chalk Aquifer. This aquifer is phreatic in the northern part of Wallonia, but dips down towards the north, in Flanders, where it quickly reaches large depths....
Groundwater is of crucial importance for society, as it can uphold provision of hydrological services when there is a lack of water during drought. However, when droughts extend over longer periods of time and groundwater abstraction is increased, longer-lasting groundwater droughts can develop, aggravating existing water shortages and impacting groundwater-dependent environmental systems....
High frequency as well as long-term fluctuations of groundwater levels are the consequence of a large number of different processes within the aquifer system. Groundwater levels are generally influenced both by natural processes (e.g. groundwater recharge, interaction with river systems) and anthropogenic influences (e.g. water abstraction, artificial recharge and piling). Spatial and temporal...
Up to 70% of the populations in the sub-Saharan countries of Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe rely on groundwater resources. Under the pressure of demand for agricultural production in already water scarce regions, and further threatened by drought events, it is important to effectively select agricultural practices that minimize negative effects on groundwater recharge and availability. Over the...
The Mitidja Plain is situated in the north of Algeria, the Eastern part (575km2) lies by the sea in the north and is limited by the Atlas Monntains in the south. the region has two main aquifers separated in some places by the El-Harrach Formation (Calabrian) , The Plaisancian marls (lower Pliocene) are the substratum of the whole area , the second and most important aquifer , Mitidja...
Due to climate change and increased human impact, water use and its protection have become one of the major regional issues in Central Asia. As the availability of surface water is decreasing and becoming erratic, the reliance and pressure on groundwater resources are constantly growing. That is also a case with the Pretashkent Transboundary Aquifer (PTBA), located between the Republic of...
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) was established in 2002 by Canada’s nuclear electricity producers in accordance with the Nuclear Fuel Waste Act (NFWA). The NWMO is responsible for implementing Adaptive Phased Management (APM), Canada’s plan for the long-term management of used nuclear fuel. The technical end point of APM is the centralized containment and isolation of the used...
An integrated groundwater information system, which is a web-based platform, was developed to utilize and manage groundwater efficiently in Korea. The system was designed to input and modify data interactively by various users such as managers, well developers, and scientists. Groundwater database is coupled with a web-based modeling tool based on Analytic Element Method(AEM)(Visual AEM by...
During the last decades, severe qualitative and quantitative imbalance is being detected for many important aquifer systems worldwide, even beyond the limits of sustainability, due to overexploitation and climate change. Among the most challenging topic, the increase of nitrate concentration in groundwater, especially in rural areas, is a matter of concern. More than 20 years after the issue...
The Central Andes is a geographical barrier that exceeds the elevation of 5000 m a.s.l. The Central Andes is constituted by two mountain ranges: the Eastern Cordillera and the Western Cordillera. Between them, the Central Andres plateau is well known for its fresh and salty lakes and its salt flats. During the austral summer, the strong easterly winds bring moisture from the Atlantic Ocean to...
Groundwater shortage during drought periods will become more important in future and of relevance even in water-rich regions. Switzerland as considered Europe’s water tower disposes of large groundwater resources in the range of 150 km3, but some problems may arise under extreme conditions, such as in 2018 with dramatic precipitation deficit over more than 6 months. Therefore, additional tools...
The Tubarão Aquifer System - TAS is a permo-carboniferous sedimentary aquifer, deposited in a glacial continental and shallow marine environment (DAEE/IG/IPT/ CPRM, 2005). The productivity is relatively low, presenting transmissivity between 1E-6 to 3E-4 m2/s (Iritani et al, 2009) and hydraulic conductivity between 1E-8 to 1E-5 m/s (DAEE, 1981; 1982).
Municipalities in the outcropped TAS are...
Considered the fourth largest freshwater reservoir in the world, the Guarani Aquifer System (GAS) extends for about 1.2 million km² in South America. Its area of occurrence has a greater volume and extension in Brazil, but comprises also territories of Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. The GAS waters are contained in sandstone rocks formed in the Mesozoic Era, when much of the supercontinent...
Most of the available freshwaters on Earth are stored in the underground, consequently groundwater represents the main resource in term of water supply. The exploitation of groundwater bodies will increase to face the significant increasing of the global water demand, which has been predicted as a consequence of the future economic expansion, population growth, and urbanization (Rosegrant et...
The conceptualisation of a groundwater system involves continuous monitoring and evaluation of a large number of parameters. All these datasets collected and generated to perform a groundwater conceptual model are often stored in different scales and formats (e.g., maps, spreadsheets or databases) from different entities. This continuous growing volume of data entails further improving on how...
This work proposes a zoning method as a tool for water management and it is applied to lower Chambo River Basin, located at Chimborazo Province (Ecuador). In order to achieve this goal, it was necessary to estimate the availability of surface water as well as of groundwater in the basin. The amount of exploitable groundwater was computed using standard water balance methods and Darcy mass...
Due to constant demographic growth and agricultural growing demand for irrigation water, the inescapable use of groundwater has continuously increased during the last forty years in North African arid and semi-arid regions. Some of these areas are known to comprise worldwide and in many locations huge underground water reserves. This is the case of the large confined aquifers of well-known...
Due to the lack of surface water resources in Bakhtgan- Maharloo basin, the amount of water withdrawn from groundwater resources has been more than the allowed limit. This amount has significantly affected surface water resources which led to some phenomena such as drying up of the Kor river, creating subsidence in 70% of basin plains, economic damages caused by reduction in the area under...
The North China Plain (NCP) is one of the biggest groundwater systems in the world, and the development and utilization of groundwater has led to severe land subsidence. The NCP has more than 80% of the total area of severe subsidence in China, so the situation of prevention and control of land subsidence is severe. Due to diverse sedimental environment, different geological conditions, and...
The transboundary Amazonian Aquifer System extends over a vast territory of around 2.7x106 km2 in the western Amazon. Its major portion is located in Brazil, although comprising areas in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.
The Amazon Aquifer System is composed of three major hidrogeologic subunits: the outcropping Alter do Chão and Solimões aquifers, and Tikuna Aquifer, a confined extension of Alter...
The Falaj system is an ancient water supply and distribution system used in several countries ranging from Morocco in the West to China in the East. While they are also discussed under the Persian name ‘quanat’, we are using the Arabic term, as our study site lies in Oman. The so called Daoudi Falaj collect groundwater, which is then channelled to places of consumption, mostly for irrigation...
Douala city, located in the littoral province of Cameroon, receives abundant rainfall quantities due to its geographical position in the gulf of Guinea and bears considerable surface water and groundwater resources. Due to socio-economic development and rapid demographic growth and its consequences of unplanned urbanization and improper sanitation system, these water resources are poorly...
Due to global trends in climate and human activity, groundwater is becoming increasingly more important as a water source. Alongside the effects of climate change and anthropogenic factors, natural climate cycles have considerable impacts on the hydrologic cycle. In particular, they can affect groundwater recharge. However, to date only a small number of studies have sought to gauge these...
The Continental Terminal (CT) aquifer in Casamance (Southern Senegal) is one of the main sources of fresh water for usual activities. This shallow aquifer especially in the Oussouye plateau, bounded largely by salt brackish water (locally called bolongs) and the Casamance River is very vulnerable to intensive abstractions that could influence saline intrusion advance. The increase in water...
Alicante Province, with an area of 5,817 km2, is located in the SE of Spain. It ranks as the 4th most populous province of the fifty into which Spain is divided. From the middle of the last century, it has experienced an important economic development due to the transformation from rainfed to irrigated agriculture, as well as to the increase of tourism and industry. The scarcity of superficial...
Canal de Isabel II (CYII) is the main water and wastewater service provider in Madrid Region, supplying services to more than six million consumers. Water supply is accomplished through 14 dams which storage 946 hm3. In extended periods
of drought and/or disruptions in the water supply system, CYII is able to produce up to 70 hm3 per year from 68 wells located in the Tertiary Detrital Aquifer...
There is ongoing debate around the status of groundwater in the Indo-Gangetic Basin (IGB) alluvial aquifer, which as a whole is the world’s most heavily exploited aquifer. There is clear evidence for over-abstraction and/or contamination in some parts of the aquifer, but other areas do not show the same intensity of human impact. The hydrogeology and external influences on groundwater across...
Along the western edge of the Andes, from the semiarid and mediterranean areas of Central Chile to the hyperarid Atacama Desert to the North, climate changes together with a significant increase of water demand has led to strong pressures on the water resources. In Chile, since the late 1980s, the growth of exports (minerals, agricultural products) increased the water demand. As a consequence,...
Many foothill zones in Italy contain aquifer systems of strategic interest for water supplying, especially for drinking purposes (Doveri et al., 2016). The hydrogeological features in these environments generally promote the infiltration of both local rainfall and seepage from stream water originating in mountain catchments. On the other hand, because of their linkage with mountain areas,...
Fractured bedrock aquifers account for 20% of the world’s aquifer systems, yet significant questions of how to characterize and quantify the magnitude of subsurface storage in the context of water supply development remain to be understood. These aquifer types are the only water source for many regions of the world, and it is imperative to understand their hydrologic sustainability under the...
Lake Urmia, the largest in the Middle-East, is located in the northwest of Iran. The lake has been dramatically desiccating during the last two decades, mainly as a result of human-induced agricultural development, which remarkably accounted for diminishing of surface and subsurface inflows to the lake. This research focused on the mountainous area of Aji-Chay river basin, the largest basin...
Affected by human activities and agricultural development, the nitrogen content of groundwater in the Songnen Plain seriously exceeded the standard. To explore the status of nitrogen pollution and its effect on human health, this study employed shallow groundwater sampling test data, geostatistical analysis and conducted the triangular random model to assess the risk of nitrogen exposure in...
The objective of LIFE ECOGRANULARWATER project is to demonstrate a new treatment system, low-cost and environmentally friendly, based on biological methods and powered by solar energy, for the purification of groundwater, polluted by nitrates, intended for human consumption. With this aim, the installation of a full-scale plant in Torre-Cardela (760 inhabitants; Granada, Spain) has been...
The demand for drinking water of the city of Oviedo is satisfied in normal conditions with the contribution of the springs of the Aramo Mountains (Namurian limestones), whose surplus is regulated in the Los Alfilorios Reservoir, and water from the Asturian Consortium for water supply and sanitation (CADASA), coming from another council (Sobrescobio). In times of shortage (summer months) it is...
Piedmont Region, in North-Western Italy, extends for approximately 25,400 square kilometres and represents the more western part of the Po Plain. About 43% of its territory is constituted by mountains, 30% by hills while the plain covers 27% of the whole territory. The Piedmont plain is the most important water reservoir of the Region because of its size, the features of its deposits and the...
In the past, the hydrogeology of the sands, sandstones and gravels of the Alentejo Litoral were studied only in areas where they occur as one of the hydrostratigraphic units of the Sines and Bacia de Alvalade multilayer aquifer systems, in which they play an important role. We present the hydrogeologic characterisation of these rocks in the coastal area extending from the proximity of Morgavel...
