The effect of hydraulic anisotropies on intensely exploited groundwater resources: the numerical evaluation of a hydrothermal transboundary aquifer system in the Middle East

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 2875-2890 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalliopi Tzoufka ◽  
Fabien Magri ◽  
Tino Rödiger ◽  
Nimrod Inbar ◽  
Eyal Shalev ◽  
...  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chloé Meyer

This report presents the activities and results of the assessment activities of the Stampriet Transboundary Aquifer System (Botswana, Namibia, South Africa) undertaken during the Phase 1 (2013-2015) of the GGRETA project. Governance Groundwater Transboundary


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (8) ◽  
pp. 2635-2656
Author(s):  
Samson Oiro ◽  
Jean-Christophe Comte ◽  
Chris Soulsby ◽  
Alan MacDonald ◽  
Canute Mwakamba

AbstractThe Nairobi volcano-sedimentary regional aquifer system (NAS) of Kenya hosts >6 M people, including 4.7 M people in the city of Nairobi. This work combines analysis of multi-decadal in-situ water-level data with numerical groundwater modelling to provide an assessment of the past and likely future evolution of Nairobi’s groundwater resources. Since the mid-1970s, groundwater abstraction has increased 10-fold at a rate similar to urban population growth, groundwater levels have declined at a median rate of 6 m/decade underneath Nairobi since 1950, whilst built-up areas have increased by 70% since 2000. Despite the absence of significant trends in climatic data since the 1970s, more recently, drought conditions have resulted in increased applications for borehole licences. Based on a new conceptual understanding of the NAS (including insights from geophysics and stable isotopes), numerical simulations provide further quantitative estimates of the accelerating negative impact of abstraction and capture the historical groundwater levels quite well. Analysis suggests a groundwater-level decline of 4 m on average over the entire aquifer area and up to 46 m below Nairobi, net groundwater storage loss of 1.5 billion m3 and 9% river baseflow reduction since 1950. Given current practices and trajectories, these figures are predicted to increase six-fold by 2120. Modelled future management scenarios suggest that future groundwater abstraction required to meet Nairobi projected water demand is unsustainable and that the regional anthropogenically-driven depletion trend can be partially mitigated through conjunctive water use. The presented approach can inform groundwater assessment for other major African cities undergoing similar rapid groundwater development.


Author(s):  
Soo-Hyoung Lee ◽  
Jae Min Lee ◽  
Sang-Ho Moon ◽  
Kyoochul Ha ◽  
Yongcheol Kim ◽  
...  

AbstractHydrogeological responses to earthquakes such as changes in groundwater level, temperature, and chemistry, have been observed for several decades. This study examines behavior associated with ML 5.8 and ML 5.1 earthquakes that occurred on 12 September 2016 near Gyeongju, a city located on the southeast coast of the Korean peninsula. The ML 5.8 event stands as the largest recorded earthquake in South Korea since the advent of modern recording systems. There was considerable damage associated with the earthquakes and many aftershocks. Records from monitoring wells located about 135 km west of the epicenter displayed various patterns of change in both water level and temperature. There were transient-type, step-like-type (up and down), and persistent-type (rise and fall) changes in water levels. The water temperature changes were of transient, shift-change, and tendency-change types. Transient changes in the groundwater level and temperature were particularly well developed in monitoring wells installed along a major boundary fault that bisected the study area. These changes were interpreted as representing an aquifer system deformed by seismic waves. The various patterns in groundwater level and temperature, therefore, suggested that seismic waves impacted the fractured units through the reactivation of fractures, joints, and microcracks, which resulted from a pulse in fluid pressure. This study points to the value of long-term monitoring efforts, which in this case were able to provide detailed information needed to manage the groundwater resources in areas potentially affected by further earthquakes.


Author(s):  
Samir A Al-Gamal ◽  

A comprehensive understanding of the groundwater dynamics of a transboundary aquifer system is highly needed for any successful transboundary cooperation policy. The present paper addresses the necessity of identifying specific cooperation problems which evolve out due to the improper handling and treatment of isotopic data of these hydro geological attributes and prevalent use patterns.


