Impact of a Recharge Dam on the Hydropedology of Arid Zone Soils in Oman: Anthropogenic Formation Factor

Al-Ismaily, Said; Al‐Maktoumi, Ali; Kacimov, A. R.; Al-Saqri, Said; Al‐Busaidi, Hamed

doi:10.1061/(asce)he.1943-5584.0000886

Cited by 27 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Two types of plants were grown in our pots: rhodes grass (main fodder crop in Oman, characterized by quick growth, and can germinate/survive under hot weather) by using seeds and ivy Ipomea-Convolvulaceae (ornamental plant) by using cuttings (a good hunter for soil water, as has been tested by Al-Ismaily et al, 2014, in naturally composed CB cascades of the dam reservoir). Figure 5 illustrates the complete layout of the pot experiment and the type of plants grown in each pot, and the numeral following the labels indicates the number of the pot.…”

Section: Experimental Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil substrate as a cascade of capillary barriers for conserving water in a desert environment: lessons learned from arid nature

et al. 2014

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Interaction between soil pedogenesis, subsurface water dynamics, climate, vegetation and human ingenuity in a desert environment has been found to result in a unique ecohydrological system with an essentially three dimensional sedimentation structure in the bed of a recharge dam in Oman. A 3-D array of silt blocks sandwiched by dry sand-filled horizontal and vertical fractures was studied in pot experiments as a model of a natural prototype. Pots are filled with a homogenous sand-silt mixture (control) or artificially structured (smart design, SD) soil substrates. Rhodes grass and ivy (Ipomea, Convolvulaceae) were grown in the pots during the hottest season in Oman. Soil moisture content (SMC) was measured at different depths over a period of 20 days without irrigation. SD preserved the SMC of the root zone for both ivy and grass (SMC of around 25%-30% compared to <10% for control, 3 days after the last irrigation). Even after 20 days, SMC was around 18% in the SD and 7% in the control. This, similar to the case of a natural prototype, is attributed to the higher upward capillary movement of water in control pots and intensive evaporation. The capillary barrier of sand sheaths causes discontinuity in moisture migration from the micro-pores in the silt blocks to sand pores. The blocks serve as capillarity-locked water buffers, which are depleted at a slow rate by transpiration rather than evaporation from the soil surface. This creates a unique ecosystem with a dramatic difference in vegetation between SD-pots and control pots. Consequently, the Noy-Meir edaphic factor, conceptualizing the ecological impact of 1-D vertical heterogeneity of desert soils, should be generalized to incorporate 3-D soil heterogeneity patterns. This agro-engineering control of the soil substrate and soil moisture distribution and dynamics (SMDaD) can be widely used by desert farmers as a cheap technique, with significant savings of irrigation water.

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Section: Experimental Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil substrate as a cascade of capillary barriers for conserving water in a desert environment: lessons learned from arid nature

et al. 2014

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“…The alluvium is about 350 m thick across most of the coastal plain (MWR 1993). The study area includes a large recharge dam, AlKhoud dam, (Kacimov et al 2010;Abdalla and Al-Rawahi 2013;and Al-Ismaily et al 2013) to enhance recharge to the aquifer during heavy rainfall events. The captured flashflood water is gradually released after rain in the Wadi downstream of the dam.…”

Section: Monte-carlo Simulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the calibrated model the recharge from precipitation, Rch1, is 3.64×10 −6 m/d, from the dam itself, Rch3, is 1.0×10 −5 m/d and from the wadis varies in the range of 1.59×10 −2 -9.88×10 −5 m/d. For more detailed information on model calibration and aquifer characteristics, please refer to Al-Ismaily et al (2013) and Ebrahim (2013).…”

Section: Monte-carlo Simulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Optimization-Simulation Approach for Groundwater Abstraction under Recharge Uncertainty