The increasingly water quality impairment due to anthropogenic pressures and environmental factors is one of the major public concerns and its control and management remain still challenging. Groundwater is highly vulnerable to human-induced pollution effects and, therefore, appropriate monitoring programs and representative groundwater quality stations are crucial to control pollutant levels...
The knowledge of the hydraulics and the intrinsic properties of the hydrogeologic units is fundamental for the sustainable use of the hydric resource in a basin. The objective of this study is to accomplish an integrated analysis of the hydrologic system of the Maullín river basin (a lacustrine basin covering approximately 4.300 km2), focused on determining the dynamics of groundwater and the...
The monitoring and management of groundwater is a challenge. In times of water scarcity and in area with freshwater shortage, injecting or pumping water into an aquifer for storage and use at a later time, known as Aquifer Storage and Recovery, or ASR, is gaining importance. ASR can be an efficient technique to store freshwater surpluses for times of demand. During times of plentiful water,...
Climate change poses a major threat to the freshwater supply in the Caribbean region due to a variety of factors including the small size of the countries, an overwhelming dependence on rainfall for the supply, the potential devastating impact of hurricanes on the water supply, and the proximity of groundwater aquifers to the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. As part of an effort to improve...
The influence of snow storage and melting processes on the infiltration and recharge of aquifers has been little studied. In cooperation with some Spanish Confederaciones Hidrográficas, major governance organism within Spanish river basins, the UPM Department of Morphology and Terrain Engineering has designed a first experience on improving River Management related to recharge through melting...
Since 1984, Korean WCC area has been spread rapidly. Annual groundwater use in WCC area has been estimated to be 5.4~5.7 m3/y, which is equivalent to 32~35% of agricultural groundwater use in Korea. The WCC usually begins at November and ends at March every year. Therefore, every year starting from November, groundwater level in WCC area gradually declines and reaches to its lowest level at...
The Santa Olalla pond is the only permanent pond located in the Doñana National Park (Southern Spain). Hydrochemistry of both surface and groundwater samples was analyzed during 2017 and 2018. Those samples were representative of the wet and dry seasons, respectively. In total, 22 samples were analyzed. Samples were taken in alignment with the general flow path from the dunes to the pond. ...
The preferable geothermal conditions of Hungary give good opportunities to produce geothermal energy. Besides this well-known fact, Hungary also concentrates on the investigation of industrial waste heat underground storage possibilities. In Northern-Hungary there are many industrial areas with high amount of waste heat emission. Nowadays, most of the unused heat is released into surface...
Ergene River Basin is a part of the Thracian Basin with its drainage area of 11300 km2. The Pliocene aged Sandy Complex aquifer (SCA), environing about half of the Ergene River basin, is a regional aquifer. It is tapped by several thousand wells, mainly for irrigation use. The eastern and western parts of the SCA is unconfined while the central part is confined. The saturated thickness of this...
Population pressure, recent droughts and sea-level rise associated with climate change projections increase pressure on secure water resources, notably on groundwater of the coastal areas like Maputo, Mozambique. The Matola River, located in the west of Maputo, is a perennial river that consists of mostly brackish/salt water originating from groundwater seepage and salinity makes the river...
Climate change is just one of many examples of how humans have negatively impacted Earth through the introduction of pollution in its many forms into the natural environment. Other impacts caused by pollution that may not be in the public eye as often but that are also significant include impacts to the land, oceans, surface water, groundwater, and the biosphere. Each are related and affects...
South Africa is known for droughts and its effect on groundwater. Water levels drop, and some boreholes run dry during low recharge periods. However, how different groundwater levels indicate a drought?
The department monitors the water levels of just over a 2000 geosites of which some monitored on a monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly and some bi-yearly base. The data is analysed from a national...
In hydrogeology, deterministic model calibrations are useful to understand the influence of parameters on the considered variables or to image large-scale spatial parameter distribution. Oftentimes, deterministic solutions bias the problem with too smoothed parameter distributions leading to unrealistic transport predictions with underestimated uncertainties. Instead of predictions using an...
Floodplains play an important role in the hydrological cycle. They serve as buffer zones where water and solute exchange and heat transfer take place between the shallow groundwater (GW) and surface water (SW). Presented research focuses on quantifying the water flux between the shallow aquifer and river, which is often characterized by a high temporal and spatial variability.
A multi-method...
The state of Gujarat is located in an arid to semi-arid area in western India. Throughout history, the state has witnessed several famines and droughts. At the present time, the region continues to be subjected to water stress due to high inter and intra annual rainfall variability, further exacerbated by climate change and population growth. As a result, groundwater represents a vital...
The concentration of contaminants in groundwater underneath landfills and mine tailing piles and treatment facilities increases when the water table rises sharply due recharge events or the rise of the level rising a negihboor rivers connected to the aquifer.
Reactive contaminants may persist for long periods of time due to mineral precipitation and sorption reactions. Here, we present a...
Europe industry has growing concerns on availability of the raw materials. To address this challenge, the European Commission has created a list of critical raw materials for the EU, launched EIT Raw Materials initiative, and continuously support research projects (like INTRAW, UNEXMIN etc.) with the aim of reducing the dependency and meeting growing demands. In the last 15 years Serbia is...
Seven deposits of groundwater, which are located in the slope side of the Caspian depression in the Lower Cretaceous Albian aquifer complex, were investigated and put into operation to provide drinking and industrial water supply for oil and gas production facilities. The well-fields are located within the plateau, which was dissected by valleys of rivers and streams. The aquifer complex is...
Two vulnerability index approaches: Standard and a modified DRASTIC, were applied to assess the pollution vulnerability of a coastal plain sand aquifer in parts of southeastern Nigeria. These methods were used to produce vulnerability maps and a groundwater risk map. The results suggest that the aquifer is of moderate vulnerability, while the risk of pollution is high. These maps also...
Groundwater is a very common drinking water source. In Hungary, 88% of the water supply is sourced from groundwater. Radioactivity of groundwater, as a possible threat and its hydrogeological background, had not been widely investigated until recently. Following the Euratom Drinking Water Directive the radioactivity of drinking water is screened in Hungary in the last three years by gross...
Chemical composition including rare earth elements (REEs) was determined in thermal and mineral water samples collected from 33 spa and geothermal wells located in the Polish Lowlands (northern and central Poland). REE examinations have not been performed for this kind of thermal and medicinal mineral waters in Poland so far.
Observation covered the Mesozoic aquifers, built mainly of Jurassic...
The assessment of groundwater recharge processes is mandatory for the sustainable use of aquifers, especially in arid environments. In the literature, natural recharge processes (i.e. direct or indirect addition of water to the saturated zone of an aquifer from the ground-surface) are exclusively related to the contemporary (or coexisting) hydroclimatic context. Along the hyperarid western...
Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (WFD) defines in Article 4 "environmental objectives" for surface waters, groundwater and protected areas. In order to achieve the "environmental objectives" for groundwater (GW) (Article 4.1b), the WFD requires the adoption of specific measures to prevent and limit GW pollution. The basis for many of the WFD risk references is...
In Morocco, this erosion is linked to the combined action; the nature and condition of the soil material; relief; vegetation cover; anthropogenic factors (deforestation of landforms, overgrazing, poor agricultural practices and exploitation of clay and limestone quarries) as well as the torrential nature of rainfall which is accentuated by climate change.
The objective of this study is to map...
Mountainous areas provide important sources of fresh water for adjacent lowlands. However, hydrogeological and hydrometeorological complexities of mountainous catchments, make reliable seasonally estimation of catchment water balance components challenging, such as the evapotranspiration (ET), subsurface lateral flow (L) in the dry season and catchment water storage change of the wet season....
The most ancient written references for MAR Recharge are the Careos, in the South of Spain, and the Peruvian Amunas. Both high mountain systems are complex and present extraordinary analogies and differences, despite being chronologically Pre-Columbian structures in the case of Amunas. From both there are written chronicles since the XII Century and both evolved in parallel, although...
West Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the regions most affected by global change, with predictions of rainfall deficit over the next 50 years (World Bank Data). Post-civil war demographic boom, combined with increasing water demand to boost the agricultural and mining sectors have highly challenged the current capacity of post-colonial infrastructures to supply the needs in drinking water....
Ginda B is a village in Nasarawa State, Central Nigeria which is one of the small villages that benefited from the Conditional Grant Scheme of the MDG’s in 2008. The benefits included the establishment of a Primary Healthcare Centre as well as a solar powered borehole scheme to provide water for the center as well as the village. The village is situated on a hilltop (elevation = 450m above...
In the plain of Sidi-Bel-Abbès (Northwest of Algeria), in a semi-arid climate, the use of irrigation is inevitable for most crops. Groundwater are increasingly sought.
The aim of this work is the determination of the chemical composition, facies and class of water quality for irrigation of the plain of Sidi-Bel-Abbes. This is more precisely determining the constraints and opportunities of...
In São Paulo State the crystalline aquifer system occupies an area of approximately 62,000 km² (~25% of the state area). Despite of low productivity and highly heterogeneous aquifer, the increasing water demand in the metropolitan areas has intensified crystalline aquifer exploitation. Typically, high productivity wells are related to thicker weathered profile and occurrence of expressive...
The area of Great Maputo in Mozambique, located on the south-eastern coast of Africa is facing a severe water crisis. Due to growing demand and a problem of groundwater salinity, freshwater resources are under extreme pressure. The ongoing drought has further worsened the water supply situation, and in future, the climate variability is imposing an additional threat. Therefore, a study is...
Recent interest in use of the deep subsurface for energy and storage has highlighted a lack of knowledge about groundwater at depths greater than about 200 m – the maximum usual depth for groundwater abstraction in the UK. Questions are being asked about the quality and availability and therefore future resource potential of deep groundwater, and its role in linking the deep subsurface and...
In Kenya, as in much of Africa, there is significant growth in water-reliant industry. In 2016-17 much of East Africa was affected by a severe drought. During such events, groundwater resources can act as a buffered resource, but may themselves be stressed by reduced recharge and increased abstraction, posing significant challenges to water resource management. Despite the importance of...
Groundwater represents an important natural resource that must be managed in an adequate manner for its sustainable continuous use. The Teusacá River, tributary of the Bogotá River, is located in an area with aquifers of primary and secondary porosity. They represent an important water supply for municipalities of La Calera, Guasca, Sopó and Bogotá, the Colombian capital. The recharges of...
The problematic that commonly arises when protecting springs that supply water for human consumption requires a methodological method to prioritize springs that are used for this purpose according to the greatest need for protection from contamination and exploitation processes. The present study proposed the application of a method to prioritize springs in order to facilitate the sustainable...
Identifying contaminant source information from limited concentration measurements downstream from the source is a crucial step in groundwater pollution investigation for accountability and remediation purposes. However, in reality, the partially known but influential hydraulic conductivity field is always a significant obstacle in this inverse problem. In this work, we apply the restart...