2015 ◽  
Vol 07 (12) ◽  
pp. 909-922 ◽  
Author(s):  
Balati Maihemuti ◽  
Reza Ghasemizadeh ◽  
Xue Yu ◽  
Ingrid Padilla ◽  
Akram N. Alshawabkeh

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas D. Woodman ◽  
William G. Burgess ◽  
Kazi Matin Ahmed ◽  
Anwar Zahid

Abstract. The coupled poro-mechanical behaviour of geologic-fluid systems is fundamental to numerous processes in structural geology, seismology and geotechnics but is frequently overlooked in hydrogeology. Substantial poro-mechanical influences on groundwater head have recently been highlighted in the Bengal Aquifer System, however, driven by terrestrial water loading across the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna floodplains. Groundwater management in this strategically important fluvio-deltaic aquifer, the largest in south Asia, requires a coupled hydro-mechanical approach which acknowledges poro-elasticity. We present a simple partially-coupled, one-dimensional poro-elastic model of the Bengal Aquifer System, and explore the poro-mechanical responses of the aquifer to surface boundary conditions representing hydraulic head and mechanical load under three modes of terrestrial water variation. The characteristic responses, shown as amplitude and phase of hydraulic head in depth profile and of ground surface deflection, demonstrate (i) the limits to using water levels in piezometers to indicate groundwater recharge, as conventionally applied in groundwater resources management; (ii) the conditions under which piezometer water levels respond primarily to changes in the mass of terrestrial water storage, as applied in geological weighing lysimetry; (iii) the relationship of ground surface vertical deflection to changes in groundwater storage; and (iv) errors of attribution that could result from ignoring the poroelastic behaviour of the aquifer. These concepts are illustrated through application of the partially-coupled model to interpret multi-level piezometer data at two sites in southern Bangladesh. There is a need for further research into the coupled responses of the aquifer due to more complex forms of surface loading, particularly from rivers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara Meggiorin ◽  
Giulia Passadore ◽  
Silvia Bertoldo ◽  
Andrea Sottani ◽  
Andrea Rinaldo

The social, economic, and ecological importance of the aquifer system within the Bacchiglione basin (Veneto, IT) is noteworthy, and there is considerable disagreement among previous studies over its sustainable use. Investigating the long-term quantitative sustainability of the groundwater system, this study presents a statistical methodology that can be applied to similar cases. Using a combination of robust and widely used techniques, we apply the seasonal Mann–Kendall test and the Sen’s slope estimator to the recorded groundwater level timeseries. The analysis is carried out on a large and heterogeneous proprietary dataset gathering hourly groundwater level timeseries at 79 control points, acquired during the period 2005–2019. The test identifies significant decreasing trends for most of the available records, unlike previous studies on the quantitative status of the same resource which covered the domain investigated here for a slightly different period: 2000–2014. The present study questions the reason for such diverging results by focusing on the method’s accuracy. After carrying out a Fourier analysis on the longest available timeseries, for studies of groundwater status assessment this work suggests applying the Mann–Kendall test to timeseries longer than 20 years (because otherwise the analysis would be affected by interannual periodicities of the water cycle). A further analysis of two 60-year-long monthly timeseries between 1960 and 2020 supports the actual sustainable use of the groundwater resource, the past deployment of the groundwater resources notwithstanding. Results thus prove more reliable, and meaningful inferences on the longterm sustainability of the groundwater system are possible.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanouil Varouchakis ◽  
Leonardo Azevedo ◽  
João L. Pereira ◽  
Ioannis Trichakis ◽  
George P. Karatzas ◽  
...  

