Aquifer recharge for securing water resources: the experience in Llobregat river

2011 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Hernández ◽  
J. Tobella ◽  
F. Ortuño ◽  
J. Ll. Armenter

The Llobregat Delta Aquifer has historically been a strategic water supply resource to the Barcelona metropolitan area. The use of river water combined with the exploitation of groundwater resources during dry periods has enabled the demographic and economic growth of the Barcelona area during the last fifty years. The aquifer overexploitation has entailed the decrease of groundwater level and the penetration inland of seawater intrusion. The main consequences have been the salinization of several wells and the deterioration of the groundwater quality. In this context, aquifer recharge has been practiced during nearly 40 years with the following objectives: (i) storing excess of water for times of less water availability, (ii) introducing an additional barrier for purification of water for a specific use and (iii) preventing the degradation of groundwater resources due to overexploitation or seawater intrusion. These methods, jointly with an efficient management of well extractions, have enabled to recover groundwater quality and therefore to guarantee the sustainable exploitation of such a vulnerable aquifer.

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 644-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. F. El-Shahat ◽  
M. A. Sadek ◽  
W. M. Salem ◽  
A. A. Embaby ◽  
F. A. Mohamed

The northwestern coast of Sinai is home to many economic activities and development programs, thus evaluation of the potentiality and vulnerability of water resources is important. The present work has been conducted on the groundwater resources of this area for describing the major features of groundwater quality and the principal factors that control salinity evolution. The major ionic content of 39 groundwater samples collected from the Quaternary aquifer shows high coefficients of variation reflecting asymmetry of aquifer recharge. The groundwater samples have been classified into four clusters (using hierarchical cluster analysis), these match the variety of total dissolvable solids, water types and ionic orders. The principal component analysis combined the ionic parameters of the studied groundwater samples into two principal components. The first represents about 56% of the whole sample variance reflecting a salinization due to evaporation, leaching, dissolution of marine salts and/or seawater intrusion. The second represents about 15.8% reflecting dilution with rain water and the El-Salam Canal. Most groundwater samples were not suitable for human consumption and about 41% are suitable for irrigation. However, all groundwater samples are suitable for cattle, about 69% and 15% are suitable for horses and poultry, respectively.


Water Policy ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 344-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minah Kim ◽  
Heejung Kim

Abstract Demand for water is steadily rising due to high population growth coupled with continuing urbanization and industrialization. Limited surface water availability makes water supplies increasingly dependent on groundwater. With growing dependence on groundwater, groundwater quality and availability are becoming an increasingly important issue. Once groundwater is contaminated, pollutants rest in the contaminated aquifer semi-permanently, requiring enormous efforts and costs for remediation, apart from the fact that it is technically impossible to restore contaminated water to its natural state. Therefore, the importance of preventing groundwater contamination cannot be overstated. In this regard, it is of paramount importance for sustainable and efficient management of groundwater resources to regulate it with clearly formulated provisions in pertinent laws and regulations. Worldwide, groundwater remediation is usually done in conjunction with soil remediation. In the Republic of Korea, too, groundwater remediation is performed mostly as part of soil remediation projects. In this study, we compare and analyze two domestic laws directly associated with groundwater remediation, namely, the Soil Environment Conservation Act and the Groundwater Act. On the basis of the analysis results, we sought strategic measures for strengthening nationwide groundwater quality management.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 1952
Author(s):  
Subrata Halder ◽  
Lingaraj Dhal ◽  
Madan K. Jha