Buda Thermal Karst is an exceptional natural laboratory to study the interaction of geofluid systems influenced by different driving forces such as water table differences and heat convection; and by fluids from meteoric infiltration and saline water of geological formations. Due to the elevated heat flux of the area (up to 100 mW/m2), the temperature of the fluids is influenced by advection...
The Nhartanda Valley is located in Southern Africa, center of Mozambique, in the southern part of the City of Tete. It occupies an area of 6.8 km2. City of Tete faces a set of serious structural issues of access to water such as a precarious public water supply system - large losses, pressure drawdown, and lack of investment in the network management, water rationing and a poor sewerage...
Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) has been considered for a long time as an important technology to combat the adverse effects of Climate Change (CC). This is not a gratuitous claim. In this article, the authors will support this statement on the basis of real sites, indicators and international cases. Examples from five continents together with figures and trends will demonstrate that MAR, in...
Accurate determination of subsurface water levels is essential for the reliable quantification of hydraulic head gradients from which groundwater flow is inferred. Head measurements also underpin the quantification of hydrogeological properties based on aquifer pumping tests or tidal propagation analysis. While measuring a water level seems an easy task, the collection of water level...
The impact of climate change, and particularly rising sea levels on shallow fresh groundwater lenses, is widely regarded as a major challenge to the sustainability of ow-lying island countries. Recent research, however, has shown that over 88% of atoll islands in the Pacific and Indian Ocean are counter-intuitively either stable or increasing in land area. During major ENSO events, sea level...
Since 2011, groundwater contaminated by radionuclides from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) in Japan, flows into the adjacent sea. Despite several countermeasures to prevent outflow of contaminated groundwater into the sea, this issue has not been solved. Contaminated groundwater primarily flows through the unconsolidated sand layer of the upper Pliocene (the Dainenji...
Governance and Management of high arsenic Ground water based Drinking water supply in India
Dr. S.P. Sinha Ray
(Retd.) Member, Central Ground Water Board
Emeritus President, Centre for Ground Water Studies, Kolkata
Member, International Association of Hydrogeologists
Abstract
The high concentration of arsenic in...
Natural CO2-rich springs emanate along an 80 km long North-South trending Fault in Eastern, South Africa. The geological units that outcrops along the Fault are the Dwyka Group rocks that are made up of mainly tillites and subordinate sandstone, shales and conglomerates. Hydrogeological, hydrochemical and environmental isotopes (δ2H, δ18O, 3H, δ13C and 14C) were used to characterise deep and...
In this communication we develop a methodology to simulate head loss and flow characteristics through water well screens, comparing different screen types and well construction parameters (e.g. well diameter, pumping rate, screen slot aperture, screen open area, hydraulic conductivity of the filter/gravel pack, etc.). We use COMSOL Multiphysics to perform coupled simulations of turbulent fluid...
The water supply of cities presents great challenges since the demand is concentrated in areas where human activities threaten water resources. Where available, deep confined aquifers are protected from contamination. But they often suffer from a lack of recharge and long term withdrawals shall be limited to protect the stock. In contrast, unconfined aquifers usually present greater recharge...
With an estimated share of about 65 percent, groundwater is one of the major drinking water sources in Europe, and is often essential for irrigated agriculture. Groundwater availability can also be especially important in times of surface water scarcity when groundwater abstraction may increase to alleviate negative effects to the livelihood of people. Drought events such as in 2011-12, 2015...
The accurate assessment of groundwater and its management requires obtaining reliable estimates of hydraulic conductivity (K) and specific storage (Ss). A large number of empirical, laboratory and field techniques have been developed over the last several decades. However, research suggests that Hydraulic Tomography (HT) yields the most accurate hydraulic parameter estimates that can then be...
Groundwater is an essential resource for many rural communities in British Columbia, however also municipal water systems rely on groundwater (albeit often in conjunction with surface water). In British Columbia, after the Water Sustainability Act (WSA) came into effect (February 29, 2016), the need and requirement of (better) groundwater management has increased not only from a water...
Introduction
Despite continued efforts, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) only 52% of its population having access to a water point in 2015, and even less in rural areas.
To find low-cost solutions, UNICEF has implemented in 2012 a programme in order to professionalize the manual drilling sector. But an effective strategy for development of manual drilling requires the identification...
Sustainable groundwater management is a worldwide challenge. Numerical modelling is one such tool which addresses this challenge. Regional-scale modelling of groundwater flow is necessary for planning and management of groundwater resources. The aim of the study is to numerically model the groundwater flow in Medapalli Open cast block area. Medapalli Open Cast Block is a coal mine operating...
Quantifying the future renewable groundwater resource is a key point for water managers in the context of climate change. A method to estimate potential groundwater recharge from precipitation has been developed and applied over France for that purpose.
A gridded water budget model was developed to compute the effective rainfall with a spatial resolution of 8x8 km, at a daily time step. Three...
The first phase of the ‘Groundwater 3D’ (GW3D) project was a government funded, multi-annual endeavour, focussed on assisting Geological Survey Ireland meet its policy goals in the areas of characterisation of and research into groundwater resources, within a number of specific themes. The investigation of the geometry of sand and gravel deposits throughout Ireland, as both a water resource...
The future scenario of global climate change brings a major challenge for the groundwater resources sustainability. The evolution of groundwater in the coming years forecasts a progressive decline of the water table and a decrease in the streamflow, which implies a reduction of the water reservoir storage. This will have negative consequences not only on the associated natural ecosystems, but...
Understanding the mechanism of geogenic arsenic mobilization from sediments to groundwater is important for safe and sustainable drinking water supply and water quality management in floodplain aquifers. Laboratory-scale microcosm incubation experiments and seasonal biogeochemical monitoring were conducted to elaborate the effects of microbial sulfate reduction on As mobilization in the...
Water situation in the drought-prone Barind Tract in the north-western part of Bangladesh is deteriorating day by day due to increasing demand of food production, urbanisation and industrialisation. Here balance situation between food and water security is a serious challenge to the policy makers. This study is undertaken in the southern part of the Tract to assess the existing status of water...
A characteristic of much of the karst in Ireland is its low-lying nature, with many springs discharging at or below sea level. The low hydraulic gradient for such karst networks also promotes a lot of groundwater-surface water interactions with many ephemeral lakes, known as turloughs, appearing over periods of high recharge (normally in the winter) in topographic depressions. These turloughs...
In September 2018, the Greater London Assembly published; Low Carbon Heat: Heat Pumps in London. This report states that, to meet carbon reduction and air quality targets there needs to be a significant uptake in heat pumps in the next 10-15 years. Based on estimates of market share (Abesser, 2010), around 1,000 of the 1 million heat pumps sold in the EU in 2016 were Open Loop Ground Source...
Crystalline basement rocks of Precambrian age underlie nearly three quarters of Uganda, providing groundwater supplies to meet ever increasing demand from rural areas and urban growth centres. Development of groundwater sources is commonly based on several factors including physical and socio-economic considerations that have a bearing on their functionality and long term reliability. Here we...
In a flow system from the recharge to the corresponding discharge area, there are usually systematic changes in the hydrochemistry of groundwater. Although it is well known that silicates are the main minerals in sandstones, silicates and minor carbonates in sandstones both consume CO2 and control of hydrochemistry of groundwater. However, it is difficult to differentiate the contribution of...
The area covered by the Medina del Campo Groundwater Body (Duero River Basin, Spain) is an important agricultural production region. The area is prone to climatic and geomorphological hazards such as floods, dry spells and landslides. Climate projections indicate that these hazards might become more frequent in the future. The main economic activity of the area is agriculture, which is also...
Hydrogeological modeling is an indispensable decision support tool for sustainable groundwater resources management. However, one of the major issues in Groundwater numerical modeling is related to the basic data preparation required for running this open sources or commercial packages models. The experienced user or a newcomer of various existing powerful models such as MODFLOW, FEFLOW, etc,...
In the frame of a technical cooperation project between the Lake Chad Basin Commission and the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, four groundwater sampling campaigns were conducted in the Chadian capital N’Djamena in 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018. 253 samples were taken from 67 private bore wells equipped with handpumps and 16 large-capacity production wells of the public...
The Northeast of Yucatan Peninsula; Mexico; due to its natural resources: beaches, jungles, sinkholes, reef is one of the main Mexican touristic poles. Presenting one of the most accelerated growth is recreational activities and in consequence the rise of development on the coast and inland. Moreover, this region underlies a vulnerable karstic coastal aquifer at the Yucatan Peninsula, high...
Characterization of preferential flow paths is important for assessing the delivery of treatment amendments to contaminated portions of an aquifer. Field investigation methods with high spatial resolution are required to capture the flow variability in unconsolidated or discretely fractured aquifers, and to identify the nature of flow pathways (i.e. fracture vs matrix flow) relative to the...
The coastal aquifer of Israel serves as one of the main water resources. It extends from Mount Carmel in the north to the Gaza Strip in the south, bounded in the west by the Mediterranean sea and in the east by mountainous formations. The average natural recharge to the aquifer is around 270 MCM/Y. It consists basically of alterations of calcareos sandstones and eolinites with clay and loam...
Jaipur, the capital of the Indian state Rajasthan, is a fast growing city in the semi-arid region of northwestern India. In its expanding peri-urban areas, a huge share of the population has to rely on an informal water supply system which is often based on groundwater sources. To understand the influence of groundwater availability on the official and the informal water supply system, and the...
Groundwater has often been described as an invisible resource, yet it is important to recognise that almost 98% of the world’s available freshwater resources are in the form of groundwater. Integrated water resources management (IWMI) acknowledges the important role of groundwater within frameworks that can sometimes be unduly surface water focused. The importance of IWRM is recognised in...
Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) can play an important role as a measure to control over-abstraction and to restore the groundwater balance under climate change scenarios. MAR may also be applied to sustain or improve the functioning of ecosystems. One of the major difficulties in evaluating the applicability of MAR is to model the infiltration process through variably saturated media with the...
Electrical resistivity survey has proven to be an effective tool for groundwater exploration and has been widely embraced to help reduce the drilling of unsuccessful wells. Currently, information from electrical resistivity survey is often used in locating points for drilling, but it does not give indication of the yield of the borehole. The lack of this information therefore sometimes results...
The Mexico Basin (MB) includes the nation’s capital Mexico City, and is one of the most important metropolitan areas in the country representing the largest urban area in North America and the fifth largest in the world. A population currently reaching 22 million with constantly increasing water demands has resulted in the overexploitation of groundwater resources in the basin with changes in...
There is currently a significant gap in our understanding of the effect of anthropogenic warming on groundwater drought. This is due to a number of factors including the limited availability of long groundwater level time series suitable for analysis, the low signal-to-noise ratios characteristic of many hydrological systems, and the infrequent nature of episodes of groundwater drought in...