Zekri

Triki

Al‐Maktoumi

et al. 2015

Water Resour Manage

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Droughts and climate variability cause uncertainties on water supply especially in arid regions and coastal aquifers' over-exploitation causes seawater intrusion. Since the rate and extent of aquifer recharge is often very uncertain, determining the optimal groundwater abstraction is a challenging task. In this paper a framework is proposed for estimating the optimal abstraction of groundwater for urban supply under uncertainty and under complex conditions of water table fluctuations and seawater intrusion. It is based on a combination of several models: (i) a Monte-Carlo Simulation (MCS) to incorporate the uncertainties in groundwater recharge, (ii) a numerical groundwater flow model, MODFLOW to simulate the effects of abstractions on the water table fluctuations and seawater intrusion and (iii) a multi-objective optimization model to generate the set of Pareto optimal solutions for each recharging scenario. Maximizing the benefit to the water utility, minimizing the average groundwater table level fluctuations and minimizing the seawater intrusion are the objectives of the model. A fast multi-objective evolutionary algorithm is used to obtain the Pareto efficient solutions for each recharging scenario. Compromise programming (CP) is then used to select the closest solutions to the ideal. Finally, the amount of optimal reliable groundwater abstraction is estimated using a cumulative distribution function. The proposed methodology is applied to a coastal aquifer in the western part of Muscat metropolitan area, Oman. The results have Water Resour Manage shown that annual groundwater abstraction volume may range from 12.7 to 18.8 Mm 3 compared to 6.8 Mm 3 currently pumped. This would result in an economic benefit of $10.5 million to $15.4 million/year. On the other hand the aquifer's maximum annual mean drawdown would range from 0.7 to 0.9 m.

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“…1, because the finer silt-clay particles are entrained by seepage into the interstitial space of the coarse sand deposited below (see Al-Ismaily et al 2015).…”

Section: Column Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infiltration into Two-Layered Soil: The Green–Ampt and Averyanov Models Revisited

et al. 2015

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Infiltration into a two-layered soil (continuum scale) is studied by the Green-Ampt (GA) model where the rate of infiltration (wetting front propagation) is a non-monotonic and discontinuous function of time. Both a constant ponding depth and a ponding level falling due to evaporation and infiltration are studied theoretically and in column experiments. The triads of saturated conductivity, porosity and front pressure in the two zones, as well as gravity, control vertical infiltration. Another model on the scale of a straight cylindrical capillary uses the Averyanov regime of a film flow, modified to include a front which is a quarter of a torus, rather than a spherical cap in a standard Washburn-Lukas model. The rate of front propagation is controlled by the Newtonian viscosity, tube-film sizes, surface tension, contact angle and gravity. For both scales, Cauchy problems for ODEs with respect to the front position are solved by computer algebra integration. In the field, pedon description and textural analysis of sedimentation-controlled layering are done. Of particular note is the thick cake deposited from a flash flood water pulse, which has very low permeability and can greatly inhibit infiltration. The infiltration rates measured by tension infiltrometers fluctuate, which is attributed to the mosaic and layered special distribution of hydraulic and capillary properties of the accrued sediments. Falling ponding depth laboratory experiments were conducted in four columns with a coarse substratum (sand) subjacent to a layer of thoroughly homogenized repacked dam silt. Imbibition front stopped at the interface between two texturally contrasting B Ali Al-Maktoumi A. Al-Maktoumi et al. strata and the "waiting time" of the capillary barrier breakthrough was measured, as well as further oscillations of the infiltrations rate.

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Impact of a Recharge Dam on the Hydropedology of Arid Zone Soils in Oman: Anthropogenic Formation Factor

Cited by 27 publications

References 45 publications

Soil substrate as a cascade of capillary barriers for conserving water in a desert environment: lessons learned from arid nature

Soil substrate as a cascade of capillary barriers for conserving water in a desert environment: lessons learned from arid nature

An Optimization-Simulation Approach for Groundwater Abstraction under Recharge Uncertainty

Infiltration into Two-Layered Soil: The Green–Ampt and Averyanov Models Revisited

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