scholarly journals Groundwater Governance in Pakistan: From Colossal Development to Neglected Management

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 3017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asad Sarwar Qureshi
Keyword(s):  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Soil Salinization ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Groundwater Abstraction ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Groundwater Exploitation ◽  
Groundwater Levels ◽  
The World

Groundwater is playing an essential role in expanding irrigated agriculture in many parts of the world. Pakistan is the third-largest user of groundwater for irrigation in the world. The surface water supplies are sufficient to irrigate 27% of the area, whereas the remaining 73% is directly or indirectly irrigated using groundwater. The Punjab province uses more than 90% of the total groundwater abstraction. Currently, 1.2 million private tubewells are working in the country, out of which 85% are in Punjab, 6.4% are in Sindh, 3.8% are in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and 4.8% are in Baluchistan. The total groundwater extraction in Pakistan is about 60 billion m3. The access to groundwater has helped farmers in securing food for the increasing population. However, unchecked groundwater exploitation has created severe environmental problems. These include rapidly falling groundwater levels in the irrigated areas and increased soil salinization problems. The groundwater levels in more than 50% of the irrigated areas of Punjab have dropped below 6 m, resulting in increased pumping cost and degraded groundwater quality. Despite hectic efforts, about 21% of the irrigated area is affected by different levels of salinity. The country has introduced numerous laws and regulations for the sustainable use and management of groundwater resources, but the success has so far been limited. Besides less respect for the law, unavailability of needed data and information, lack of political will and institutional arrangements are the primary reasons for poor groundwater management. Pakistan needs to revisit its strategies to make them adaptable to local conditions. An integrated water resource management approach that brings together relevant government departments, political leadership, knowledge institutions, and other stakeholders could be an attractive option.

scholarly journals Depletion of groundwater resources under rapid urbanisation in Africa: recent and future trends in the Nairobi Aquifer System, Kenya

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (8) ◽  
pp. 2635-2656
Author(s):  
Samson Oiro ◽  
Jean-Christophe Comte ◽  
Chris Soulsby ◽  
Alan MacDonald ◽  
Canute Mwakamba
Keyword(s):  
Negative Impact ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Climatic Data ◽  
Groundwater Abstraction ◽  
Management Scenarios ◽  
Aquifer System ◽  
Groundwater Levels ◽  
Future Evolution ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Groundwater Assessment

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.

scholarly journals Causes and consequences of long-term groundwater overabstraction in Jordan

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Brückner ◽  
Rebecca Bahls ◽  
Mohammad Alqadi ◽  
Falk Lindenmaier ◽  
Ibraheem Hamdan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Flow Direction ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Groundwater Levels ◽  
Contour Lines ◽  
Hydraulic Conditions ◽  
Groundwater Basins

AbstractIn 2017, a comprehensive review of groundwater resources in Jordan was carried out for the first time since 1995. The change in groundwater levels between 1995 and 2017 was found to be dramatic: large declines have been recorded all over the country, reaching more than 100 m in some areas. The most affected areas are those with large-scale groundwater-irrigated agriculture, but areas that are only used for public water supply are also affected. The decrease of groundwater levels and saturated thickness poses a growing threat for drinking water supply and the demand has to be met from increasingly deeper and more remote sources, causing higher costs for drilling and extraction. Groundwater-level contour lines show that groundwater flow direction has completely reversed in some parts of the main aquifer. Consequently, previously established conceptual models, such as the concept of 12 “groundwater basins” often used in Jordan should be revised or replaced. Additionally, hydraulic conditions are changing from confined to unconfined; this is most likely a major driver for geogenic pollution with heavy metals through leakage from the overlying bituminous aquitard. Three exemplary case studies are presented to illustrate and discuss the main causes for the decline of the water tables (agriculture and population growth) and to show how the results of this assessment can be used on a regional scale.

Prediction and Optimization of Groundwater Development in Beijing Plain

2013 ◽  
Vol 477-478 ◽  
pp. 878-882
Author(s):  
Hai Peng Guo ◽  
Li Ya Wang ◽  
Shan Shan Fan
Keyword(s):  
Index System ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Groundwater Development ◽  
Evaluation Index System ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Groundwater Exploitation ◽  
Groundwater Levels ◽  
Beijing Plain ◽  
System A ◽  
Development And Utilization

Groundwater plays an important role and accounts for two-thirds of the total water supply in Beijing plain. Overexploitation of groundwater has caused continuous decline in groundwater levels, land subsidence and other environmental and ecological problems. To analyze current status and predict future trends in groundwater resources, a 3D transient groundwater flow model was established and used to simulate various groundwater resources development schemes. With considering some facters such as groundwater exploitation, river outflow, groundwater levels and so on, an evaluation index system was constructed. Based on this index system a multi-object decision model was established for estimation of groundwater development schemes and proven to be very useful for scientific analysis of reasonable development and utilization of groundwater resources.