Providing sustainable water supply for domestic needs and irrigated agriculture is one of the most significant challenges for the current century. This challenge is more daunting in coastal regions. Groundwater plays a pivotal role in addressing this challenge and hence, it is under growing stress in several parts of the world. To address this challenge, a proper understanding of groundwater characteristics in an area is essential. In this study, spatio-temporal analyses of pre-monsoon and post-monsoon groundwater-levels of two coastal aquifer systems (upper leaky confined and underlying confined) were carried out in Purba Medinipur District, West Bengal, India. Trend analysis of seasonal groundwater-levels of the two aquifers systems was also performed using Mann-Kendall test, Linear Regression test, and Innovative Trend test. Finally, the status of seawater intrusion in the two aquifers was evaluated using available groundwater-quality data of Chloride (Cl−) and Total Dissolve Solids (TDS). Considerable spatial and temporal variability was found in the seasonal groundwater-levels of the two aquifers. Further, decreasing trends were spotted in the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon groundwater-level time series of the leaky confined and confined aquifers, except pre-monsoon groundwater-levels in Contai-I and Deshpran blocks, and the post-monsoon groundwater-level in Ramnagar-I block for the leaky confined aquifer. The leaky confined aquifer in Contai-I, Contai-III, and Deshpran blocks and the confined aquifer in Nandigram-I and Nandigram-II blocks are vulnerable to seawater intrusion. There is an urgent need for the real-time monitoring of groundwater-levels and groundwater quality in both the aquifer systems, which can ensure efficient management of coastal groundwater reserves.


2021 ◽  
Vol 246 ◽  
pp. 106659
Author(s):  
Sunil Kumar Jha ◽  
Vinay Kumar Mishra ◽  
Chhedi Lal Verma ◽  
Navneet Sharma ◽  
Alok Kumar Sikka ◽  
...  

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 3359
Author(s):  
Mohamed Abdelfattah ◽  
Heba Abdel-Aziz Abu-Bakr ◽  
Ahmed Gaber ◽  
Mohamed H. Geriesh ◽  
Ashraf Y. Elnaggar ◽  
...  

Recently, groundwater resources in Egypt have become one of the important sources to meet human needs and activities, especially in coastal areas such as the western area of Port Said, where seawater desalination cannot be used due to the problem of oil spill and the reliance upon groundwater resources. Thus, the purpose of the study is the sustainable management of the groundwater resources in the coastal aquifer entailing groundwater abstraction. In this regard, the Visual MODFLOW and SEAWAT codes were used to simulate groundwater flow and seawater intrusion in the study area for 50 years (from 2018 to 2068) to predict the drawdown, as well as the salinity distribution due to the pumping of the wells on the groundwater coastal aquifer based on field investigation data and numerical modelling. Different well scenarios were used, such as the change in well abstraction rate, the different numbers of abstraction wells, the spacing between the abstraction wells and the change in screen depth in abstraction. The recommended scenarios were selected after comparing the predicted drawdown and salinity results for each scenario to minimize the seawater intrusion and preserve these resources from degradation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kabral Mogos Asghede ◽  
Dawit Berhane Hagos

<p><strong>Abstract</strong>: Presently the water-supply problem in the Asmara area has reached to a critical level. Using a GIS-based method this study identifies the spatial variability of the groundwater quality in the Asmara Area which could be an alternative source. The results show that, the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Total Hardness (TH), Chloride (Cl<sup>-</sup>), Nitrates (NO<sub>3</sub><sup>-</sup>), Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Sulphate (SO<sub>4</sub>) and pH are 791.71, 569.12, 124.41, 64.46, 155.60, 46.64, 159.26 and 7.72 mg/L, respectively. Moreover, the zone map of the developed groundwater quality shows that the potable water without treatment covers about 35%, and the potable water in the absence of better alternate sources covers about 58% of the total area. The remaining, 7.04% of the total, falls under non-potable groundwater quality. The verification of the spatialanalysis demonstrates that the framework is the first one in Eritrea and could be used as a potential prediction for the assessment of the spatial groundwater quality in the countries with further verification results. Hence, the delineation of groundwater quality zones and establishment of a GIS-based database will easily help the decision makersto monitor and plan the utilization of the groundwater resources in the study area.</p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>Groundwater quality; physicochemical parameters; GIS spatial analysis; framework</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Gourcy ◽  
Klaus Hinsby ◽  
Laerke Thorling ◽  
Stephanie Pinson ◽  
Matthew Ascott ◽  
...  

