Recharge estimation in semi-arid karst catchments: Central West Bank, Palestine

Jebreen, Hassan; Wohnlich, Stefan; Wisotzky, Frank; Banning, Andre; Niedermayr, Andrea; Ghanem, Marwan

doi:10.1007/s00767-017-0376-x

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The estimated recharge ranges between 111-211 mm/year, representing 19% to 37% of the long-term mean annual rainfall. In addition, the mean annual actual evapotranspiration was about 66-70% of precipitation [12]. The topographic gradient from the mountain range (highest elevation: 975 m.a.s.l.)…”

Section: Geological and Hydrogeological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To date, the region has been studied mainly for its hydrochemistry [4,7,8]; its hydrogeology and geology have also been investigated [9][10][11]. Although the recharge and flow systems were investigated [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19], no detailed mineralogical and geochemical study to investigate the composition and geological evolution of the sediments has been carried out. The current study characterizes for the first time the elemental composition (including rare earth elements) and mineralogy of sediments in Central West Bank (CWB).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The hydrogeological setting of the Western Aquifer Basin (WAB) aquifer[12].1. Lower aquifer: Albian-age Beit Kahil formation with 340-m thickness.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Influence of Karst Aquifer Mineralogy and Geochemistry on Groundwater Characteristics: West Bank, Palestine

Jebreen

Banning

Wohnlich

et al. 2018

Water

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This work reports, for the first time, the mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of karst aquifers in the Central West Bank (CWB) catchment in Palestine. It provides an integrated study approach by correlating the geochemistry of the lithology and hydrochemical data of groundwater samples. Mineralogical analysis showed that all of the samples were dominantly composed of either calcite CaCO 3 (5-100 wt. %) or dolomite CaMg(CO 3) 2 (4-100 wt. %), with minor amounts of quartz and feldspar, which is supported by the inorganic carbon content (9-13 wt. %) and hydrochemical composition of the spring water samples. The whole-rock geochemical data indicated that the samples have low contents of trace elements and transition metals. In contrast, the concentrations of alkaline earth elements (Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba) and Mn were high in the rock and groundwater samples. Generally, the trace elements of rock samples with concentrations >10 ppm included Sr (17-330 ppm), Mn (17-367 ppm), Ba (2-32 ppm), W (5-37 ppm), Cr (3-23 ppm), Zn (1.7-28 ppm), V (4-23 ppm), and Zr (1-22 ppm), while the concentrations of all the other trace elements was below 10 ppm. Ionic ratios and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) suggested that the chemical evolution of groundwater was mainly related to the geogenic (rock-water) interaction in the study area. This is clear in the alkaline earth elements (Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba) ratios, especially regarding the Sr values. The calcite rock samples had higher Sr (mean 160 ppm, n = 11) than those of the dolomite rocks (mean 76 ppm, n = 9).

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Section: Geological and Hydrogeological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Influence of Karst Aquifer Mineralogy and Geochemistry on Groundwater Characteristics: West Bank, Palestine

Jebreen

Banning

Wohnlich

et al. 2018

Water

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“…During the last two decades, other studies of field-based and empirical investigations on sub-catchment, local and plot-scales were conducted. Chloride mass balance calculations were carried out in the adjacent Eastern Aquifer Basin (EAB) (Marei et al, 2010;Schmidt et al, 2013;Aliewi et al, 2021) and in the central WAB (Jebreen et al, 2018). However, they contributed little to the spatial differentiation of distributed recharge processes, let alone, its regionalisation.…”

Section: Western Aquifer Basinoverview and Existing Recharge Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial distribution of groundwater recharge, based on regionalized soil moisture models in Wadi Natuf karst aquifers, Palestine

Messerschmid

Aliewi

2021

Preprint

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Abstract. While groundwater recharge is considered fundamental to hydrogeological insights and basin management, only relatively little attention has been paid to its spatial distribution. And in ungauged catchments it has rarely been quantified, especially on the catchment scale. For the first time, this study attempts such analysis, in a previously ungauged basin. Our work based on field data of several soil moisture stations, which represent five geological formations of karst rock in Wadi Natuf, a semi-arid to sub-humid Mediterranean catchment in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. For that purpose, recharge was conceptualized as deep percolation from soil moisture under saturation excess conditions, which had been modelled parsimoniously and separately with different formation-specific recharge rates. For the regionalisation, inductive methods of empirical field-measurements and observations were combined with deductive approaches of extrapolation, following the recommendations for hydrological Prediction in Ungauged Basins (PUB), by the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS). Our results show an average annual recharge estimation in Wadi Natuf Catchment (103 km2), ranging from 24 to 28 Mm3/yr, equivalent to recharge coefficients (RC) of 39–46 % of average annual precipitation. Thus, for the first time, formation-specific RC-values could be derived, assessed and quantified in their spatial distribution, and by creating a schematic conceptual basin classification framework for regionalisation that is also applicable in many comparable sedimentary basins in the Mediterranean and worldwide.

