A Feasibility Assessment of Potential Artificial Recharge for Increasing Agricultural Areas in the Kerbala Desert in Iraq Using Numerical Groundwater Modeling

Abstract

Groundwater in Iraq is considered to be an alternative water resource, especially for areas far away from surface water. Groundwater is affected by many factors including climate change, industrial activities, urbanization, and industrialization. In this study, the effect of artificial recharge on the quantity of groundwater in the Dibdibba unconfined aquifer in Iraq was simulated using a groundwater modeling system (GMS). The main raw water source used in the artificial recharge process was the reclaimed water output (tertiary treatment) from the main wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Kerbala, with 20 injection wells. After calibration and validation of the three-dimensional numerical model used in this study and taking wastewater recharge rates into account, two different scenarios were applied to obtain the expected behavior of the aquifer when the groundwater levels were augmented with 5% and 10% of the daily outflow production of the WWTP in Kerbala. The model matched the observed head elevations with R2 = 0.951 for steady state and R2= 0.894 for transient simulations. The results indicate that the injection of treated water through 20 wells raised the water table in more than 91 and 136 km2 for 5000 and 10,000 m3/day pumping rates, respectively. Moreover, increasing the volume of water added to the aquifer could lead to establishing new agricultural areas, spanning more than 62 km2, extending about 20 km along the river.

Water-Saving Potential of Different Agricultural Management Practices in an Arid River Basin

“…Note: The numbers in parentheses present the year of calibration and validation periods. Source: 1 Zhang et al [52], 2 Zhang [61], 3 Zhu [57], 4 Ma et al [60], 5 Xing [62], 6 Ma [59], 7 Zhang [63], 8 http://data.cma.cn/, 9 Gao et al [64], 10 Wang [58], and 11 Wang [65]. * Irrigation schedules are different from that of the calibration period.…”

“…With population growth and climate change, the competition between food demand and freshwater availability is increasingly intense [2][3][4]. Therefore, agricultural water saving is an effective and important way to relieve water stress, particularly in arid and semiarid regions with severe water scarcity [5][6][7]. In China, irrigated land (690 million ha in 2020) produces 80% of the food but has lower irrigation water-use coefficient (0.542 in 2016) than other developed countries [8].…”

Erbil Basin Groundwater Recharge Potential Zone Determination Using Fuzzy-Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) in North Iraq

“…Additionally, it is also necessary to artificially recharge the wells with a pumping rate of 10,000-15,000 m 3 /day distributed among 20 to 30 injection wells, which leads to an annual increase in groundwater levels in the selected areas. Hassan, Nile, Mahdi, Wesseling, and Ritsema (2021) investigated the simulation work and found that injecting treated water through 20 wells would raise the groundwater table by more than 91 km 2 and 136 km 2 for pumping rates of 5000 and 10,000 m 3 /day, respectively. Moreover, this will result in an annual elevation of 7 to 20 millimeters in the Kerbala desert in Iraq.…”

Effects of Human Activities on Evapotranspiration and Its Components in Arid Areas

“…It is an important factor in evaluating the eco-environmental system stability and also plays an important role in water resource management and decision-making [3,4]. In arid areas, the ET monitoring is of great significance to the utilization of water resources, oasis expansion, and regional sustainable development [5][6][7]. ET in arid areas is greatly affected by climate change.…”