In the Po Plain of northern Italy, one of the larger alluvial basin in Europe, groundwater quality is threatened by nitrate pollution. The main aim of this work is to assess the origin of this pollution and understand how groundwater/surface-water interactions affect nitrate concentrations in the region.
The study area is part of the Oglio River basin and covers around 1,900 km$^{2}$ between...
Andesitic volcanic aquifers are an important source for water supply in many countries of the world, particularly in subduction zones, such as Indonesia. Their sustainable management requires a thorough understanding of their hydrogeology. Given their complexity, multidisciplinary approaches are required and were implemented on the northern flank of the Bromo-Tengger volcano, Java Island, a...
Lake Chad is located in the center of an extremely large sedimentary basin (2 million km2), which is filled with neogenous sandy-clay sediments and contains several huge aquifers of regional importance. This study covers the northern part of this basin, an area of 200,000 km2 located in Chad.
Although this is a very arid area (50 to 400mm of rainfall a year), it is inhabited by different...
Particularly in urban areas, heating and cooling is responsible for a large fraction of total energy demand. Due to the seasonal and diurnal variation in heat demand and for example that of solar heat supply, the storage of heat is critical for the development of sustainable heating.
Aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) systems allow the storage of heat cost-efficiently and at a scale that...
Hidralia is the company responsible for the supply of drinking water to the population of Estepona, a 65,000 inhabitant’s city located in the western Costa del Sol (Málaga province, southern Spain). Water resources come from both surface (reservoirs) and ground (aquifers) sources. One of the most strategic groundwater extraction zones corresponds to Padrón sector, where Hidralia has got two...
Sri Lanka is an island which is vulnerable to sea level rise. Therefore, sea level rise and its impact directly face to coastal region and their population. It is evident that most of the future settlements will be located along the Coastal Belt of Sri Lanka while the global warming tempted Sea Level rise in the Indian Ocean could have a number of physical impacts on the country as an island....
The Cox’s Bazaar District in Bangladesh is hosting a massive rapid, influx of over 700,000 Rohingya Refugees from Myanmar, placing huge strain on local resources including water resources. The largest camp, known as the Mega Camp, is spread across a 13km2 block of land between Kutupalong and Balukhali. Water supply for this camp is sourced from the underlying Tipam Sandstone Aquifer. The...
Retardation due to adsorption may be an important factor in the fate and transport of contaminants in porous media. Reversible adsorption is generally described by isotherm functions giving the relationship between the concentrations in dissolved and in adsorbed phases. Several authors defined such parametric functions, the most widely used being the linear, the Freundlich and the Langmuir...
With the exception of most island nations, every country on the globe is hydrologically connected to its neighbors. This is especially evident in the more than 600 cross-border aquifers that have been identified world-wide and that are being exploited to varying degrees. Surprisingly, and in contrast to the more than 3,600 treaties and agreements governing transboundary rivers and lakes,...
For many parts of the world, the development of groundwater increases water security and can lead to more sustainable livelihoods and a reduction in poverty. This is particularly the case for Africa and South Asia where water insecurity is endemic. This talk will explore: (1) water security in rural Africa particularly throughout drought condition and the interlinking factors influencing the...
Groundwater storage fluctuates more slowly than the near-surface, non-frozen components of terrestrial water storage (soil moisture and surface waters), but because of its larger range of variability it is often more indicative of long period climate changes. Hindering groundwater’s use as an indicator of water cycle and climate variability is the paucity of long term, continuous measurement...
The predictions of climate change in Australia are for a continuation of current trends, namely an increase in temperature (high confidence), an increase in extreme rainfall intensity (medium confidence), and a reduction of rainfall and runoff, with increased drought periods in southern Australia (medium confidence). Given the high climate variability in Australia and the winter-dominance of...
The application of road salt or de-icing chemicals to southern Ontario roadways has been the standard practice for the past 70 years. Approximately 100,000 tonnes of road salt is used on southern Ontario roadways, and 5 million tonnes is applied to roads across Canada annually. Groundwater protection and management are vital in southern Ontario and are a topic with increased interest as the...
Portugal recently faced a severe financial crisis that led to a suspension of funding to water monitoring programmes of the Water Information System (WIS), SNIRH. This caused a severe impact as WIS and shared databases are considered key mechanisms for sharing water basin, country and international policy. This study provides the first empirical assessment of SNIRH performance, in the context...
In the last decades, numerical modeling has become one of the most important instruments to manage groundwater resources, in terms of sustainable exploitation, contamination fate assessment, and remediation scheme design and efficiency evaluation. Besides the assessment for the hydrogeological features (i.e. boundary conditions), the hydraulic conductivity (K) distribution assessment is an...
The interaction between the leachate and the environmental media, in addition to spreading toxic compound in groundwater, leads to several hydrogeochemical and biological changes that, in turn, affect the natural conditions of aquifers. These changes also involve compounds that are generally considered slightly or not polluting, such as the major ions (Na, K, Ca, Mg, Cl, SO4, HCO3 + CO3),...
Uranium, radium and radon are usually found in groundwater, as moving groundwater interacts with its environment, it can mobilise, transport and accumulate these isotopes similarly to other chemical substances. As groundwater represents the main source of public drinking water supplies in many regions (EU 75%, Hungary 88%), presence of natural radioisotopes in groundwater may pose a hazard...
Hard rock aquifers, either sedimentary (turbidites and arenites) or igneous (ophiolites), dominate the landscape of the northern Apennines (Italy), in a climatic framework midway between sub-tropical mediterranean and mountainous humid. The main rainfall events occur in autumn and spring, providing an average annual precipitation between 1000 and 3000 mm/y. On the northern slope of the...
In the last years, water scarcity and drought severely affected southern Europe. Drought particularly afflicts Italy in different ways, mainly depending on the area hydrogeological setup and on the physical processes of precipitation-recharge interaction; the groundwater recharge decreases, due not only to rainfall reduction, but also to temperature increase. In southern Italy, the 1987-1993...
As regional groundwater flow systems arise to the surface as a reductive thermal spring with high TDS, CO2 and often also high trace element and 226Ra content, complex biogeochemical processes begin. Buda Thermal Karst system (Hungary) is a regional discharge area, where these processes can be studied near the surface. The surface of carbonate rocks where the reductive thermal water and the...
Stream connectivity due to flow intermittency will be modified from its current pattern due to climate change. Restoring connectivity is then a matter of stream water availability within the basin, and it includes natural as well as man-induced factors. Among these pressures, the effects of global warming on the water budget are key to forecast the future behavior of each basin. Since stream...
Originally introduced for rivers, environmental flows refer to the quantity of water that is necessary to maintain valued ecosystems services. This definition has been extended to groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDE) that rely to the occurrence of groundwater. When the natural drainage from an aquifer supports GDEs, increasing groundwater extraction for irrigation may threaten ...
Groundwater is the most precious and irreplaceable natural resource, and understanding ground water quality is of paramount importance for effective groundwater management. Change in the groundwater chemistry due to mining, anthropogenic sources and farming may change the quality and suitability of groundwater
The study area is located in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa, and is...
The northern Sahara contains vast transboundary aquifer system, including the Continental Intercalaire aquifer (CI) which is the main water reserve for those hyperarid regions. It is shared between Algeria, Libya and Tunisia.
The piezometric map shows that the main groundwater flow comes from the “Occidental basin” considered as the principal recharge area of CI aquifer. However, it is the...
Water research and water management is not only the subject of natural and technical sciences, more and more is important involment of social sciences. Domestic demands compete with ecology, agriculture, industry and other users for the same water resource. These competitions play out via economic and political mechanisms on scales from the local to global. Water science should be...
Guri Venvik, Ane Bang-Kittilsen, John Dehls & Floris C. Boogaard
The infiltration systems at Bryggen in Bergen, Western Norway, were built to protect and preserve the UNESCO World Heritage Site Bryggen Wharf and its cultural layers below. This location is an example where Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) have been implemented to collect, infiltrate and store surface water....
Abstract
Stable water isotope 18O and Deuterium (D) have been widely used in groundwater hydrology, notably to estimate recharge elevation. We analyze water stable isotopes in self-flowing (artesian) wells, prior and after borehole annulus are cemented in order to sample aquifer layers within two categories, shallow or deep. The tested wells are located on the distal plain from different...
Urbanization and human activities in the Tokyo metropolitan area have induced various changes of groundwater environment, such as groundwater flow regime and subsurface temperature distribution. Additionally, subsurface temperatures have been affected by surface warming caused by not only urbanization but also global warming. Thus, it is essentially required to clarify the mechanism and...
World total agricultural use of either chemical or mineral fertilizers was 110 Mt nitrogen (N) in 2016, reaching 69 kg N/ha the use of fertilizers per hectare of cropland (arable land and permanent crops) (FAO, 2018). The excessive use of nitrogen-containing fertilizers and manures is one of the main sources for the nitrate contamination of groundwater. WHO (2011) and the EU Water Framework...
Warm semi-arid regions, covering vast areas of the African continent, are frequently considered of low potential for agricultural development, due to a limited and highly irregular access to water. Notwithstanding, significant amounts of freshwater can be stored in thick sand beds of wide ephemeral rivers, formed as a consequence of pronounced dryland weathering and erosion. Additionally, the...
Lack of drinking water and water scarcity in general is at present enhanced by climate change impact. It is namely felt by people in those areas of the Slovak Republic where their own natural groundwater resources are limited by geological settings. In 2018, a regional hydrogeological research project was approved in the country, targeting those areas that are the most deficient in terms of...
As long as humans have existed on planet Earth groundwater has been inextricably linked with people and the world we live in. It is front and centre in critical contemporary issues about our environment, food and water security, coal seam gas and fracking, mining, energy and nuclear waste disposal. Groundwater supplies half of the world’s drinking water and nearly half of the water used for...
Arid and semi-arid regions, also referred to as drylands, are areas characterised by low water availability. A solution commonly used in drylands to cope with water scarcity is the collection of stormwater, which is stored during wet seasons or rain events and subsequently used during drier periods. Storage is often provided by infiltration into shallow aquifers. Common problems with the...
River-aquifer interactions play an important role in a wide range of major ecological and hydrological challenges. An accurate characterization of these interactions is important for assessing river water quality and riparian ecology, evaluating stream depletion due to groundwater extraction close to rivers, and predicting flood peaks and low flows. Most studies focus on the large-scale...
Climate strongly influences the regional hydrology. However, the relationship between climate-specific seasonal fluctuations and groundwater dynamics is not well defined for Fennoscandia. For the period 1980-2016, the climate in Sweden and Finland is classified as subarctic, with the most southern parts of Sweden classified as humid continental climate (Kottek et al., 2006; Beck et al., 2018)....
The protection of groundwater resources is worldwide considered a task of high importance and imperative necessity due to their rapid deterioration and the subsequent risk of public health. A task that in its most common practical implementation is equivalent to the protection of water-supply wells through methods and techniques that result in the determination of site-specific protection...
