Eco-hydrology and the effects on the national economy: case of the eastern region of Abakaliki Anticlinorium, Southeastern Nigeria

Abstract

The area was mineralized, yet it is an agricultural settlement. Histories of water hardness and local migration of connate (saline) water exist across the region. This study investigated effects of these geogenic circumstances on the economy of the region and Nigeria. Geophysical and geochemical analyses were carried out for delineation of hydrological structures relevant to groundwater movement and pollution status, respectively. Results revealed silty-sandy shale sandwiched between 60 and 100 Ω-m at the fourth geoelectric layer. This layer marks depths to water table from 7.0 to 12.0 m and formed aquitard as medium of regional stance for groundwater percolation. The aquitards confined localized resistivity anomalies of ≤ 60 Ω-m and was interpreted as various aquifers. Isolated peaks of hydraulic head up to 85 m around northwestern and southeastern ends of NW-SE-trending local water divide indicated areas of water table crops where conjunctive hydrological interaction exists between surface water and groundwater resources; each flushes dissolved elements from the calcareous sediments into the water resources. Consequently, configurations of pH, total dissolved solutes (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC) and total hardness ranged as: 6.97-7.96, 20-1399 mg/l, 30-2100 μs/cm and 8-160 mg/l, respectively. Localized concentrations of calcium, sodium, bicarbonate, sulphate, chloride, iron, manganese, zinc, lead, chromium and cobalt in mg/l ranged to pollution or alert levels as follows

Socio-economic influence of hydrogeology in regions adjoining coal bearing formation: Water policy in Anambra Basin

“…x 1.0 respectively. The level of confidence up to 95 and 99% reflect 0.05 and 0.01 respectively (Ukpai & Okogbue, 2017;Ukpai et al, 2020). As seen in Table 4, TDS, EC, total hardness (TH) and all ions of alkaline salt correlated with each other without correlating with pH and Fe, while Mg correlated across all parameters.…”

“…Such an aquifer zone is absent around Enugu metropolis and adjacent downstream areas due to argillaceous sediments that formed the underlying Mamu and Enugu formations. In these formations, composite sandy shale layers which could reflect low resistivity (Ukpai et al, 2020) were inferred as aquitards at shallow depths. Comparison of Table 1 and Figure 4 shows that most of all VES locations characterizing low resistive units with narrow thickness at the shallow depths fall within the Mamu and Enugu formations.…”

Vulnerability Assessment of Farmland Groundwater Pollution around Traditional Industrial Parks Based on the Improved DRASTIC Model—A Case Study in Shifang City, Sichuan Province, China

“…The larger the scale of the aquifer permeability is and once the pollutants enter the aquifer, the lower the chance and degree of dilution are and the higher the groundwater vulnerability is [41,42]. At the same time, some loose soil bodies must consider the impact of the grade, especially the fourth series of accumulation layers; the better the grade is, the smaller the gap in the medium is, which will increase the pollutants in the processes of transport and transfer with the aquifer medium contact time and contact area; this process reduces groundwater vulnerability [43]. According to the field investigation of the research area, as well as various geological reports and drilling data, the aquifer medium of the research area is mainly composed of sand pebbles.…”