Nile Delta Aquifer in Egypt

Ground water in freshwater-saltwater environments of the Atlantic Coast

“…29). Sea-level rise could affect coastal aquifers in several ways (Navoy, 1991;Nuttle and Portnoy, 1992;Ayers and others, 1994;Navoy and Carleton, 1995;Oude Essink, 1999;Sherif, 1999;Sherif and Singh, 1999;and Douglas and others, 2001). Perhaps most fundamentally, a landward movement of seawater would push saltwater zones in coastal aquifers landward and upward, which could accelerate rates of saltwater intrusion into aquifers already experiencing saltwater contamination.…”

Geological processes and the management of groundwater resources in coastal areas

“…These saline waters, which have been inferred from resistivity logs from deep boreholes, seem to extend about 100 km from the present coastline, halfway to the apex of the delta at Cairo. Because the salt-water thickness increases seaward, it has been interpreted to represent a classical, stationary seawater wedge (Sherif, 1999). However, preliminary numerical modelling incorporating former coastline changes suggests that such a wedge would not have developed since the Weichselian period of low sea levels.…”

Impact of sea-level rise on groundwater salinity at the development area western delta, Egypt

“…A mathematical formulation for groundwater-salinity-differences was quantified via numerical simulation under six key scenarios of change, scenario 1 (actual "year 2015" groundwater extraction without sea-level rise), scenario 2 (actual groundwater extraction with sea-level rise according to RCP2.6), scenario 3 (actual groundwater extraction with sea-level rise according to RCP8.5), scenario 4 (base "year 1990" groundwater extraction without sealevel rise), scenario 5 (base groundwater extraction with sea-level rise according to RCP2.6), and scenario 6 (base groundwater extraction with sea-level rise according to RCP8.5). It is concluded from the numerical simulations and analyzing the results that: in scenarios 4, 5 and 6 where, the extraction rate is relatively low, the dominant factor in groundwater salinization is sea-level rise, which will cover the low level lands (1980 km 2 by RCP2.6 and 2870 km 2 by RCP8.5) and destroy the aquifer below these lands leading to additional pressure heads at the seaside causing seawater intrusion (Sherif, 1999). On the other hand groundwater extraction rates in scenarios 1, 2 and 3 are the dominant factor in groundwater salinization at the study area, in addition to Stalinization due to the low lands level that covered with seawater.…”

“…and to adapt future measures in achieving the long-term sustainable goals. Contrary of the western Nile Delta, many other researchers have studied the influence of this phenomenon in the Nile Delta aquifer: Sherif (1999) concluded that the climate change and seawater rise will affect the groundwater in the Nile Delta aquifer in two ways. First, low lands along the shore line will be submerged with seawater and the aquifer below these lands will be destroyed.…”