Review: Groundwater recharge estimation in arid and semi-arid southern Africa

Xu, Yongxin; Beekman, H.E.

doi:10.1007/s10040-018-1898-8

Cited by 71 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Xu and Kinzelbach et al (2002) made an extensive survey of recharge estimation methods, with advantages and limitation of each. Xu and Beekman (2003) listed 16 methods of recharge estimation in arid and semi-arid regions, with a discussion of advantages and limitation of each, whereas Healy (2010) classified recharge methods into seven. In general, methods of recharge estimation can be divided into four categories covering surface water, unsaturated zone, saturated zone and a mix of saturated-unsaturated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition to the catchment scale, water balance models can also be performed on boreholes in an aquifer using fluctuation of groundwater level, and its relation to rainfall. Examples of rainfall-water level methods are Cumulative Rainfall Departure (CRD) (Xu and van Tonder 2001;Xu and Beekman 2003;Baalousha 2005), Saturated Volume Fluctuation (SVF) and EARTH model (Beekman et al 1996). However, these methods require a long time series to have a reliable estimate of recharge (Kinzelbach et al 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, these methods require a long time series to have a reliable estimate of recharge (Kinzelbach et al 2002). The problem with water balance methods is the accuracy, which depends on the quality and quantity of data (Xu and Beekman 2003). Another limitation of water balance models is the assumption of a uniform recharge in the study area.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using Monte Carlo simulation to estimate natural groundwater recharge in Qatar

Baalousha

2016

Model. Earth Syst. Environ.

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Rainfall is the only source of groundwater recharge in arid countries, where no surface water exists. Quantification of the total volume of rainfall recharge is essential for water resources management, development and protection, but it is challenging. Numerous recharge estimation methods can be found in the literature, but the selection of the most appropriate one depends on the hydrogeological setting of the area of study and on the available data. Qatar is an arid country as rainfall is very little and surface water is non-existent. Aquifer is the only conventional source of water, which has been over-exploited in the last few decades. One of the main country's grand challenges is to implement an aquifer storage and recovery scheme, which requires understanding of the flow regime and quantification of the natural rainfall recharge. This study uses a water balance model coupled with Monte Carlo Simulation to quantify rainfall recharge. Using a historical groundwater piezometric map, the flow to the sea was calculated by applying Monte Carlo Simulation to the Darcy's Law. The natural recharge was calculated considering all water budget components. Results reveal the groundwater rainfall recharge amounts to 58.7 million m 3 , which is close to literature values obtained by other means.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using Monte Carlo simulation to estimate natural groundwater recharge in Qatar

Baalousha

2016

Model. Earth Syst. Environ.

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“…The rainfall infiltration breakthrough (RIB) model was proposed by Xu and Beekman () for estimating natural groundwater recharge where groundwater level fluctuations originate from rainfall. The RIB i model can be defined as follows (Xu and Beekman, ):

RIB {(i)}_{m}^{n} = r ((), \sum_{i = m}^{n} P_{i} - ((), 2 - \frac{1}{P_{av} ((), n - m)} \sum_{i = m}^{n} P_{i}) \sum_{i = m}^{n} P_{t})

((), i = 1, 2, 3, \dots, I)

((), n = i, i - 1, i - 2, \dots, N)

((), m = i, i - 1, i - 2, \dots, M)

((), M < N < 1)

where r is the fraction of cumulative recharge by rainfall which contributes to the RIB (is recharge percentage); P is the rainfall, P av is the average of rainfall; P t is a threshold value indicating aquifer boundary conditions ( P t may range from 0 to P av , with 0 representing a closed aquifer, and P av representing an open aquifer system); the symbol i represents a sequential number of a rainfall record, and parameters m and n indicate the start and end of a time series length.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of Groundwater Recharge Originating From Agricultural Irrigation and Rainfall in Shyramyn Plain, Iran

