Hydrochemical evaluation of water resources and human impacts on an urban karst system, Jordan

Abstract

Urban karst aquifers are threatened by anthropogenic activities, especially in semiarid developing countries. Recent water-sampling campaigns assessed the extent of groundwater-quality impairment in the Wadi Shueib in Jordan by a comprehensive hydrogeological and hydrochemical characterization of groundwater, wastewater, and imported water with its endmembers Lake Tiberias, Yarmouk River and Mukheiba wellfield. The results of a ternary mixing model with the mass ratios of Cl−/Br− and Ca2+/Mg2+ indicate that Lake Tiberias and Yarmouk River provide most of the imported water at the time of sampling in 2017 and Mukheiba wellfield provided minor amounts. The similarity in seasonal variations of Br− concentrations in the springs and the imported water revealed that imported water has generally a greater impact on groundwater than wastewater. However, the Br− concentrations also showed that the spatial wastewater impact is more visible towards urbanized areas due to increased infiltration of pollutants. The analysis of historical data series demonstrated the long-term urban impact on groundwater by an electrical conductivity increase over several decades, particularly since the mid-1990s, which is related to a doubling of Jordan’s population since that time and the associated urban growth. In this context, increased chloride and sulfate concentrations are noticeable due to the increased impact of more highly mineralized imported water and wastewater and decreasing recharge of low-mineralized rainwater. This study showed the hydrochemical differences in the Wadi Shueib groundwater system and serves as an example for the spatial and long-term response of karst aquifers to anthropogenic, seasonally variable input of imported water and wastewater.

Groundwater assessment in endorheic basins at the transition arid-semi-arid climates in Africa- A case study of the Batha aquifer system, NE Chad

“…To understand the chemical processes controlling the mineralization of waters of the various facies in the Batha hydrogeological system chemical data were acquired. On the other hand, to distinguish the contribution of rainfall, water/rock interaction and/or evaporation the Gibbs's plot was commonly used (Chacha et al 2018;Xanke et al 2020;Che et al 2021;Keesari et al 2021) in the semi-arid context. The contributions of others processes as base-exchange and ionic equilibrium were investigated using binary diagrams.…”

Hydrogeochemistry of Epikarst Spring During Rainy Seasons in the Ponjong Hydrogeological Subsystem, Gunungsewu Karst Area, Indonesia

“…However, with water chemistry changing over time, hydrogeochemical studies should be multi-temporal and continuous so as to provide timeseries information and detailed characterization [4]. The results can also be used as a basis for making policies relevant to water resource management, as exemplified by several springs worldwide [5,6,7,8].…”

Anthropogenic activity effect on water quality of epikarst spring in the western part of Gunungsewu Karst Area, Java Island, Indonesia

“…In order to prevent it, it is necessary to periodically test the water quality of karst aquifer water sources (Merk et al, 2020;Marín et al, 2021;Yu et al, 2022). Unfortunately, the lack of awareness by policymakers regarding land management directives gradually increases the process of pollution in karst aquifer locations, even though groundwater susceptibility studies have been carried out on pollution in several karst aquifer locations (Ravbar and Šebela, 2015;Xanke et al, 2020;Pradana et al, 2022).…”