Identifying the effects of human pressure on groundwater quality to support water management strategies in coastal regions: A multi-tracer and statistical approach (Bou-Areg region, Morocco)

Abstract

Groundwater pollution from anthropogenic sources is a serious concern affecting several coastal aquifers worldwide. Increasing groundwater exploitation, coupled with point and non-point pollution sources, are the main anthropogenic impacts on coastal environments and are responsible for severe health and food security issues. Adequate management strategies to protect groundwater from contamination and overexploitation are of paramount importance, especially in arid prone regions, where coastal aquifers often represent the main freshwater resource to sustain human needs. The Bou-Areg Aquifer (Morocco) is a perfect example of a coastal aquifer constantly exposed to all the negative externalities associated with groundwater use for agricultural purposes, which lead to a general increase in aquifer salinization. In this study data on 61 water samples, collected in June and November 2010, were used to: (i) track groundwater composition changes related to the use of irrigation water from different sources, (ii) highlight seasonal variations to assess aquifer vulnerability, and (iii) present a reproducible example of multi-tracer approach for groundwater management in rural coastal areas. Hydrogeochemical results show that Bou-Areg groundwater is characterized by - high salinity, associated with a remarkable increase in bicarbonate content in the crop growing season, due to more intense biological activity in irrigated soils. The coupled multi-tracer and statistical analysis confirms the strong dependency on irrigation activities as well as a clear identification of the processes governing the aquifer's hydrochemistry in the different seasons. Water Rock Interaction (WRI) dominates the composition of most of groundwater samples in the Low Irrigation season (L-IR) and Agricultural Return Flow (ARF) mainly affects groundwater salinization in the High Irrigation season (H-IR) in the same areas naturally affected by WRI. In the central part of the plain River Recharge (RR) from the Selouane River is responsible for the high groundwater salinity whilst Mixing Processes (MIX) occur in absence of irrigation activities.

Hydrogeochemistry of Shallow Groundwater in a Karst Aquifer System of Bijie City, Guizhou Province

“…The hydrogeochemical evolution of groundwater is typically affected by natural factors including the composition of rain water, geological structure and mineralogy of aquifer, and water-rock interaction along the flow paths [2][3][4][5][6]. In addition to natural processes, anthropogenic activities can also strongly influence the hydrogeochemical characteristic of groundwater [4,5,[7][8][9][10]. In light of sustainable management of groundwater resources and scientifically challenging in complex karst settings, understanding the dominant processes that govern groundwater hydrogeochemical evolution is critically needed.…”

Hydrochemistry and Isotope Hydrology for Groundwater Sustainability of the Coastal Multilayered Aquifer System (Zhanjiang, China)

“…To address the possibility of seawater intrusion in Naozhou island, we referred to the hydrochemistry data of Naozhou island investigated by Zhang et al [34] in March 2011 (Table 5). These hydrochemical data showed that the confined groundwater in the southern and eastern coastal area (e.g., samples 26,22,20, and 14 in Figure 1(d)) has been saline with TDS value of 1.39-10.28 g/L. This means that freshwater-seawater mixing zones in the confined aquifers of Naozhou island have extended landward.…”

“…The application of chemistry and hydrogen-oxygen isotopes can be used also to identify processes of groundwater salinization induced by seawater intrusion [21][22][23][24][25]. In addition, many 2 Geofluids other isotopes (e.g., radium, carbon, chlorine, boron, and strontium) have been used as tracers for characterizing the hydrogeological conditions and hydrochemical processes in coastal aquifers, specifically identifying submarine groundwater discharge and describing seawater intrusion [10,13,26,27].…”

Application of Dempster–Shafer theory, spatial analysis and remote sensing for groundwater potentiality and nitrate pollution analysis in the semi-arid region of Khuzestan, Iran

“…Intense agricultural activities pose a high risk for nitrate leaching into drinking water supplies (McKeon et al, 2005;Re et al, 2014;Kurunc et al, 2016). In our study, after collection and chemical analysis of water samples, the descriptive statistics of groundwater nitrate concentration were generated (Table 2).…”