Much attention is paid to sea level rise but the problem of land subsidence, induced by man-changed groundwater conditions, can be (until now) by far more significant locally (Showstack, 2014). The ‘sinking’ regions correspond most often to urban coastal densely populated areas located in regions where compressible loose sediments are found. As they are usually under-consolidated and...
Water Resource Management (WRM) is being getting attention, due to overexploitation and climate change affecting water quality and quantity. Conjunctive use of ground- and surface-water is increasingly being a common practice, especially in rural areas, for ensuring crop production sustainability. ICT (Information and Communication Technology) solutions, such as GIS-integrated simulation...
The Pavillion gas field is located in the Wind River Basin in north central WY, USA. Since the 1960s natural gas has been produced from the Tertiary age Wind River Formation which is comprised of lithologies associated with a fluvial depositional system. Commercial and non-commercial gas deposits, which originate in the underlying Ft. Union Formation, occur in discontinuous permeable sandstone...
The terms ‘Management’ and ‘Governance’ are used interchangeably when referring to groundwater such as policy, protection, operations, financial systems and infrastructure. Governance and management are not separate scales of action, but different processes. Both processes can take place together at local, regional, national or global scales. (Seward 2015).
The influences from the different...
Detailed monitoring of an exceptional rainfall event of 180mm in 36 hours over the 385 km2 semi-arid Fowler’s Gap catchment of western New South wales is analysed. Fifty-year average annual rainfall is 243mm. The event was captured on 20 tipping-bucket gauges, 2 creek level gauges, by a full climate station, water levels in 12 bores and a group of 6 thermal arrays buried in the creek. Rain in...
The vulnerability of the Alsatian aquifer to climate change and water abstraction has hardly been investigated whilst climate change impacts such as decreasing snowfall, droughts and heat waves are becoming stronger and water abstraction for irrigation is seasonally intensifying as a result. Despite being influenced by a European temperate climate, seasonal drying of springs and streams have...
A new laboratory evaporation method (EM) of the water content measurement of the low-permeability rocks with a water content of less than 1 wt.% is developed. The EM offers a rapid, efficient, and accurate analysis (error range 0.2÷6.8 rel.% if applied to real rock samples) of the free and loosely clay-bound water.
The EM was practically implemented and tested on a representative collection of...
The sustainability of groundwater resources is being threatened by overexploitation, anthropogenic influences and mismanagement. Considerable intensification of groundwater demand from negligible recharged aquifers in arid and semiarid regions, has underlined deterioration of groundwater level, thereby making aquifer systems more vulnerable. Groundwater vulnerability assessment, as a worldwide...
A great number of transboundary water systems of the world, including transboundary aquifers (TBAs), support the socioeconomic development and wellbeing of an important part of the world’s population. At present, nearly 600 TBAs have been defined in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Transboundary water issues abound and are complicated by lack of adequate governance and shared...
Monitoring the groundwater levels is required to predict groundwater drought and mitigate its impacts, so as to ensure sustainable water supplies and protection of the aquatic ecosystems. The quantitative status of the groundwater resource is assessed against specific groundwater thresholds levels, which constitute trigger levels that initiate and/or terminate management actions, e.g. early...
High alpine areas are highly sensitive to climate change. Corresponding studies suggest a general decrease in snow accumulation and a shift of snow-influenced discharges towards earlier periods of the year, which can be combined with warm and dry summers. The magnitude of change of discharge dynamics in alpine areas will most likely be influenced by groundwater storage and its buffering...
The Mar Menor is the largest lagoon along the Spanish Mediterranean coast. It suffers from eutrophication and algal blooms associated with intensive agricultural activities and urban pressure in the surrounding Campo de Cartagena plain. A balanced discharge of groundwater, carrier of algal nutrients such as nitrate, is essential to ensure the integrity of the coastal lagoon and the...
In urban areas, flooded abandoned mines could be used for shallow geothermal purposes. Such aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) systems, using heat-pumps and an open loop with a groundwater pumping and re-injection doublet, are highly challenging and uncertain with risks undermining the ultimate feasibility. The true geometry of the interconnected network made of old open galleries and...
Groundwater resource in the Eastern Desert of Egypt represents beside the surface water from the Nile a very important resource. In form of fracture springs, dug wells and relative deep wells groundwater serves as an only source in remote communities and also as a source for the desalinization process at the Red Sea touristic facilities. Eight locations in the area of Hurghada (south group),...
Irrigated areas, mainly in arid regions, are threatened by salinization processes. Climate change inducing temperature rise and rainfall depletion is expected to enhance these processes. Numerical models are often used to estimate and predict water and solute fluxes reaching groundwater. Climatic data, mainly rainfall, have an important influence on the estimation of those fluxes. The present...
Climate change and future developments can influence the availability of groundwater resources for water supply. To mitigate their effects on aquifers systems and the dependent human communities and industrial activities in Africa, it is relevant to consider them in long-term water management plans. In order to advance this understanding, this study described here evaluates the effect of...
The southern Levant is an arid area with precipitation that doesn’t exceed 150 mm per year. Despite the arid conditions, agriculture flourished throughout extensive areas of the Negev Highlands, southern Israel, for hundreds or even thousands of years. The ancient agriculture was based on runoff harvesting and reducing floodwater energy. Currently, water is constantly supplied through pipes,...
Programming and machine learning play an increasingly important role as part of research methods in most scientific disciplines, including geosciences, as the volume of data collected increases exponentially. In hydrogeology, it is used for data pre-processing, analysis, prediction, or visualization. However, when trying to apply or adapt promising methods to one’s own data, it is often...
Groundwater is a crucial resource for the resilient and sustainable development of nearly all cities in some way – whether as a key component resource in public water supply, to integrated flood risk management, potential renewable shallow geothermal heat, or roles in contamination pathways and ground stability. The roles and interactions of the resource with urban development are manifold...
Seasonal signals of stable isotopes in precipitation combined with measurements of soil water content have been used for a quantitative estimation of groundwater recharge rates. This study investigates the applicability of the piston flow principle and the peak shift displacement method for assessing recharge in a humid Nordic region located in Quebec in Canada to estimate groundwater recharge...
Installation of Ground-Source Heat Pump (GSHP) system is gradually increasing in Japan. Thermal conductivity of the formation in Japan is smaller than that in continental area consisting of rock which is older than Quaternary because major cities and towns in Japan are located on Quaternary plains and basins. However, groundwater of Quaternary is actively flowing, and the heat exchange rate...
The Berambadi (Kabini Critical Zone Observatory) is an 84 km2 sub-catchment of the Cauvery river basin in the west of Karnataka, India. Intensive crop irrigation in the catchment is highly dependent on the supply of groundwater from a dense network of boreholes penetrating the peninsular gneiss aquifer. Large inter-annual variations in groundwater levels are observed in the catchment, where a...
Upgrades and improvements are essential to enhance the infrastructure of London, a city of over 8 million people. The London Infrastructure plan 2050 aims to improve the quality of life while London grows by creating ‘a greener and more productive city that is environmentally, financially, socially and economically sustainable and remains at the forefront of new technology.’ Much of the...
The N’fis basin located in Tensift region center of Morocco characterized by semi-arid climate, with an area of 2,855 km², in which 60% exceeds an altitude of 1500m. Water resources and exactly groundwater resources were overexploited in N’fis basin and agriculture sector is the most consummate. Water is the key element of socio-economic development.
Analysis of the spatial and temporal...
Rainfall is the most influential factor affecting groundwater and surface water regimes. Spatial and temporal characteristics of rainfall events significantly impact the partitioning of rainfall into runoff, infiltration, and groundwater recharge, and thus the dynamic water exchange between groundwater and surface water. Integrated hydrologic models simulate surface water and groundwater...
Major cities in Cambodia and Myanmar are experiencing rapid growth and development with little regard to groundwater and surface water quality. Studies have been done in Southeast Asia to determine some of the major issues facing the cities with a focus on lack of treated wastewater disposal. In Phnom Penh, Cambodia Boeng Cheung Ek wetland is a large, peri-urban, free water surface,...
Hydraulic tests are widely used for qualitative and quantitative characterization of aquifers. They allow understanding the conceptual model and estimating the parameters that govern the water flow by recording and interpreting the aquifer response to pumping/injection. This response needs to be represented in terms of drawdown, defined as the change in head caused by the pumping test. As...
Groundwater resources are threatened in numerous areas of the world, mainly because of high anthropogenic pressures degrading that degrade their quantity (e.g. overexploitation) or their quality. To remediate or, better, to prevent such situations, the fundamental principles of sustainable management and protection (quantity, quality) of groundwater resources are well known. However, often,...
The shallow aquifer of Jerba Island is particularly sensitive to sea level rise (SLR) because the island's relief is very moderate and the altitude of the piezometric surface is close to zero. Seawater intrusion is widespread along the coast, but its amplitude varies from one area to another, depending on the groundwater abstraction rate induced by different economic patterns. The freshwater...
Nutrients that fall on the ground from the atmosphere represent a minor component of the total nitrogen input to soils, especially when compared to agricultural, civil and industrial inputs (i.e., sewage treatment plants or sewage systems, fertilizer and manure applications). However, integrating all nitrogen forms, processes and scales can represent a breakthrough challenge for the...
Water table depth is a critical factor affecting infiltration recharge and groundwater evaporation, both of which are key aspects of the hydrological process in the unsaturated zone. To evaluate the effect of water table depth on the hydrological process in the unsaturated zone, a lysimeter experiment incorporating a 1-year-long bromide tracer test was conducted to determine the unsaturated...
Slug tests are one of the most common field methods for estimating local hydraulic properties, for fast and low-cost characterization of aquifer heterogeneity. In highly permeable fracture zones, underdamped responses, identified by oscillations of the water level, are generally observed. Several analytical and numerical solutions have been developed for modeling underdamped slug test...
At an urban landfill facility located in central Italy, we investigate the processes leading to moderate amounts of VOC in groundwater (benzene), at one downgradient monitoring well. Increased alkalinity and sulfates, lower pH and high levels of redox-sensitive elements (Mn, Fe, As), might support both the hypothesis of leachate loss to groundwater or landfill gas-to-water transfer.
In this...
Groundwater stored in weathered crystalline aquifers is an essential resource of drinking water in tropical countries. Previous studies based on the analysis of borehole data in African countries have shown that the productivity of these aquifers is generally low (<1 l/s), but there is considerable variability with some boreholes much more productive (> 5 l/s), and other areas unproductive....
Understanding the complex interaction between groundwater and surface water (SW-GW) is essential for effective management of water resources. One of the most important results of this interaction is formation of freshwater lenses. Terrestrial Freshwater Water Lenses (TFWLs) are of great importance in areas with regionally-extensive brackish to saline groundwater. When recharge occurs through...
Natural arsenic contamination of groundwater represents one of the most impacting environmental and health issues in several regions of the world, particularly in South and Southeast Asia, where millions of people may be drinking water with unsafe arsenic levels. In the densely populated region of the Red River Delta in Vietnam, water-quality data have shown the occurrence of arsenic...