<p>Denitrification potential is an important parameter to know for adequate and efficient management and assessment of groundwater vulnerability and chemical status. Denitrification removes nitrate in groundwater, but the denitrification capacity is highly variable in space and time, and it may be used up with time. When linking pressure and impact the effect of partial or complete denitrification and denitrification capacity should be taken into account. In some areas, denitrification is seen as an advantage, allowing higher N release below soil without leading to a decrease of the groundwater quality and eventually concentrations in groundwater higher than the WFD and DWD threshold values, which EU member states have to establish to protect drinking water and groundwater dependent terrestrial and associated aquatic ecosystems.    </p><p>Within the GEOERA HOVER project, the aim was to assess the spatial extent and importance of denitrification. The studied cases permitted at a first step to highlight the heterogeneities of the approaches due to the variability of information obtained i.e. the likelihood of denitrification, depth and thickness of redox transition zone, complete denitrification status. The parameters used to define the denitrification vary also from one country to another based on a large set of redox sensitive ions (Eh, O<sub>2</sub>, NO<sub>3</sub>, NO<sub>2</sub>, Fe, Mn, SO<sub>4</sub>, CH<sub>4</sub>, δ<sup>18</sup>O<sub>-NO3</sub> et δ<sup>15</sup>N-<sub>NO3</sub>, H<sub>2</sub>S or N<sub>2</sub>). Some of these parameters can be accessed by standard methods in most laboratories, used for groundwater quality monitoring, while others require specialized analysis and interpretations.</p><p>Considering groundwater and hydrogeological data available in most of the EU countries, a simple method is proposed in order to classify the monitoring points into three classes: oxic, anoxic and mixed. After being tested in different well-known areas the method will be applied in various lithologies and hydrogeological contexts The proposed method will enable the development of European maps supporting groundwater quality management across Europe.</p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-192
Author(s):  
Phil Hayes ◽  
Chris Nicol ◽  
Andrew D. La Croix ◽  
Julie Pearce ◽  
Sebastian Gonzalez ◽  
...  

AbstractThe Precipice Sandstone is a major Great Artesian Basin aquifer in the Surat Basin, Queensland, Australia, which is used for water supply and production of oil and gas. This report describes use of observed groundwater pressure responses to managed aquifer recharge (MAR) at a regional scale to test recent geological descriptions of Precipice Sandstone extent, and to inform its hydrogeological conceptualisation. Since 2015, two MAR schemes have injected over 20 GL of treated water from coal seam gas production into the Precipice Sandstone, with pressure responses rapidly propagating over 100 km, indicating high aquifer diffusivity. Groundwater modelling of injection and inversion of pressure signals using PEST software shows the spatial variability of aquifer properties, and indicates that basin in-situ stresses and faulting exert control on permeability. Extremely high permeability, up to 200 m/day, occurs in heavily fractured regions with a dual-porosity flow regime. The broader-scale estimates of permeability approach an order of magnitude higher than previous studies, which has implications for the management of water resources in the Precipice Sandstone. Results also show the Precipice Sandstone to have broadly isotropic permeability. The results also support a recent geological interpretation of the Precipice Sandstone as having more limited lateral extent than initially considered. The study shows the effective use of MAR injection data to improve geological and hydrogeological understanding through groundwater model inversion. It also demonstrates the utility of combining hydrogeological and reservoir-engineer datasets in areas explored and developed for both groundwater resources and oil and gas resources.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 1480-1490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akshay Kumar Chaudhry ◽  
Kamal Kumar ◽  
Mohammad Afaq Alam

Abstract The rising population, contamination and mismanagement of groundwater worldwide require sustainable management techniques and strategies to prevent misuse of groundwater resources especially in the semi-arid regions of the world. The aim of the present study is to assess the distribution of contaminants in groundwater at a spatial level by using a geostatistical method, namely ordinary kriging. For this, a physico-chemical parameter data set at 14 sampling locations for a period over 25 years was assessed. Three semi-variogram models, namely exponential, Gaussian and spherical, fitted well for the data set and were cross-validated using predictive statistics. Based on nugget/sill ratio, which characterizes the overall spatial dependence of water quality parameters, it was observed that, apart from nitrate, all the other parameters showed moderate to weak spatial dependence (i.e. total hardness), indicating significant influence of urbanization, fertilization and industrialization. Spatial distribution maps of all the parameters were generated. Concentration of most of the parameters reported high values in the northern region, while silicon dioxide and potassium recorded high values in the southern and central regions of the study area respectively. The study highlighted the depleting groundwater resources in various regions of the study area, indicating that the groundwater quality is in a declining state.


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