Integrated modeling as a decision‐aiding tool for groundwater management in a Mediterranean agricultural watershed

Abstract

A decision‐aiding methodology for agricultural groundwater management is presented; it is based on the combination of a watershed model, a groundwater flow model, and an optimization model. This methodology was applied to an agricultural watershed in northeastern Greece. The watershed model used was the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), which provided recharge rates for the aquifers. These recharge rates were imported in the well‐known MODFLOW groundwater flow model. Both models were calibrated and verified using field data. Then, the nonlinear optimization problem was solved by a piecewise linearization process, in which the Simplex algorithm was applied sequentially. Apart from several pumping and climate change sensitivity scenarios, a land use change scenario and a climate change scenario, combining the three models, were tested, showing the ability of this methodology to be used in the decision‐making process. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Assessment of future climate change impacts in a Mediterranean aquifer

“…The last decades, the intensive agricultural activities developed in the study area, have resulted in the construction of more than 500 groundwater wells used for irrigation of about 70 km 2 of agricultural land. The hydrogeological conditions and a conceptualization of this aquifer system were presented by Pisinaras et al (2013), who also indicated the high heterogeneity of the aquifer system and the relatively clear seasonal pattern of groundwater level fluctuation. The critical lateral inflows of water with high salt content from the southeastern part of the study area are also a fact.…”

“…According to Pisinaras et al, (2013), the major groundwater sink for the study area aquifer are the abstractions of groundwater for the satisfaction of irrigation needs. Corn is the dominant crop in the study area, covering 49% of the agricultural land, followed by wheat and cotton, which cover 24.5% and 11.5%, respectively.…”

“…Despite the fact that a relatively dense groundwater level monitoring network (Figure 1) was established by Pisinaras et al, (2013) …”

“…Moreover, several land use and crop management scenarios were tested. The ability of this SWAT model application to estimate monthly groundwater recharge volumes was tested by Pisinaras et al (2013). Moreover, a one-way coupling of SWAT model with MODFLOW was developed in the aforementioned study, to input groundwater recharge calculated using SWAT model into MODFLOW.…”

Groundwater Resources Assessment of Granular Aquifers in Greece

“…The unconsolidated aquifer system of R. Kosynthos involves three main geological formations (Pliakas, 1998): (i) the upper formation, 8-80 m in thickness, of low permeability, consisting of clayey sand which interchanges at certain locations with gravel sand of small thickness, (ii) the intermediate aquifer formation, 10-70 m in thickness, consisting of permeable gravel sand, considered as a shallow confined aquifer, in some locations changing to semi-confined aquifer, (iii) the lower impermeable formation consisting of clayey silt in depth of 30-90 m. In the past, a series of artificial recharge application took place (Pliakas et al, 2005) as a countermeasure to overexploitation conditions for irrigation purposes, while the groundwater flow models were developed to investigate future scenarios for the optimization of the aquifer system in question (Pliakas et al, 2005;Pisinaras et al, 2013).…”