scholarly journals Deep Learning based assessment of groundwater level development in Germany until 2100

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Wunsch ◽  
Tanja Liesch ◽  
Stefan Broda
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Groundwater Level ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Groundwater Abstraction ◽  
Water Shortages ◽  
Entire Area ◽  
Groundwater Levels ◽  
The Past ◽  
Skill Scores

<p>Clear signs of climate stress on groundwater resources have been observed in recent years even in generally water-rich regions such as Germany. Severe droughts, resulting in decreased groundwater recharge, led to declining groundwater levels in many regions and even local drinking water shortages have occurred in past summers. We investigate how climate change will directly influence the groundwater resources in Germany until the year 2100. For this purpose, we use a machine learning groundwater level forecasting framework, based on Convolutional Neural Networks, which has already proven its suitability in modelling groundwater levels. We predict groundwater levels on more than 120 wells distributed over the entire area of Germany that showed strong reactions to meteorological signals in the past. The inputs are derived from the RCP8.5 scenario of six climate models, pre-selected and pre-processed by the German Meteorological Service, thus representing large parts of the range of the expected change in the next 80 years. Our models are based on precipitation and temperature and are carefully evaluated in the past and only wells with models reaching high forecasting skill scores are included in our study. We only consider natural climate change effects based on meteorological changes, while highly uncertain human factors, such as increased groundwater abstraction or irrigation effects, remain unconsidered due to a lack of reliable input data. We can show significant (p<0.05) declining groundwater levels for a large majority of the considered wells, however, at the same time we interestingly observe the opposite behaviour for a small portion of the considered locations. Further, we show mostly strong increasing variability, thus an increasing number of extreme groundwater events. The spatial patterns of all observed changes reveal stronger decreasing groundwater levels especially in the northern and eastern part of Germany, emphasizing the already existing decreasing trends in these regions</p>

The sustainability of fresh groundwater resources in major deltas around the world

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joeri van Engelen ◽  
Gualbert Oude Essink ◽  
Marc Bierkens
Keyword(s):  
Sea Water ◽  
Salt Water ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Variable Density ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Fresh Groundwater ◽  
Precise Knowledge ◽  
The World

<p>Increasing population, growth of cities and intensifying irrigated agriculture in the world’s deltas promote the demand for fresh water resources, accelerating groundwater extraction. This, in turn, leads to sea water intrusion and salt water upconing, which threaten near-future water and food security. Proper water management in deltas requires precise knowledge about the current status of the deltas’ fresh groundwater resources, in the form of a groundwater salinity distribution. However, this knowledge is scarcely present, especially at larger depths. In this research, we applied three-dimensional variable-density groundwater model simulations over the last 125 ka to estimate present-day fresh groundwater volumes for several major deltas around the world. We also compared these to current extraction rates and estimated the time until in-situ fresh groundwater resources are completely exhausted (ignoring local-scale problems), partly leading to groundwater level decline and mostly replacement with river water or saline groundwater. In this presentation we will share our findings, for example which deltas’ groundwater reserves presumably are under stress.</p>

scholarly journals Spatial and Temporal Changes of Groundwater Storage in the Quaternary Aquifer, UAE

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 864
Author(s):  
Mohsen Sherif ◽  
Ahmed Sefelnasr ◽  
Abdel Azim Ebraheem ◽  
Mohamed Al Mulla ◽  
Mohamed Alzaabi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Brackish Water ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Effective Porosity ◽  
Groundwater Storage ◽  
Fresh Groundwater ◽  
Groundwater Exploitation ◽  
Quaternary Aquifer ◽  
Groundwater Levels

To study the temporal and spatial variations of the groundwater quantity and quality in response to intensive groundwater exploitation from the Quaternary aquifer in UAE, a water budget model with a cell size of one km2 was developed. The available historical records of groundwater levels and salinity have been used to develop the water table and salinity maps of UAE for the years 1969, 2005, 2010, and 2015. The available water resources and soil information system was used to facilitate validity, cogency, and consistency of the groundwater analysis. The spatial analysis module of GIS was used to define the aquifer setting, saturated thickness, aquifer base elevation, effective porosity, and groundwater salinity at each grid cell. The obtained results indicated that the volume of fresh groundwater resources in the Quaternary aquifer in UAE has decreased from 238 km3 in 1969 to around 10 km3 in 2015. A major part of these depleted fresh groundwater resources was replaced by brackish water, and, therefore, the total groundwater storage in this aquifer has only decreased from 977 in 1969 to 922 km3 in 2015, respectively. If the same groundwater exploitation continues, the freshwater storage in the surficial aquifer might be totally depleted in agricultural areas. Most probably, the brackish groundwater resources will be exploited. In such areas, more attention should be devoted to the management of brackish water resources to avoid the exacerbation of the saltwater intrusion problem. Despite the fact that the obtained results indicate the negative impacts of the improper water resources management in a small part of the arid area, the learned lessons are valid for other arid countries, in particular, using the proper steady state boundary conditions for the initial conditions in modeling the available future management alternatives.

