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Publication Date

2005

Keywords

artificial recharge, TDS (Total Dissolved Solid), GPI (Global Polynomial Interpolation) IDW (Inverse Distance Weighting), TSA (Trend Surface Analysis), Kriging, geostatistical analysis

Abstract

The geostatistical techniques of GPI, IDW and Kriging were applied in order to evaluate the use of these statistical approaches in GIS environment to examine artificial recharge dams and its effect on the quality of groundwater. Quantitative models were employed to investigate one aspect of the artificial dam’s role on improving the shallow groundwater quality.

The TDS was taken as the chemical parameter to validate the applicability of the geostatistical models in the four dams. The decrease of salinity of groundwater along the subsurface flow path away from the dams toward the coast, in all the prepared interpolated maps is demonstrated. The generated interpolating maps revealed a trend in increasing the TDS away from the dams toward the coast. The infiltrated water below the dams is increasing the aquifer quantity and pushing the saline water toward the sea. The continuous fresh water seep into the shallow aquifer dilutes the groundwater salinity and progressively improves its quality. The interpolated fresh water areas downstream of the dams were estimated to be approximately 57%, 19%, and 31% in Ma’awil, Samail, and Sahalnawat watersheds respectively.

The kriging and IDW methods generated similar results in the three watersheds. The kriging and IDW techniques were found to be the best when evaluating the performance of the artificial dams in coastal areas.

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