The areas of brine leakage to freshwater aquifers were mapped with the use of over 20,000 archival chemical analyses from the data bank of the Polish Geological Institute. Such areas were named chloride anomaly zones, and were defined by groups of wells with concentration of Cl- ion in groundwater exceeding the value 60 mg/dm3 - the upper limit of the hydrogeochemical background.
The next...
The East Anglian region of the UK is a major agricultural producing region of the UK. The region also contains habitats of special environmental interest. It has one of the fastest growing population in the UK. Groundwater contributes over 50 % of total water supply in this area. The region is one of the driest areas of the UK and is at significant drought risk with competing demands on the...
The intent of this study, held in the profile research project SECOSUD II, “Conservation and equitable use of biological diversity in the SADC region”, granted by Italian Cooperation and Development Agency, is to understand the natural regimes of groundwater systems and how water resources are stressed by climatic changes in two sensitive and complex areas of southern Africa: Limpopo National...
During the recent Resource Management Week organized by UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) in Geneva last May, aimed at the application of the official resource classification adopted by United Nations, namely UNFC (United Nation Framework Classification), a new working group exclusively dedicated to groundwater resources has been established, side to other historically...
Soil physical models are widely used to describe water flow and solute transport in the vadose zone, for example to estimate groundwater recharge. These models require accurate and precise information about the properties of the vadose zone that link fluxes with state variables, such as the soil water retention curve, the unsaturated soil hydraulic conductivity, and the solute dispersion...
In Functional Urban Areas, management plans need to take into consideration both point sources (PS, corresponding to areas releasing plumes of high concentrations) and multiple point sources (MPS, consisting in a series of unidentifiable small sources clustered within large areas) that cause diffuse groundwater contamination. For the former category, according to the Decree n°152/2006 in case...
The aim of this work was to develop the exact groundwater flow model within a confined aquifer. We argued that, the Theis groundwater flow model is an approximation of the real formulation of the model as Theis removed some components of the equation to have a simple model. Initially, we derived an exact groundwater flow equation for a confined aquifer so as to include all high order terms...
In the last few years, environmental pollution has been major concern in Croatia. In some parts of Croatia, uncontrolled and extensive production is causing the pollution of groundwater with nitrates, nitrate, ammonium, oils, phenols etc. An example of area with groundwater quality problems is the surrounding area of the town Varaždin. The area is densely populated and industrial and...
Millions of people are exposed to the potential risks of high arsenic (As) concentration through groundwater intake. Numerical models are powerful supporting tools for decision makers to make informed decisions that could help to minimize such risk, yet the ubiquitous presence of heterogeneity creates uncertainty in the model predictions. This is demonstrated through this presentation, which...
Well tests performed in fractured rocks often display non-classical drawdown behaviors due to strong hydraulic heterogeneity and various flow structures investigated. Such signals are thus challenging to interpret but contain important information on flow-bearing structures (i. e., hydraulic heterogeneity and connectivity), particularly useful for site understanding and modeling. We propose...
Cities are becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change, and there is an urgent need for climateproof resilient cities. Groundwater issues are not always visual to stakeholders so raising awareness and capactiy building is of great importance. The Climatescan adaptation tool www.climatescan.nl is applied as an interactive tool for knowledge exchange and raising awareness on Nature-Bases...
For sustainable groundwater management plan (SGMP), a study has been taken up in Madharam watershed (95 km2) in drought prone affected mahabubnagar district of Telangana state, India with integrated approach including remote sensing, hydro-meteorological, hydrological, hydrogeological, geophysical and hydro-chemical studies. Geologically the watershed is underlain by granites with intrusive...
Currently, the Júcar River Basin District has 25 groundwater bodies (24%) that exceed the quality norm on nitrates. These bodies are mainly located on the coastal areas of the basin district.
In the 1980s, an excessive increase of nitrate concentration occurred, attaining, in the present days and in certain areas, values of up to 200 mg/l. These high values can undermine the achievement of the...
The difficulties in the understanding and management of hydrogeological systems dominated by groundwater flow with variable density such as hypersaline lakes are further complicated. In these wetlands, the brine is located above. There, the relatively freshwater of the aquifer produces a gravitational instability that can generate convection cells. When the density differences between both...
The City of Guelph, Ontario, Canada relies on 21 groundwater wells to supply water from an underlying fractured dolostone aquifer to ~135,000 residents. Following the implementation of the Clean Water Act (2006), Ontario municipalities are required to evaluate threats to source water. The approach requires developing wellhead protection areas based on groundwater travel times, which can be...
The Pianosa Island (10.2 km2) is one of the seven islands of the Tuscan Archipelago (Italy), known for its flat morphological structure. It is formed of Neogenic-Quaternary sedimentary rocks, mainly represented by calcarenite, and underlying marl and clayey marl. Despite its small extension and relatively low rainfall amount (500 mm/year, approximately), the Pianosa Island include an...
The water drawdown in pumping wells in a fully penetrated confined aquifers is defined by the following equation (Jacobs, 1947):
S =BQ+CQ2; where S is the drawdown inside the well (L), Q - pumping rate (L3/T), B - aquifer (laminar) head-loss coefficient (T/L2) which is attributed to the aquifer and varies with pumping duration, and C - nonlinear (turbulent) well-loss coefficient (T2/L5)...
Food security and the socio-economic development in many arid and semi-arid regions in Africa cannot be envisaged without a stable and reliable water supply to support local agriculture. Rural communities in those areas often depend on shallow groundwater resources associated with ephemeral alluvial systems to maintain water supply throughout the year.
However, the potential of these aquifers...
The tragedy of the common is a dilemma often used to describe a scenario in which a group of users share a common limited pool of a certain resource. One of the most vital examples of these common pools is groundwater. In the last decades aquifers are over exploited, and about 70\% of groundwater withdrawals is used for agriculture globally. Water demand management often addresses this issue...
Authors have presented the theoretical assumptions for a modified and simplified method of forecasting the inflow of water to underground mine excavations using open-source GIS software. The proposed solution is based on the determination of the value of mine-water inflow index (qA) that represents a unit of mining excavations area.
The proposed version of the method includes the variation of...
There is no doubt about the over exploitation of the Berrechid aquifer which spreads on an area of 1500 km2, as the piezometric surveys show. This aquifer provides a large part of the drinking water supply and all of that used in irrigation. In deed there is a high demand of agricultural product from the Casablanca city located fifty kilometers away.
Mathematical models have been developed...
The area covered by the Medina del Campo Groundwater Body (MCGB, Duero River Basin, Spain) is an important agricultural production region. Groundwater is the main provisioning source for irrigation, to supply many small towns and also to support surface groundwater-related ecosystems (SGRE). The area is prone to climatic and geomorphological hazards such as floods and droughts. The aquifers is...
There is an increasing need to develop modeling tools capable of simulating water flow and pollutant transport across different environmental compartments, such as inland surface waters, groundwater and seawater. Such an integrated modeling approach is proposed in the framework of the project "Modelling of the impact of the agricultural holdings and land-use structure on the quality of inland...
Chokwé and Guija, two districts of the Gaza province, in Mozambique, are located at the downstream part of the Limpopo river basin. The latter is a shared basin between four countries in which the development of water infrastructures upstream has a high impact on the water quality and availability downstream. Furthermore, neither the quantity nor the quality of the Limpopo River’s water that...
One of the main risks associated with wildfires is the affection of superficial and groundwater resources. There are numerous disturbances that occur both in the quantity and the quality of the water resources. From this perspective, possible alterations that have occurred in the groundwater chemical composition have been evaluated as a result of the Peñuelas forest fire (or wildfire),...
The strip of the Depresión Central (Central Depresion) in northern Chile, between latitudes 24-25o S, is in the arid core of the Desierto de Atacama (Atacama Desert). This area is characterized by air humidity close to zero, which is the origin of scarce precipitations and consequently very small surface runoff. Despite this, some small springs (more or less permanent seepages) outflow in the...
International expedition of the Class@Baikal project took place on the Lake Baikal in 2018; bottom sediments and surface waters were sampled within the Gorevoy Utes hydrocarbon seepage area. The pH and Eh of the "bottom sediments - pore waters" system were measured immediately after opening the sampler. Then, the composition of bottom sediments, surface and pore waters were analyzed in the...
A study has been done on recharge to a volcanic aquifer in arid climate, in the Andean Altiplano (Highland) in northern Chile. This is important for ecosystems and shallow saline lakes depending on these water systems. In order to consider deicing and rainfall contribution to recharge, an energy balance of the snow cover has been done using the code FSM and a water balance in the soil using...
The average concentration of SF6 in the atmosphere of the Northern Hemisphere has been rising since the 1970s. By comparing the SF6 concentration of groundwater and the historical record of atmospheric concentration, groundwater can be dated from about the 1970s to the present. We therefore need to collect samples using an SF6-free pump or similar device, which prevents contact of the sample...
The occurrence and movement of groundwater in hardrock terrains are mainly controlled by secondary permeability triggered by fracturing. Mapping and monitoring of groundwater resources and estimation of future resources are key issues in hardrock regions. Conventional methods used to the identification, delimitation and mapping of groundwater potential zones are mainly based on ground surveys...
Since purifying groundwater is very difficult after it already contaminated, efforts for management and preservation are highly demanded. In KOREA, Recently, Several problems about soil and groundwater have been brought up with management of livestock burial made from avian influenza(AI) and foot-and-mouth disease in 2010~2015. In accordance with relevant laws and regulations, monitoring wells...
Complex spring system was studied in Western Latvia using thermal imaging and orthophoto map. The study area is a protected geological monument containing group of springs with discharge 2-90 L/s. Freshwater limestone deposits are found there in the area of about 17 ha. The limestone was mined in 1930-ties and 1950-60-ties, but later abandoned pits were used for fish farming.
The aim of the...
In arid areas, underground reserves of water from deep sedimentary aquifers containing old groundwater, probably recharged thousands of years ago, have been recognized as a valuable additional source of drinking water. The recently discovered, deep-seated groundwater reservoir of the Ohangwena (KOH-2) aquifer forms part of the north-south trending Cubango Megafan deposited in the border area...
Turloughs, a form of ephemeral groundwater-dependent wetland, are a defining feature of the limestone lowlands of Ireland. As a protected habitat under both the EU Water Framework and Habitats Directives, there is a requirement to maintain and enhance the conservation status of turloughs and to protect them from ecological degradation. However in order to achieve this we must understand the...
Perched water tables are often associated with irrigation areas overlying a low-conductivity layer. Perching leads to waterlogging and salinity, necessitating sub-surface drainage. It also affects water percolating below the impeding layer to the regional water table, through changes in magnitude of fluxes and timing of impacts at the water table. In this way, perching affects the growth of...
In recent years, time series clustering is increasingly being applied in hydrogeology. Groundwater level fluctuations in long time series provide essential information to identify different hydrological behaviors and to validate the conceptual model of groundwater flow in aquifer systems. Piezometers also register the response to any changes that directly affect the amount of available...
