Changing climate and saltwater intrusion in the Nile Delta, Egypt

Barrocu, Giovanni; Dahab, Kamal

doi:10.1201/b10530-3

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Coastal regions support approximately one-quarter of the global population, but contain less than 10% of the global-renewable water supply and are undergoing rapid-population growth (Kundzewicz et al, 2007). The IPCC has a very high confidence that sea-level rise, spatiotemporal changes in precipitation and evapotranspiration, which affect recharge, and increased groundwater pumping will result in more groundwater salinisation in many coastal regions (Oude Essink, 1996Klein and Nicholls, 1999;Sharif and Singh, 1999;Pierson et al, 2001;Beuhler, 2003;Ranjan et al, 2006a,b;IPCC, 2007a;Kundzewicz et al, 2007;Moustadraf et al, 2008;Barrocu and Dahab, 2010;Oude Essink et al, 2010;Yechieli et al, 2010). For example, Vandenbohede et al (2008) simulated a likely 15% increase in recharge across a Belgian coastal aquifer over the next 100 years.…”

Section: Groundwater Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Beneath the surface of global change: Impacts of climate change on groundwater

Green

Taniguchi

Kooi³

et al. 2011

Journal of Hydrology

911

483

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Global change encompasses changes in the characteristics of interrelated climate variables in space and time, and derived changes in terrestrial processes, including human activities that affect the environment. As such, projected global change includes groundwater systems. Here, groundwater is defined as all subsurface water including soil water, deeper vadose zone water, and unconfined and confined aquifer waters. Potential effects of climate change combined with land and water management on surface waters have been studied in some detail. Equivalent studies of groundwater systems have lagged behind these advances, but research and broader interest in projected climate effects on groundwater have been accelerating in recent years. In this paper, we provide an overview and synthesis of the key aspects of subsurface hydrology, including water quantity and quality, related to global change. Adaptation to global change must include prudent management of groundwater as a renewable, but slow-feedback resource in most cases. Groundwater storage is already over-tapped in many regions, yet available subsurface storage may be a key to meeting the combined demands of agriculture, industry, municipal and domestic water supply, and ecosystems during times of shortage. The future intensity and frequency of dry periods combined with warming trends need to be addressed in the context of groundwater resources, even though projections in space and time are fraught with uncertainty. Finally, potential impacts of groundwater on the global climate system are largely unknown. Research to improve our understanding of the joint behaviors of climate and groundwater is needed, and spin-off benefits on each discipline are likely.

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Section: Groundwater Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Beneath the surface of global change: Impacts of climate change on groundwater

Green

Taniguchi

Kooi³

et al. 2011

Journal of Hydrology

911

483

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“…11). Likewise, it could explain the observed freshening of the shallow NDA as observed in hydrogeochemical studies (Barrocu and Dahab, 2010;Geriesh et al, 2015), since only the zone above 250 m depth has been sampled. It was however difficult to compare the observed 20 freshening with model results directly, since the time scale over which this observed freshening has developed is often unknown (Stuyfzand, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…They used groundwater dating to show that the shallow groundwater was likely recharged as fresh river water around 25 3.5 ka. Barrocu and Dahab (2010) extended this conceptual model to up to 180 ka and concluded that the saline groundwater in the north is old connate groundwater trapped in the Early Holocene, since it is freshening. Geriesh et al (2015) further supported this conceptual model with additional measurements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A three-dimensional palaeo-reconstruction of the groundwater salinity distribution in the Nile Delta Aquifer

Engelen

Verkaik

King

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Abstract. The Nile Delta is an important agricultural area with a fast-growing population. Though traditionally irrigated with surface water, the delta increasingly relies on groundwater. However, saline groundwater extends far land inward, rendering groundwater close to the coastal zone useless for consumption or agriculture. To aid groundwater management decisions, hydrogeologists reconstructed this saline and brackish groundwater zone using variable-density groundwater models with very large dispersivities. However, this approach cannot explain the observed freshening of this zone as observed by hydrogeochemists, who hypothesize that the coastal saline zone is the effect of the Holocene transgression. Here, we investigated physical plausibility of this hypothesis by conducting a palaeo-reconstruction of groundwater salinity for the last 32 ka with a complex 3D variable-density groundwater flow model, using state-of-the-art model code that allows for parallel computation. Several scenarios with different lithologies and hypersaline groundwater provenances were simulated, of which five were selected that showed the best match with the observations. Amongst these selections, total fresh water volumes varied strongly, ranging from 1526 to 2659 km3, mainly due to uncertainties in the lithology offshore and at larger depths. This range is smaller (1511–1989 km3) when we consider the volumes of onshore fresh groundwater within 300 m depth. Regardless of the variance, in all cases the total volume of hypersaline groundwater exceeded that of sea water. We also show that during the last 32 ka, the total fresh groundwater volumes significantly declined, with a factor ranging from 1.9 to 5.4, due to the rising sea-level. Compared to a steady-state solution with present-day boundary conditions, the palaeo-reconstruction improved our validation for the saline zone (5 g/L–35 g/L TDS). Also, under highly permeable conditions the marine transgression simulated with the palaeo-reconstruction led to a steeper fresh-salt interface compared to its steady-state equivalent, while low permeable clay layers allowed for the preservation of volumes of fresh groundwater. This shows that long-term transient simulations are needed when estimating present-day fresh-salt groundwater distribution in large deltas. The insights of this study are also applicable to other major deltaic areas, given the wide-range of lithological model scenarios used in this study and since many deltas also experienced a Holocene marine transgression.

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“…The problems associated with marine intrusion are well-known and have been widely studied, with various measures being put forward to reduce intrusion [2,16,17,28]. One of the solutions proposed to mitigate the effects of intrusion is the extraction of seawater near to the coast.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The fresh water-seawater contact in coastal aquifers supporting intensive pumped seawater extractions: A case study

Jorreto

Pulido−Bosch

Gisbert

et al. 2009

Comptes Rendus. Géoscience

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The construction of desalination plants along the Mediterranean coast that are supplied with seawater via pumped boreholes in coastal aquifers has given rise to novel hydrogeological situations. At the experimental site on the Andarax delta (SE Spain), a monitoring system has been set up, consisting of piezometer clusters. Piezometric level and electrical conductivity are monitored continuously at various depths in the aquifer. The data obtained allow the response of the aquifer to the intensive saltwater extraction to be assessed. Under a natural regime, the situation is highly stable and only the influence of the tides is detected. Under a regime of seawater extraction, the response becomes very dynamic, with pronounced falls in water level in the deepest piezometers and a marked descent in the position of the interface (25 m). This leads to a gradual decline in electrical conductivity in the slotted piezometers situated at the interface as a result of ingress of fresh water via slotted portions of the production boreholes. To cite this article: S.

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Changing climate and saltwater intrusion in the Nile Delta, Egypt

Cited by 9 publications

References 4 publications

Beneath the surface of global change: Impacts of climate change on groundwater

Beneath the surface of global change: Impacts of climate change on groundwater

A three-dimensional palaeo-reconstruction of the groundwater salinity distribution in the Nile Delta Aquifer

The fresh water-seawater contact in coastal aquifers supporting intensive pumped seawater extractions: A case study

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