An Overview of Groundwater Resources in Nile Delta Aquifer

2018 ◽  
pp. 3-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdelazim M. Negm ◽  
Sameh Sakr ◽  
Ismail Abd-Elaty ◽  
Hany F. Abd-Elhamid
Keyword(s):  
Nile Delta ◽  
Groundwater Resources

scholarly journals A review of seawater intrusion in the Nile Delta groundwater system – the basis for assessing impacts due to climate changes and water resources development

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 10873-10911 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. B. Mabrouk ◽  
A. Jonoski ◽  
D. Solomatine ◽  
S. Uhlenbrook
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Nile Delta ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Population Increase ◽  
Regional Process ◽  
Environmentally Sound ◽  
Resources Development

Abstract. Serious environmental problems are emerging in the River Nile basin and its groundwater resources. Recent years have brought scientific evidence of climate change and development-induced environmental impacts globally as well as over Egypt. Some impacts are subtle, like decline of the Nile River water levels, others are dramatic like the salinization of all coastal land in the Nile Delta – the agricultural engine of Egypt. These consequences have become a striking reality causing a set of interconnected groundwater management problems. Massive population increase that overwhelmed the Nile Delta region has amplified the problem. Many researchers have studied these problems from different perspectives using different methodologies, following different objectives and, consequently, arrived at different findings. However, they all confirmed that significant groundwater salinization has affected the Nile Delta and this is likely to become worse rapidly in the future. This article presents, categorizes and critically analyses and synthesizes the most relevant research regarding climate change and development challenges in relation to groundwater resources in the Nile Delta. It is shown that there is a gap in studies that focus on sustainable groundwater resources development and environmentally sound protection as an integrated regional process in Nile Delta. Moreover, there is also a knowledge gap related to the deterioration of groundwater quality. The article recommends further research that covers the groundwater resources and salinization in the whole Nile Delta based on integrated three-dimensional groundwater modelling of the Nile delta aquifer.

scholarly journals Impacts of Sea Level Rise and Groundwater Extraction Scenarios on Fresh Groundwater Resources in the Nile Delta Governorates, Egypt

Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marmar Mabrouk ◽  
Andreja Jonoski ◽  
Gualbert H. P. Oude Essink ◽  
Stefan Uhlenbrook
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Nile Delta ◽  
Saline Water ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Salt Transport ◽  
Groundwater Extraction ◽  
Fresh Groundwater ◽  
The Impact

As Egypt’s population increases, the demand for fresh groundwater extraction will intensify. Consequently, the groundwater quality will deteriorate, including an increase in salinization. On the other hand, salinization caused by saltwater intrusion in the coastal Nile Delta Aquifer (NDA) is also threatening the groundwater resources. The aim of this article is to assess the situation in 2010 (since this is when most data is sufficiently available) regarding the available fresh groundwater resources and to evaluate future salinization in the NDA using a 3D variable-density groundwater flow model coupled with salt transport that was developed with SEAWAT. This is achieved by examining six future scenarios that combine two driving forces: increased extraction and sea level rise (SLR). Given the prognosis of the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC), the scenarios are used to assess the impact of groundwater extraction versus SLR on the seawater intrusion in the Delta and evaluate their contributions to increased groundwater salinization. The results show that groundwater extraction has a greater impact on salinization of the NDA than SLR, while the two factors combined cause the largest reduction of available fresh groundwater resources. The significant findings of this research are the determination of the groundwater volumes of fresh water, brackish, light brackish and saline water in the NDA as a whole and in each governorate and the identification of the governorates that are most vulnerable to salinization. It is highly recommended that the results of this analysis are considered in future mitigation and/or adaptation plans.

Estimating regional to global fresh-brackish-salt groundwater occurrence to support future projections

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc F.P. Bierkens ◽  
Jude A. King ◽  
Joeri van Engelen ◽  
Jarno Verkaik ◽  
Daniel Zamrsky ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Nile Delta ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Variable Density ◽  
Coastal Areas ◽  
Estimation Methods ◽  
Fresh Groundwater ◽  
Surface Sealing ◽  
Groundwater Occurrence

<p>Coastal areas, including deltas, are hotspots for population growth and economic development. The rising demand for fresh water that results from these developments has resulted in increased rates of groundwater pumping and an associated enhanced risk of groundwater salinization. Future sea-level rise, climate change and surface sealing due to urbanisation are likely to further increase salinization risk in the near future. In order to correctly project the future fate of fresh groundwater resources in coastal areas under climate and socio-economic change, a correct estimate of the current fresh-brackish-salt groundwater occurrence is imperative. The reason for this is that future salinity projections are very sensitive to initial conditions, due to the large inertia of variable-density groundwater systems. Here, we make a case that estimating the current fresh-brackish-salt groundwater distribution by itself is a major challenge. The presence of conductivity contrasts in coastal areas, the past occurrence of sea-level transgressions and the aforementioned system inertia makes that traditional estimation methods such as interpolations between in-situ salinity observations or equilibrium (steady-state) modelling approaches are incapable of producing sufficiently realistic fresh-brackish-salt groundwater distributions. Using examples from the Rhine-Meuse delta, the Nile delta and the global coast, we show that advancements in airborne geophysics and high-resolution paleo-groundwater modelling may be key to providing distributions that are both realistic and accurate.</p>

scholarly journals Investigation and control of seawater intrusion in the Eastern Nile Delta aquifer considering climate change