<p>Groundwater resources in Mediterranean coastal aquifers are under threat due to overexploitation and climate change impacts, resulting in saltwater intrusion. This situation is deteriorated by the absence of sustainable groundwater resources management plans. Efficient management and monitoring of groundwater systems requires interpreting all sources of available data. This work aims at the development of a set of plausible 3D geological models combining 2D geophysical profiles, spatial data analytics and geostatistical simulation techniques. The resulting set of models represents possible scenarios of the structure of the coastal aquifer system under investigation. Inverted resistivity profiles, along with borehole data, are explored using spatial data science techniques to identify regions associated with higher uncertainty. Relevant parts of the profiles will be used to generate 3D models after detailed Anisotropy and variogram analysis. Multidimensional statistical techniques are then used to select representative models of the true subsurface while exploring the uncertainty space. The resulting models will help to identify primary gaps in existing knowledge about the groundwater system and to optimize the groundwater monitoring network. A comparison with a numerical groundwater flow model will identify similarities and differences and it will be used to develop a typical hydrogeological model, which will aid the management and monitoring of the area's groundwater resources. This work will help the development of a reliable groundwater flow model to investigate future groundwater level fluctuations at the study area under climate change scenarios.</p><p> </p><p>This work was developed under the scope of the InTheMED project. InTheMED is part of the PRIMA programme supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 1923.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Benk ◽  
Robert Lehmann ◽  
Kai Uwe Totsche ◽  
Gerd Gleixner

<p>With surface systems changing rapidly on a global scale, it is important to understand how this will affect groundwater resources and ecosystems in the subsurface. The molecular composition of dissolved organic matter (DOM) integrates essential information on metabolic functioning and could therefore reveal changes of groundwater ecosystems in high detail. Here, we evaluate a 6-year time series of ultrahigh-resolution DOM composition analysis of groundwater from a hillslope well transect within the Hainich Critical Zone Exploratory, Germany. We predict ecosystem functionality by assigning molecular sum formulas to metabolic pathways via the KEGG database. Our data support hydrogeological characterizations of a compartmentalized fractured multi-storey aquifer system and reveal distinct metabolic functions that largely depend on the compartment’s relative surface-connectivity or isolation. We show that seasonal fluctuation of groundwater levels, coinciding with cross-stratal exchange can substantially impact the local inventory of functional metabolites in DOM. Furthermore, we find that extreme conditions of groundwater recharge following pronounced groundwater lowstand cause strong alterations of the functional metabolome in DOM even in aquifer compartments, which usually show minimal variation in DOM composition. Our findings suggest that bedrock groundwater ecosystems might be functionally vulnerable to hydrogeological extremes.</p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wout M van Dijk ◽  
Alexander L Densmore ◽  
Christopher R Jackson ◽  
Jonathan D Mackay ◽  
Suneel K Joshi ◽  
...  

Unsustainable exploitation of groundwater in northwestern India has led to extreme but spatially variable depletion of the alluvial aquifer system in the region. Mitigation and management of groundwater resources require an understanding of the drivers behind the pattern and magnitude of groundwater depletion, but a regional perspective on these drivers has been lacking. The objectives of this study are to (1) understand the extent to which the observed pattern of groundwater level change can be explained by the drivers of precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, abstraction, and canal irrigation, and (2) understand how the impacts of these drivers may vary depending on the underlying geological heterogeneity of the system. We used a transfer function-noise (TFN) time series approach to quantify the effect of the various driver components in the period 1974–2010, based on predefined impulse response functions ( θ). The dynamic response to abstraction, summarized by the zeroth moment of the response M0, is spatially variable but is generally large across the proximal and middle parts of the study area, particularly where abstraction is high but alluvial aquifer bodies are less abundant. In contrast, the precipitation response is rapid and fairly uniform across the study area. At larger distances from the Himalayan front, observed groundwater level rise can be explained predominantly by canal irrigation. We conclude that the geological heterogeneity of the aquifer system, which is imposed by the geomorphic setting, affects the response of the aquifer system to the imposed drivers. This heterogeneity thus provides a useful framework that can guide mitigation efforts; for example, efforts to decrease abstraction rates should be focused on areas with thinner and less abundant aquifer bodies.


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