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Evaluation of the groundwater resources potential of Siwa Oasis using three-dimensional multilayer groundwater flow model, Mersa Matruh Governorate, Egypt

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Abstract

Siwa represents the last virgin oasis in the western desert of Egypt. Recently, serious environmental changes pertaining to the invaluable groundwater resources, such soil salinity and expansion in surface lakes have developed due to excessive uncontrolled groundwater discharge associating land development for agriculture. The present work tackles these problems through monitoring the configuration of pressure head in carbonate and Nubian Sandstone aquifers using multilayer groundwater model. Several scenarios for pumping stress are tested, and the results indicated that the optimum pumping should be close to 520,000 m3/day with important disturbances in the pressure head encountered between Bahei El-Din Lake and Zeitoun Lake. This aquifer stress is capable of lowering the pressure head to stop artesian flow and inconsequence saves large water quantities draining daily to the lakes through natural flow and mitigates the waterlogging problems. In addition, minimal changes are observed in the eastern part of the modeled area suggesting additional production wells to tap the aquifer system at this barren area and initiate new development projects. Such results demonstrate the potential of groundwater flow modeling in water resources management to define the optimum pumping scenarios capable to mitigate environmental problems.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of National Authority of Remote Sensing and Space Sciences during the field work. The innumerous RIGW and Desert Research Center employees who collected and processed the field data together with the internal reports are truly appreciated for providing well and pumping data that constitute the foundation of this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mining, Petroleum, and Metallurgical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Giza, 57797, Egypt

    Abdulaziz M. Abdulaziz

  2. Water Resources Department, National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences, 23 Josef Brows Tito, El-Nozha El-Gededa, Cairo, Egypt

    Abdalla M. Faid

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  1. Abdulaziz M. Abdulaziz
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Correspondence to Abdulaziz M. Abdulaziz.

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Abdulaziz, A.M., Faid, A.M. Evaluation of the groundwater resources potential of Siwa Oasis using three-dimensional multilayer groundwater flow model, Mersa Matruh Governorate, Egypt. Arab J Geosci 8, 659–675 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-013-1199-4

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