scholarly journals Salinisasi Lahan dan Permasalahannya di Indonesia

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Vicca Karolinoerita ◽  
Wahida Annisa
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Root Zone ◽  
Salt Content ◽  
Shallow Groundwater ◽  
Soil Salinization ◽  
Paddy Fields ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Groundwater Levels ◽  
Chemical Conditions

<p><strong>Abstrak. </strong>Salinisasi tanah merupakan proses peningkatan kadar garam mudah larut di dalam tanah sehingga terbentuk lahan salin. Salinitas adalah salah satu cekaman abiotik yang mengakibatkan berkurangnya hasil dan produktivitas tanaman pertanian. Setiap tahun luas lahan sawah yang ditinggalkan petani akibat mengalami salinisasi terus meningkat. Di Indonesia salinitas umumnya terjadi di lahan pertanian dekat pantai, disebabkan karena kenaikan permukaan laut akibat perubahan iklim. Diperkirakan lahan dekat pantai yang rentan mengalami salinitas seluas 12,020 juta ha atau 6,20% dari total daratan Indonesia. Problem salinitas pada pertanian beririgasi sering terkait dengan muka air tanah. Peningkatan kapilaritas dari muka air tanah dangkal akan membawa kembali garam-garam masuk ke daerah perakaran dan menjadi suatu sumber garam berkelanjutan. sedangkan salinitas di lahan rawa pasang surut dipengaruhi oleh pergerakan pasang surut air laut dengan tingkat salinitas yang bervariasi. Tanaman mempunyai kisaran toleransi tertentu terhadap perubahan bahkan cekaman lingkungan untuk selanjutnya dapat beradaptasi, termasuk pada cekaman salinitas. Kondisi biofisik dan kimia lahan sawah terdampak yang tidak menguntungkan tanaman tersebut memerlukan upaya pengelolaan lahan dan sistem budidaya tanaman secara tepat agar dicapai tingkat produksi yang optimal.</p><p> </p><p><em><strong>Abstract</strong>. Soil salinization is the process of increasing the soluble salt content in the soil to form a saline soil. Salinity is an abiotic stress that results in reducing yield and productivity of agricultural crops. The area of paddy fields left by farmers as a result of experiencing salinization continues to increase every tear. In Indonesia, salinity generally occurs in agricultural land near the coast, caused by sea level rise due to climate change.  It is estimated that land near the coast that is prone to experiencing salinity is 12.020 million ha or 6.20% of the total land area of Indonesia. The problem of salinity in irrigated agriculture is often related to the water table. The increase in capillarity from shallow groundwater levels will bring back salts into the root zone and become a continuous salt source.  Salinity in tidal swamps is influenced by the tidal movement of sea water with varying salinity levels. Plants have a certain tolerance range to the changes and even environmental stress so that they can then adapt, including to salinity stress. The biophysical and chemical conditions of the affected paddy fields that are not beneficial to the plant, requires proper land management and crop cultivation systems in order to achieve optimal production levels.</em></p>

Groundwater and salinization risk: tapping works and management experience in the Mediterranean Area

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giorgio De Giorgio ◽  
Livia Emanuela Zuffianò ◽  
Maurizio Polemio
Keyword(s):  
Seawater Intrusion ◽  
Coastal Aquifers ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Fresh Groundwater ◽  
Groundwater Exploitation ◽  
Saline Groundwater ◽  
The Mediterranean