Vulnerability mapping is used for groundwater protection planning, management and decision making, for the identification of areas susceptible to contamination and for public information and education. Groundwater vulnerability assessment is an important basis to fulfill with the European Union Water Framework Directive (EU_WFD) 2000/60/EC. The Portuguese law (D.L. 382/99; L. 58/2005; P....
Quantification of groundwater recharge is one of the most important tasks in hydrogeology. Many methods of recharge estimation, which can be applied in various spatial and time scales, have been proposed. The main goal of the present work is to identify groundwater recharge at an experimental site on an outwash plain, using different techniques: analysis of water table fluctuations, field...
Karstic aquifers present a complex heterogeneity in their conductive and capacitive characteristics that are evident in a great spatial and temporal variability. This fact is increased in the carbonate aquifer Pradoluengo-Anguiano (La Rioja, Spain) by the action of the tectonic structures that compartmentalize it. The Oja river crosses the aquifer draining it through some springs and...
Most of the Earth’s surface lacks of reliable precipitation and temperature data from meteorological stations. There is a need of an alternative source of data , especially in developing countries with scarcity of hydrological resources. Meteorological data is needed for the hydrogeological studies required to build infrastructures (i.e. agriculture, civil, energetic, …), implement...
The aim of this work was to identify the potentially groundwater-producing areas of an environment characterized by a multilayer aquifer in the Gar Djebilette region, far southwest Algeria. Thus, landsat 8 and Aster images were processed merged and interpreted to extract fractures from the study area. Drilling parameters were also used in this study. Their integration in two multi-criteria...
In order to improve the efficiency and accuracy of determining the hydrogeological parameters of filled fractures, the slug test models without considering or with considering the inertia effect were deduced under the condition of finite distance radial constant head boundary. The relationship between the critical distance affected by radial constant head boundary and dimensionless storage...
Objectives: In the coastal areas, which were damaged by the tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, the salinity of the groundwater rose by infiltration of seawater. Currently, fresh water layer has been formed by rainwater during these 8 years after the tsunami on the on top of the salt water layer in unconfined aquifer. The objective of this study is to clarify the...
There is no uniform definition for groundwater drought. The identification of the phenomena in literature is common defined by water deficiency in water body compared to normal water conditions (Sheffield & Wood, 2011).
Slovenia is water abundant country and therefore the usage of the term drought often brings up the dilemma. Is it correct to talk about groundwater drought in water abundant...
Recently, issues related to groundwater pollution are more than relevant. Not only megapolices, but also small settlements, are literally mired in mud, which is reflected in the groundwater flowing in the area. For a decade, we have been studying the quality of groundwater in St. Petersburg, Russia. And the results are mixed. On the one hand, industrial facilities have declined and their...
In order to quantitatively analyze the variation of rainfall infiltration recharge resources obtained by groundwater under the condition of changing underlying surface and the relationship between surface water and groundwater conversion in mountainous-plain areas, the long time series SWAT runoff model and the groundwater recharge from mountainous area to plain area in Sumihuai area of...
Saline lakes are common features of arid and semi-arid regions, where the excess of evaporation over precipitation resulted in the accumulation of salts at the land surface. Among them, terminal saline lakes represent the end-point of groundwater flow systems, where water contribution derives from regional groundwater flow (RGF) as well as from perimeter recharge areas. Terminal lakes may be...
Cities in the Southern African region face unplanned urban growth outpacing social, economic, and institutional interventions, hence providing many challenges to water professionals and decision-makers for a sustained water security. Recent drought experiences of the City of Cape Town, South Africa, has brought groundwater and its potential role in ensuring resilience to recurring droughts and...
Glacial and permafrost hydrogeology is a cutting edge topic in the past decades. As the third pole of the world, Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) is featured by its mountainous glaciers and widely distributed permafrost, therefore, can be regarded as an ideal natural laboratory to investigate how the groundwater/surface interaction and the associated biogeochemical cycling are regulated by...
Adsorption parameters used in the modeling of reactive solute transport are usually inferred from laboratory tests such as batch adsorption tests. Experimental data of adsorbed solute, S, and equilibrium concentration, Ce, are measured and then used to infer coefficients that control the adsorption through adsorption isotherm models using fitting techniques. However, as a result of the high...
Due to the large number of previous studies realized in the coastal aquifer Motril-Salobreña (Granada, Spain) exhaustive chemical control reveals the existence of a maximun relative of salinity in the groundwater in the central sector, specifically in one well located more than 1500 meters far the coastline. Water is eventually pumped from this well for supplying Motril town needs.
First...
High fluoride groundwater appears with alkali volcanic activity along Great Lift Valley in east Africa. Tanzanian people in Great Lift Valley are also suffering drinking water including high fluoride ( > 1.5 mgF/L of WHO). We investigated the groundwater and river water fluoride pollutions in Arusha area of Mt. Meru watershed and Moshi area of Mt. Kilimanjaro watershed in May, September, 2018...
In the Guadalquivir Depression, the foreland basin of the Betic Cordillera, there are large masses of Triassic lutites with evaporites that were emplaced, as an olistostrome, in the old Miocene sea. These materials, which from the hydrogeological point of view behave as an aquitard, contain brine groundwaters that upwell in numerous springs and seepages, usually of very low discharge. These...
Groundwater is the major source of urban water supply for Belem metropolitan region, which is the second largest capital of the Brazilian Amazon with a population of approximately 2,300 million inhabitants. Because hydrochemistry assessment of groundwater is critical for Belem region urban water planning, over 160 tubular wells were used for the metropolitan water quality study, encompassing...
The riverbank filtration systems are playing a major role in water supply of Hungary. The 35 -40 % of Hungary’s water supply and about 75 % of our perspective water sources rely on these riverbank filtrated water sources.
In our work we deal with the seepage conditions of horizontal wells. Nowadays this well type, developed by Leo Ranney, is the most used water extract equipment for riverbank...
The eastern zone of Terceira Island (Azores) is divided by normal faults oriented NW-SE that defines the Lajes graben. The subterranean hydrology of this depression is characterized by the occurrence of ten perched aquifers, differentiated by local faults, and by a basal aquifer, which is presumed to be unique at island.
The recharge of these water systems takes place the central sectors of...
The main geochemical characteristics of surficial and groundwater were studied in Jarales area (Cordoba Province, South Spain), an evaporite karst plateau characterized by the presence of endorheic wetlands and drained by brine springs. For four years, routine sampling of groundwater (springs and wells), wetland, and rainwater was carried out. The major ion composition of the samples was...
At the Malaga province (South of Spain) it is found the largest outcrop of peridotites (Lerzholites) on Earth. They are divided into three large Sierras: Sierra Bermeja, Sierra Alpujata and Sierra de Aguas. Although it is not considered an aquifer system due to its hydraulic behavior, there are hundreds of springs that drain the infiltration of rain and, to a lesser extent, snow. Some of these...
Uranium and radon concentration was assessed in groundwater samples collected from 40 private and public wells covering three hydrogeological units which is Jurassic biotite granite(Jbgr), Pre-Cambrian biotite gneiss(PCbgn) and Limestone(Ls). Water samples have been collected from 31 wells in Jbgr, 7 wells in PCbgn and 2 wells in Ls. Major ion concentrations and physico-chemical prarmeters...
The Southern Interoceanic Highway corridor is a toll road that links Peru with Brazil, crossing the Andes range, in the Central Volcanic Zone. Between km 231 + 700 and km 232 + 820, the road runs along the river Ollachea, through a narrow and deep canyon, with very steep slopes (45 º to 60 º). The road is often cut by landslides and rocks avalanches, which has led to project a tunnel to avoid...
Changes in the flooded surface, groundwater levels and rainfall data have been analysed in eight ponds of DNP from 1994 to 2015. In addition, a Hydrological Function Index (HFI), that relates morphological and climatic variables, was calculated for the ponds and subsequently compared.
Results showed that precipitation was 10% lower during the second half of the study period (2006 - 2015). We...
Daily hydrological balances were made in four shallow ponds of Doñana National Park (southern Spain). Results indicates that Santa Olalla pond is the one receiving a major contribution of groundwater discharge and Zahíllo is the one with a lesser contribution. Nevertheless, all the ponds could be classified as through-flow ponds. Distance to a touristic resort and altitude of the pond’s floor...
Constructed wetlands have become widespread for pesticide mitigation. Fate and transport of reactive compounds inside these systems involves complex physical, chemical and biological processes that are still not fully understood. Hydrological tracers have been proven to be cost-effective tools to investigate pesticide transport and associated risks in these environments. However, most studies...
One of the problems opposing the good management of groundwater resources, the efficiency of the implementation of boreholes and wells especially in karst aquifers where their exploitation is very difficult because of the complexity of underground hydrogeological transfers (which depend in particular on the nature of the rocks, the geological structure, the rainfall and the connectivity...
Industrial, agricultural, and domestic activities originate several environmental aftermaths. Among them, the massive increase in undesirable inorganic nitrogen (N) loads within the aquatic environment causes serious threat to surface waters. Denitrification is a crucial part of N transformation, linking organic matter oxidation to benign dinitrogen molecule (N2) production from nitrate. In...
Interactions between river water and groundwater have been used to help understand the movement of water and to evaluate water quality in the semi-arid area of the North China Plain (NCP). Stable isotopes, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochemistry were used to study the influence of surface water from the Xiao River on regional groundwater. Using a mass balance approach based on chloride...
In view of the increasing use of groundwater resources worldwide, there is a need to develop efficient methods to quantify the natural recharge rate and the time of migration of contaminants from the ground surface to the groundwater table. These two tasks are closely related, since they both require knowledge of water velocity in the vadose zone, which is generally variable in space and time....
Today, securing, utilizing drinking water reasonably and excluding water loss are drawing multi-sectors' primary international and national concern. As a result of the ruptures in aging distribution networks, a considerable amount of water loss is challenging the water utilities and authorities. The critically important issue is how to locate leakage among a colossal water mains, of them the...
In undifferentiated geologic terrains as Kintampo South District in Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana, there is the need for extensive groundwater exploration before suitable sites are selected for drilling. There is therefore the need to augment the groundwater investigation to improve the success of drilled holes and to reduce the cost of drilling unsuccessful wells. The use of the polluted...
Coastal wetlands and salt marsh areas perform a wide range of ecosystem services including shoreline stabilization, sediment and nutrient retention, high primary and secondary production, fisheries resources, habitat and food resources for terrestrial, aquatic and marine fauna, coastal water quality buffering, biomass and biodiversity reservation and recreation and tourism amenities....
The objective of this study is the analysis of stable isotopes (δ18O and δ2H) of rainwater in southwest Spain to determine the local meteoric line and to investigate the origin of the vapor masses. A 5-L polyethylene bottle containing paraffin oil to impede evaporation was installed at two samplings stations: Plaza de España located in the city of Seville...