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hany F. Abd-Elhamid
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Seawater Intrusion ◽  
Brackish Water ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Saltwater Intrusion ◽  
Nile Delta ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
And Control

Seawater intrusion is considered one of the main processes that degrade water quality by raising salinity. Over-pumping and decreasing recharge are considered the main causes of saltwater intrusion. Moreover, climate change and sea-level rise accelerate saltwater intrusion. In this paper SEAWAT code was used to study groundwater flow and seawater intrusion in the Eastern Nile Delta aquifer considering four scenarios of climate change including sea-level rise, increasing abstraction, decreasing recharge and the combination of these scenarios. The results showed that decreasing recharge has a significant effect on seawater intrusion. However, the combinations of these scenarios resulted in harmful intrusion and loss of groundwater. The soil salinity increased, which decreased agricultural production. The control of seawater intrusion and protection of groundwater resources and soil is very important. Different scenarios were implemented to protect the aquifer from seawater intrusion including decreasing abstraction, increasing recharge, abstracting brackish water and the combination of these three scenarios. The abstraction of brackish water gave a higher reduction of seawater intrusion and decreased groundwater table in the aquifer near the shore line, which protected the soil from salinity and increased agricultural production. However, the combination of these three scenarios gave the highest reduction of seawater intrusion.

scholarly journals Modeling the impact of nitrate fertilizers on groundwater quality in the southern part of the Nile Delta, Egypt

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 561-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Galal Eltarabily ◽  
Abdelazim M. Negm ◽  
Chihiro Yoshimura ◽  
Oliver C. Saavedra
Keyword(s):  
Groundwater Contamination ◽  
Nitrogen Fertilizer ◽  
Best Management Practices ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Groundwater Modeling ◽  
Nile Delta ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Shallow Groundwater ◽  
Water Source ◽  
The Impact

The use of fertilizers in agriculture in Egypt, especially nitrogen, has increased significantly in the last decade, resulting in nonpoint contamination of the groundwater resources. This study investigated the effect of using nitrogen fertilizer on groundwater contamination with nitrate in the central southern part of the Nile Delta. NO3− concentrations in shallow groundwater were assessed based on the applied urea dose (the common nitrogen fertilizer used) in year 2014. A groundwater modeling system (GMS) comprising MODFLOW and MT3D was used to simulate the three-dimensional groundwater flow and NO3− transportation processes in El-Menoufia Governorate, located in the central region of the Nile Delta aquifer. Calibration for MODFLOW was conducted to match known head configurations to minimize the water balance differences. Calibration of MT3D was accomplished by fitting the model to the measured NO3− concentrations during the year 2014. The results highlighted areas of groundwater contamination by NO3−, which occurred at shallow depths (40 m) due to the significant loads of nitrogen fertilizer application and the flood irrigation method. While the results suggested one approach was to avoid using contaminated shallow groundwater as a water source, a more sustainable approach would be to implement best management practices to reduce and control the amount of nitrate leaching into the shallow groundwater system in the future.

Spray irrigation on dairy pastures - efficient or not?

2006 ◽  
pp. 177-181
Author(s):  
S.M. Thomas ◽  
D. Bloomer ◽  
R.J. Martin ◽  
A. Horrocks
Keyword(s):  
Irrigation System ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Dairy Farmers ◽  
Large Variability ◽  
Irrigation Application ◽  
Irrigation Uniformity ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Spray Irrigation ◽  
Use Efficiency ◽  
Distribution Uniformity

Applying water efficiently is increasingly important for dairy farmers and other users of surface and groundwater resources to maintain sustainable production. However, irrigation is rarely monitored. We used a questionnaire survey and measurements of five spray irrigation systems working in normal farm conditions to make observations on how efficiently irrigation is being managed. Survey results from 93 dairy farmers showed that, although the farmers believe they know how much water is being applied during irrigation, only 60% make measurements, and about 18% measure irrigation uniformity. Catch-can measurement of irrigation application depth for the different spray systems indicated large variability in application depths during irrigation, and field distribution uniformity ranged greatly between the different systems, decreasing in the order of centre pivots >travelling irrigators> K-line. Changes in irrigation system settings were sometimes made without considering application depths or uniformity. If our five case studies are typical, they may explain the large range of seasonal irrigation amounts recorded in the survey. We recommend that farmers monitor irrigation application depths and uniformity to help manage irrigation water efficiently and to help them estimate the value of irrigation to their enterprise. Keywords: distribution uniformity, water use efficiency, catch cans

Multi-Azimuth 3D provides robust improvements in Nile Delta seismic imaging

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Keggin ◽  
Walter Rietveld ◽  
Mark Benson ◽  
Ted Manning ◽  
Peter Cook ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Imaging ◽  
Nile Delta
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