&lt;p&gt;The progressive population growth in coastal areas constitutes a huge worldwide problem, particularly relevant for coastal aquifers of the Mediterranean basin.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The increasing use of groundwater and the effect of seawater intrusion makes the study of coastal aquifers extremely relevant.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are various measures, practices, and actions throughout the world for managing groundwater when this natural resource is subject to salinization risk.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This research focused on the seawater intrusion, classifies the different practical solutions protecting the groundwater through salinization mitigation and/or groundwater salinity improvements along the Mediterranean Area.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The literature review was based on 300 papers, which are mainly international journal articles (76%). The rest includes conference papers (11.8%), reports and theses (7%), and books or chapters of a book (25%).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Three main schematic groundwater management approaches can be distinguished for the use of groundwater resources at risk of salinization.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;engineering approaches&lt;/strong&gt; pursue locally the discharge increase avoiding or controlling the salinity increase.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The most recent experiences of tapping submarine springs were realized using underground concrete dams, tools shaped like a parachute or tulip, or a fiberglass telescopic tube-bell, especially in the case of karstic aquifers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The current widespread form of the engineering approach is to address the issue of groundwater exploitation by wells.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;More complex solutions use subhorizontal designs. Subhorizontal tapping schemes were realized using tunneling and/or boring in combination with wide-diameter wells or shafts.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These works include horizontal drains or radial tunnels bored inside the saturated aquifer, shafts excavated down to the sea level with radial galleries or drains realized together with weirs to improve the regulation of the discharge rate and of salinization. Application of these solutions in areas where a thin fresh groundwater lens floats on the saline groundwater, as in the case of narrow and highly permeable islands, can yield high discharges, thus causing a very low drawdown over very wide areas. These solutions were successfully applied in Malta Islands.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;discharge management approach&lt;/strong&gt; encompasses at least an entire coastal aquifer and defines rules concerning groundwater utilization and well discharge.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A multi-methodological approach based on monitoring networks, spatiotemporal analysis of groundwater quality changes, and multiparameter well logging is described in Apulian karstic coastal aquifers (Italy). The core is the definition of the salinity threshold value between pure fresh groundwater and saline groundwater mixture. The basic tools were defined to be simple and cost-effective to be applicable to the widest range of situations.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;water and land management approach&lt;/strong&gt; should be applied on a regional scale. The main choice for this approach is pursuing water-saving measures and water demand adaptation. A multiple-users and multiple-resources-water supply system model was implemented to evaluate the effectiveness of the increasing maximum capacity of the surface reservoir and managed aquifer recharge in Apulia, a semi-arid region of Southern Italy.&lt;/p&gt;

scholarly journals Study of historical groundwater level changes in two Belgian chalk aquifers in the context of climate change impacts

2021 ◽  
pp. SP517-2020-212
Author(s):  
Pascal Goderniaux ◽  
Philippe Orban ◽  
Alain Rorive ◽  
Serge Brouyère ◽  
Alain Dassargues
Keyword(s):  
Groundwater Level ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Summer Drought ◽  
Aquifer Recharge ◽  
Groundwater Abstraction ◽  
Groundwater Levels ◽  
Future Evolution ◽  
Precipitation Decrease ◽  
Chalk Aquifer ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIn Southern Belgium, 23% of abstracted groundwater volumes are from chalk aquifers which represent strategic resources for the region. Due to their specific nature, these chalk aquifers often exhibit singular behaviour and require specific analysis. The quantitative evolution of these groundwater resources is analysed for the Mons Basin and Hesbaye chalk aquifers as a function of past evolution, in the short and long terms. Groundwater level time series exhibit decreases when analysed over different periods. This is particularly visible for the Hesbaye chalk aquifer when comparing the 1960-1990 and 1990-2020 periods. Such decreases are associated to observed temperature increase and a precipitation decrease, inducing a decrease of aquifer recharge, and a probable increase of groundwater abstraction in the adjacent catchment. Past evolution is also discussed considering recent winter and summer drought events. The aquifers exhibit long delays in response to recharge events, particularly where the thickness of the partially saturated zone plays a crucial role in observed delays. Regarding future evolution, simulations of the impact of climate changes using medium-high emission scenarios indicate a probable decrease of the groundwater levels over the Hesbaye chalk aquifer.

scholarly journals Assessment of Salt Water Upconing to above Groundwater Abstraction Facilities

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Van Hoang ◽  
Vu Dinh Hung ◽  
Nguyen Thanh Cong
Keyword(s):  
Sand Dune ◽  
Salt Water ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Salt Water Intrusion ◽  
Coastal Sand Dune ◽  
Groundwater Abstraction ◽  
Groundwater Exploitation ◽  
Screen Length ◽  
Effective Role

       Abstract: A methodology for identifying salt water upconing to groundwater abstraction wells has been based on Dagan and Bear method for an abstraction point. The results of the analysis for different design cases of well field and screen length and positions for coastal sand dune aquifer in Thach Ha district, Ha Tinh province has showed that the height of salt water upconing is inversely proportional to the distance from the well screen bottom to the salt and fresh water interface. At the same time, for abstraction wells with the same depth, the height of salt water upconing as well as the time of salt water upconing to the abstraction wells are inversely proportional to the length of the well screen (i.e. the longer the well screen the less salt water upconing). The use of several abstraction wells to reduce the abstraction rate of each well (the total abstraction rate remains unchanged) has the effect of significantly reducing the salt water upconing process. The proposed methodology for salt water upconing assessment has been shown an effective role in supporting the design of groundwater abstraction facilities that are at risk of salinization from the lower part or lower aquifers for sustainable groundwater exploitation on the viewpoint of ensuring the quality of abstracted water and of protecting groundwater resources by limiting (even preventing) salt water intrusion.

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