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“…In favorable circumstances, geochemical-based methods have proven to be especially useful for estimating recharge rates. In areas where the geologic and anthropogenic sources of chloride in the subsurface are negligible, natural chloride in the vadose zone and groundwater, deriving from atmospheric deposition, has been used to calculate long-term site-wide (Wood and Sanford, 1995;Gebru and Tesfahunegn, 2018;Jebreen et al, 2018) and location-specific recharge values (Heilweil et al, 2006;Huang et al, 2018) to determine mechanisms of flow in the vadose zone (Sukhija et al, 2003;Li et al, 2017) and to evaluate the effects of environmental changes on recharge process (Scanlon et al, 2007;Cartwright et al, 2007). Elevated tritium in precipitation derived from atmospheric releases during nuclear tests in the 1960's and transported into the subsurface has also been an invaluable tracer to determine modern recharge and mechanisms of flow in both vadose and groundwater zones (Cook and Böhlke, 2000;De Vries and Simmers, 2002).…”

Section: Pagementioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal variability of groundwater recharge in a sandstone aquifer in a semi-arid region

Manna¹,

Murray²,

Abbey³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Abstract. With the aim to understand the spatial and temporal variability of groundwater recharge, a high-resolution, spatially-distributed numerical model (MIKE SHE) representing surface water and groundwater was used to simulate responses to precipitation in a 2.16 km2 upland catchment on fractured sandstone near Los Angeles, California. Exceptionally high temporal and spatial resolution was used for this catchment modeling: an hourly time-step, a 20 × 20 meter grid in the horizontal plane and 240 numerical layers distributed vertically within the thick vadose zone and in the upper part of the groundwater zone. The finest-practical spatial and temporal resolution were selected to accommodate the large degree of surface and subsurface variability of catchment features. Physical property values for the different lithologies were assigned based on previous on-site investigations whereas the parameters controlling streamflow and evapotranspiration were derived from literature information. The calibration of streamflow at the outfall and of transient and average hydraulic head provided confidence in the reasonableness of these input values and in the ability of the model to reproduce observed processes. Confidence in the calibrated model was enhanced by validation through, (i) comparison of simulated average recharge to estimates based on the applications of the chloride mass-balance method from data from the groundwater and vadose zones within and beyond the catchment (Manna et al., 2016; Manna et al., 2017) and, (ii) comparison of the water isotope signature (18O and 2H) in shallow groundwater to the variability of isotope signatures for precipitation events over an annual cycle. The average simulated recharge across the catchment for the period 1995–2014 is 16 mm y−1 (4 % of the average annual precipitation), which is consistent with previous estimates obtained by using the chloride mass balance method (4.2 % of the average precipitation). However, one of the most unexpected results was that local recharge was simulated to vary from 0 to > 1000 mm y−1 due to episodic precipitation and overland runoff effects. This recharge occurs episodically with the major flux events at the bottom of the evapotranspiration zone, as simulated by MIKE SHE and confirmed by the isotope signatures, occurring only at the end of the rainy season. This is the first study that combines MIKE SHE simulations with the analysis of water isotopes in groundwater and rainfall to determine the timing of recharge processes in semi-arid regions. The study advances the understanding of recharge and unsaturated flow processes in semi-arid regions and enhances our ability to predict the effects of surface and subsurface features on recharge rates. This is crucial in highly heterogeneous contaminated sites because different contaminant source areas have widely varying recharge and, hence, groundwater fluxes impacting their mobility.

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Recharge estimation in semi-arid karst catchments: Central West Bank, Palestine

Cited by 13 publications

References 33 publications

The Influence of Karst Aquifer Mineralogy and Geochemistry on Groundwater Characteristics: West Bank, Palestine

The Influence of Karst Aquifer Mineralogy and Geochemistry on Groundwater Characteristics: West Bank, Palestine

Spatial distribution of groundwater recharge, based on regionalized soil moisture models in Wadi Natuf karst aquifers, Palestine

Spatial and temporal variability of groundwater recharge in a sandstone aquifer in a semi-arid region

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