Majdabady

Rasoulzadeh

Kanooni

et al. 2019

Irrigation and Drainage

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Groundwater recharge from rainfall and return flow of irrigation are essential for sustainable water resources management. There are many ways to estimate groundwater recharge. Most of them require a lot of field data, which limits their application in practice. To overcome this limitation, the rainfall infiltration breakthrough (RIB) model has been applied, which has the potential for estimating recharge using only rainfall, pumping rate, specific yield and groundwater level data in a semi‐arid region, the Shyramyn area, Iran. The groundwater recharge from rainfall (r) and the return flow of irrigation (λ) were estimated using the RIB model. Results of this effort indicated that the value of r varied around a ratio of 24.6% across the site, with a minimum and maximum of 1.1 and 27.0%, respectively, while λ varied with a minimum and maximum value of 0.0 and 33.0%, respectively. For the estimation of groundwater recharge most emphasis was usually put on recharge from rainfall. However, the findings of this study indicate that recharge from the return flow of irrigation played a major role in groundwater recharge and was 66.3% more than the recharge from rainfall. We hypothesize that this is a common process in similar areas where surface irrigation is applied. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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“…However, a wide variety of methods have been presented in the literature to estimate groundwater recharge in arid and semi-arid areas, such as water-table fluctuation (WTF), cumulative rainfall departure, rainfall infiltration breakthrough, environmental tracer techniques (e.g., chloride mass balance), and numerical modelling approaches (Ahmadi et al, 2015;Joodavi, Zare, Raeisi, & Ahmadi, 2016;Kinzelbach et al, 2002;Risser, Gburek, & Folmar, 2009;Scanlon, Healy, & Cook, 2002). With respect to groundwater recharge in fractured hardrock aquifers, specific studies include those of Rehm, Moran, and Groenewold (1982), Xu and Beekman (2003), Nyagwambo (2006), Maréchal, Dewandel, Ahmed, Galeazzi, and Zaidi (2006), Dewandel et al (2010), and Mondal, Singh, and Sankaran (2011) using WTF approach;Selaolo, Beekman, Gieske, and De Vries (1996) and Paralta and Oliveira (2005), using environmental tracers; and Paralta and Oliveira (2005) and Massuel, George, Gaur, and Nune (2007), using numerical modelling.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Groundwater recharge estimation in arid hardrock‐alluvium aquifers using combined water‐table fluctuation and groundwater balance approaches

Izady

Abdalla

Joodavi

et al. 2017

Hydrological Processes

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This paper proposes an approach to estimate groundwater recharge using an optimization‐based water‐table fluctuation method combined with a groundwater balance model in an arid hardrock‐alluvium region, located at the Oman–United Arab Emirates border. We introduce an “effective hardrock thickness” term to identify the percentage of the considered hardrock thickness in which effective groundwater flow takes place. The proposed method is based upon a Thiessen polygon zoning approach. The method includes subpolygons to represent specific geologic units and to enhance the confidence of the estimated groundwater recharge. Two linear and 1 nonlinear submodels were developed to evaluate the model components for the calibration (October 1996 to September 2008) and validation (October 2008 to September 2013) periods. Long‐term annual groundwater recharge from rainfall and return flow over the model domain are estimated as 24.62 and 5.71 Mm3, respectively, while the effective groundwater flow circulation is found to occur in the upper 7% of the known hardrock thickness (42 m), confirming conclusions of previous field studies. Considering a total difference in groundwater levels between eastern and western points of the study area of the order of 220 m and a 12‐year monthly calibration period, a weighted root mean squared error in predicted groundwater elevation of 2.75 m is considered quite reasonable for the study area characterized by remarkable geological and hydrogeological diversity. The proposed approach provides an efficient and robust method to estimate groundwater recharge in regions with a complex geological setting in which interaction between fractured and porous media cannot be easily assessed.

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Review: Groundwater recharge estimation in arid and semi-arid southern Africa

Cited by 71 publications

References 33 publications

Using Monte Carlo simulation to estimate natural groundwater recharge in Qatar

Using Monte Carlo simulation to estimate natural groundwater recharge in Qatar

Estimation of Groundwater Recharge Originating From Agricultural Irrigation and Rainfall in Shyramyn Plain, Iran

Groundwater recharge estimation in arid hardrock‐alluvium aquifers using combined water‐table fluctuation and groundwater balance approaches

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