Quantity and Quality of Groundwater in the Campo De Dalias (Almeria, Se Spain)

Abstract

The Campo de Dalías is the most economically important agricultural area in the whole of the Province of Almeria. A benign climate combined with the expertise of the market gardeners and their intensive cultivation in plastic hot-houses of out-of-season fruit and vegetables has turned a stony wasteland into an area of great productivity. The main water supply comes from a series of wells drilled into the subterranean aquifers running through the local rocks, a geometrically complex succession of Triassic limestones and dolomites, Miocene conglomerates and calcareous sandstones, Pliocene calcarenites and Quaternary gravels, sands and silts. The annual influx into the aquifers has been calculated as being around 50 Hm3, while at the present day more than 100 Hm3 are being taken out during the same period. This over exploitation of the resources is causing an inexorable descent in the water table, which is leading to marine intrusion in those aquifers nearest the sea. The main aquifer-bearing units are Balanegra and Aguadulce, composed essentially of Triassic, Alpujarride carbonates, and the Balerma-Las Marinas unit, made, up of Pliocene calcarenites. In the water from some of the wells in the Aguadulce unit more than 10,000 microS/cm have been measured at some distance from the coast, while in the Balanegra unit there are a large number of conoids below sea level, although marine intrusion is at present limited to a fairly narrow coastal strip.

Hydraulic lift and tolerance to salinity of semiarid species: consequences for species interactions

“…Sand dunes between 3 and 8 m in height formed over quaternary fossil beaches are stabilized by plants and are bisected by 1-to 1.5-m-deep valleys perpendicular to the coastline. The groundwater beneath the dune system is saline (25.3 ± 0.16 dS m -1 , soil EC; Pulido-Bosch et al 1991), but soils from the top of the dune system (0-to 1-m depth) do not exceed 0.4 dS m -1 (Armas and Pugnaire 2009).…”

An ecohydrological modelling approach for assessing long-term recharge rates in semiarid karstic landscapes

“…The influence of regional groundwater on the productivity of the vegetation on the slopes is negligible because levels are too deep (Pulido-Bosch et al, 1991). To derive equations for the upper and lower boundary, interpreted as the maximum and minimum NDVI reference values, the sample of 140807 grid cells was grouped into 46 equal range intervals according to the k value with the exception of the first and the last interval.…”

Characterization of the Salinisation Processes in Aquifers Using Boron Isotopes; Application to South-Eastern Spain

“…Three hydrogeological units are distinguished: Balerma-Las Marinas, Balanegra and Aguadulce (Pulido-Bosch et al 1991;Molina et al 2002). The first occupies the central-southern part of the Campo.…”