In dewatering design studies, wells are often implemented as head-dependent (Cauchy-type) boundary conditions in numerical models to obtain a discharge given a targeted drawdown in the excavation site. In the MODFLOW groundwater modelling code, this is often done through the use of the DRAIN package. This has the drawback, however, that initial abstraction rates can be higher than what can be...
The mechanism of solute transport around the wellbore was found to play an important role in the single-well push-pull (SWPP) test, but it was grossly overlooked in previous studies. For instance, the mixing effect of injected tracer with water in the wellbore was ignored in analyzing both injection and extraction phases of SWPP. In this study, new models were developed by including such a...
The aim of this research is to define a specific monitoring system in order to investigate the hydrogeological behaviour of a low permeability heterogeneous medium in a complex landslide. Case Pennetta active landslide is caused by roto-translational slides and complex active earth slides-earth flows and mainly involves sandstones and clays.
Piezometric levels were monitored, over two...
The fractured rock mass is complex in structure and variable in morphological parameters. Due to lack of effective techniques for direct observation of internal water flow in fractures, accurate calculation of three-dimensional permeability parameters of rock mass still remains a scientific problem. The single fracture seepage is related to the crevice fluctuation and the opening degree. The...
Ground source heat pump systems are widely available as energy-saving systems for heating/cooling buildings, hot water supply, snow melting and other heat uses through heat exchanges between borehole heat exchangers and the underground of stable temperature. It has been long discussed that the size of borehole heat exchanger should be optimized in each condition of geology and hydrogeology. An...
In the Great Metropolitan Area (GAM) of Costa Rica, 65% of the population, equivalent to 1.7 million people, is supplied by the most important volcanic aquifers in the country: Barva, phreatic and the most superficial, Colima Superior, and Colima Inferior, both phreatic in some sectors and confined in others. The GAM has the highest urban and industrial growth and, in addition, agricultural...
Agricultural activities have been recognized as one of the main causes of groundwater degradation worldwide. In the European Union (EU), the Nitrate Directive (Directive 91/676/CEE) set the threshold of nitrate concentration to declare water bodies as affected at 50 mg/l. After that, the states should designate as Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZ) those areas contributing to the pollution....
We report preliminary results from geochemical characterization of a coastal multi-aquifer groundwater system, which has been carried out in the framework of the project "Modelling of the impact of the agricultural holdings and land-use structure on the quality of inland and coastal waters of the Baltic Sea set up on the example of the Municipality of Puck region – Integrated info-prediction...
The topic of density driven-flow in fractured porous media has long been widely attracted an attention of researchers for coastal environment management and protection. The complex phenomena involved such process are fundamental for seawater intrusion in coastal area, flow through salt formations and saltwater upconing under freshwater lenses. In order to protect the fresh groundwater and the...
ORIGINS OF SALINITY IN THE AQUIFERS OF SAHEL EL HAOUZIA,REGION OF DOUKKALA (WEST MOROCCO)
N. MDIKER. ; A. EL ACHHEB. ; A. YOUNSI. ; H. MARAH.
Chouaîb Doukkali University,
Faculty of Sciences, Department of Geology,
Laboratory Geoscience and Environmental Technologies,
BP:20,24000 El Jadida, Morocco
nmdiker@gmail.com
elachhebabderrahim@yahoo.fr
Elachheb@ucd.ac.ma
** National Center...
Carbonate (karst) aquifers constitute an important source of drinking water for large parts of the world population. Nevertheless, the stress on groundwater resources has increased significantly in recent decades in terms due to excessive pumping and the decrease of rainfall produced by climate change at many regions. Numerical models are important tools to improve water management. In this...
The Geological Survey of the Netherlands (TNO-GSN) provides public information on the subsurface (http://www.dinoloket.nl). Among this information are (hydro)geological models with hydraulic parametrization. GeoTOP is a voxel model of the upper 50 meters with voxels of 100m x 100m x 0.5m. The basis of the hydraulic parametrisation is a large collection of laboratory measurements of the...
The quantification of water inputs and outputs in closed basins is essential to obtain chemical, energy and water balances. In the case of saline endorheic wetlands, its environmental importance is intimately associated with its hydrological regime and the chemical characteristics of its waters. The endorheic basin of the Laguna de Pétrola is an example of closed basin where evaporitic...
Semi-arid regions are characterized by unpredictable intense but short rainfalls and long-lasting drought periods. Particularly in rural Sub-Saharan Africa, this water scarcity leads to marginalization and loss to socio-economic development induced by constant unreliable water supply. Given the limited amount of surface water, groundwater resources are often regarded as an alternative, but...
Better understanding of the interaction among biofilm, soil, and water quality may produce an efficient and economic technology for improving the water management of sandy soils. At present, most soil-water characteristic curves researches were focused on the single soil medium or the medium containing single expansive solute. However, the quantitative understanding of the way biological...
The present study is based, on the one hand, on the water level fluctuations observation and analysis in the Quaternary aquifer of Nouakchott (Mauritania) and, on the other hand, on a comparison of these variations with those of oceanic tide and rainfall. The piezometric network data shows that the flow is from the west to the southeast of the city with the presence of a dome in the center of...
Drinking water is a very important topic for people and society. Groundwater usually represents the most important source of drinking water in terms of quantity, safety and reliability. In mountain areas important sources of water supply are hosted in carbonate aquifers, in relation to groundwater quality and quantity. However, high effective infiltration coefficients and low groundwater...
The Guadalhorce River flows in the South of the Iberian Peninsula and ends in the West of the city of Malaga (Spain). Its peak discharges take place usually after important, high intensity storm events (>50 mm/day), and it reaches flows up to 1,200 m3/s, which cause a relevant rise of the river stage.
Previous researches have verified that a relationship exists between the different...
In March 2019, educational science activities were held in different Spanish regions in order to highlight the importance of groundwater resources, known as “Hidrogeodia”. This initiative is an excellent dissemination tool that promotes the knowledge and the importance of groundwater, the history-cultural sites and the heritage elements of great hydrogeological interest associated with...
The saline soil area in western Jilin is affected by water conservancy projects and agricultural activities, the leaching loss of nitrogen is serious in the unsaturated zone of the irrigation area, causing groundwater pollution.The numerical simulation of soil water and nitrogen transport is an effective technical means to understand the process and mechanism of complex nitrogen infiltration...
The Pilato Lake has glacial origin, is located in the Sibillini Mountains, Central Italy and houses a particular endemism unique in the world: the small cruostaceous Chirocephalus marchesonii.
In the context of a research agreement with the Monti Sibillini National Park, ISPRA is carrying on some studies aimed to evaluate the effects of the 2016–2017 Central Italy earthquakes on the...
Urban ponds are playing an important role not only as a nexus between nature and city residents but also as precious habitat for wild lives in urban settings. It is often the case that nutrient rich groundwater is the only available water source for the ponds. Water quality degradation due to eutrophication has often been reported in such ponds, resulting in excessive bloom of green algae...
Thus far, the condition of hard coal mining in the USCB reflects the general global trends, which prefer to limit the extraction of hard coal. Therefore new and unmined deposits are practically not opened out, whereas the extraction in active mines is either limited or nearing conclusion. Processes related to the decommissioning of mines and their total or partial flooding are currently...
Understanding the age distribution of water at key locations in a catchment is crucial to understanding water-quality dynamics. Current trends in water quality may be a combination of both historical land use change and lag times to a point of interest in the catchment. To assess the temporospatial relationship between Nitrate-N (N) concentrations in fresh waters and changes in intensive...
Water security is one of the most pressing risks facing the world. In urban areas, rapidly growing population coupled with rising incomes, falling costs, and often an absent or unreliable public water supply, mean that increasing numbers of households are choosing to install private boreholes to meet their domestic water needs. This trend is particularly prevalent in emerging global...
Climate change is driving increased variability in precipitation patterns across much of southern Africa, making it challenging to model catchment-scale water dynamics using historical data. This has implications for effective water management particularly in water scarce areas which have competing users. Agriculture is an important water user which lacks detailed records of surface and water...
Fogo is an island with a surface of around 237 km², located in the northeast of central Newfoundland. Around 2,400 people live on the island. The geology mainly consists of granites with an age of around 410 million years. Some dolerite intrusions as well as ash-flow tuffs appear locally.
It is known that a statistically high number of residents on Fogo Island suffer from cancer (personal...
Multiple geophysical techniques are used to recognize unexposed geological materials and their spatial correlation. However, the perforation of one or several boreholes most of the times is needed. In these cases, the geological formations can be identified from the drill cutting and also through geophysical well loggings using parameters such as Gamma-Ray or Resistivity. In variable density...
The most important source of water in rural Africa is groundwater, which is traditionally extracted from shallow aquifers, drawn or pumped from wells in weathered basement. To be able to explore groundwater in deeper targets different methods need to be utilised. In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, the Kimbiji peninsula in Tanzania was subject to extensive hydrocarbon exploration. Seismic...
Well radius of influence and well radius of investigation are fundamental concepts in well hydraulics and well testing. However, a large confusion surrounds these concepts. Well radius of influence is loosely defined as the distance from the well at which the hydraulic head change induced by pumping (or injection) is negligible. Well radius of investigation is a closely related but different...
Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) is being practiced for improving groundwater storage and quality. The objective of the present study is to access the impact of the check dams as a method of MAR on the spatial and temporal dynamics in groundwater quality. The present study was carried out in the Arani-Kortallaiyar River basin, located north of Chennai, southern India where several check dams...
In the last decades, numerous stochastic methods have been developed and applied to deal with geological heterogeneity and uncertainty in groundwater modelling. Many studies have been published indicating the incorporating realistic geological heterogeneity and parameter and conceptual uncertainty can improve groundwater flow and solute transport simulations and decrease prediction...
Karst environments are characterized by distinctive landforms and unique hydrologic behaviors. They are known as a major source of drinking water around the world but also as highly complex and vulnerable hydrosystems. Their complexity and heterogeneity is related to their formation and evolution which are controlled by a wide range of geological, hydrological, geochemical and biological...
Approximately 40% of the world's population faces water shortage. The situation is particularly challenging in subtropical karst areas with a pronounced dry season, where the lack of surface storage capacity and the difficulty of accessing groundwater cause serious seasonal supply shortages. Additionally, water resources in karst regions are highly vulnerable to contamination due to rapid...
The usual workflow for delivering production forecasts for oil-bearing subsurface reservoirs consists in the building of very detailed geological and petrophysical models on which fluids flows are simulated. Populating models with heterogeneous distributions of reservoir properties is a very challenging issue because of the lack of data in typical datasets, that comprise boreholes with sparse...
We develop a new numerical model that couples hydraulic, mechanical and chemical processes to investigate the dynamic influence of stress on incipient karst formation in natural fracture networks. Our geological models are constructed based on realistic fracture patterns mapped from outcrops, which capture a wide range of spatial distribution and organization of carbonate fracture networks. We...