The Ghout of Souf: An Original Hydroagricultural System

Miloudi, Abdel monem; Rémini, Boualem

doi:10.2478/gse-2018-0015

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Due to the capillarity of the cultivation method, water from the shallow aquifer can rise to the deep roots of the date palms, allowing farmers to irrigate at a low cost. However, in recent years, agriculture in Oued Souf has expanded to include other crops such as potatoes, olives, maize, and other vegetables, all of which are irrigated using groundwater from the aquifer beneath the whole Oued Souf region [49,50].…”

Section: Study Area Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Spatial Distribution and Temporal Variations of the Phreatic Groundwater Level Using Geostatistical Modelling: The Case of Oued Souf Valley—Southern East of Algeria

Barkat

Bouaicha

Mester

et al. 2022

Water

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Since the beginning of the 1980s, several regions in the northern Sahara of Algeria have been confronting the rising groundwater. Among all these regions, Oued Souf Valley represented one of the most acute affected by this phenomenon. Due to the natural topography and the insufficient/weakness of water management and miscoordination between different sectors that are represented by intensive exploitation of deep groundwater reservoirs which returns to the shallow aquifer, absence of sewage and drainage network, leakage from drinking water supply system, the groundwater has raised to the surface or near to the surface, affecting the traditional cultural environment and urban areas and degrading all socio-economic aspects of the Oued Souf habitants. To preserve the Oued Souf environment, a vertical drainage system has been constructed. Consequently, in this research, an evaluation of the vertical drainage system performance and its impact on groundwater level stabilization has been performed by mapping the water table of the phreatic groundwater level using geostatistical modeling using ordinary kriging (OK) interpolation method, which has been applied to analyze the spatial and temporal structure of groundwater level fluctuation. Meanwhile, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was applied for grouping the wells based on the groundwater fluctuations for 2008, 2009, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2021. However, the vertical drainage system reflected a significant decline of groundwater from 2009 to 2018 due to the important drained volumes through it but another rising phenomenon might be threatening the region in the near future and this is what was indicated in the 2021 groundwater level data. Cluster analysis has generated four groups based on their fluctuation means that are increasing from the first group to the fourth group ascendingly. The first cluster grouped the drains that have a shallow depth (average mean of 5.91 mbgl) and declined over the clusters. The clusters are spatially combined with significant separation of the fourth cluster which represents the deepest group (12.89 mbgl). Based on this research, several factors are influencing the stability of the phreatic groundwater level and even the performance of the drainage system, the most important of which is the overexploitation from deep groundwater reservoirs such as complex terminal and continental intercalary (in drinking and irrigation) and even the illegal use of the phreatic groundwater with important quantities for irrigation and illegal industries.

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Section: Study Area Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Spatial Distribution and Temporal Variations of the Phreatic Groundwater Level Using Geostatistical Modelling: The Case of Oued Souf Valley—Southern East of Algeria

Barkat

Bouaicha

Mester

et al. 2022

Water

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“…The housebuilt forms are similar to those found in the ksar settlements; however, they stand more individually or are attached to each other in a spontaneously formed pattern. These hamlets are located between the palm groves or Ghouts (Figure 6)-an old hydro agricultural system [37]. They are used as summer residences by the farmers for the surveillance and maintenance of the Ghouts.…”

Section: Nezlahmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wind Tunnel Experiments and Field Observations of Aeolian Sand Encroachment around Vernacular Settlements in the Saharan and Arabian Deserts

Sherzad

2022

Buildings

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One of the key repercussions of the desertification process in the Sahara and the Arabian desert is increased aeolian sand drift and sand deposition. Despite its isolated location and severe desert climate—particularly in terms of solar radiation, sand drift, and sand deposition—the region of El-Oued Souf in the Grand Erg Oriental in the Algerian Sahara has been a key cultural and trade center for many centuries. To resist the extreme weather conditions, the architecture of the vernacular settlements in the region of El-Oued Souf has unique design traits. Newly constructed buildings, on the other hand, frequently employ technologies based on models imported or imposed from climates that bear little resemblance to the desert. As a result, the inhabitants of these structures live more ‘in the desert’ than ‘with the desert’. This study investigates the impact and the effectiveness of vernacular desert architecture to resist aeolian sand encroachment problems in sandy desert areas. The sand accumulation patterns around vernacular buildings were identified and quantified using wind tunnel experiments. The size and shape of the buildings, as well as their geometric configuration within the settlement, were investigated in relation to the shape and dimension of sand accumulation formations. Field observations in north Algeria and the United Arab Emirates confirmed the accumulation patterns produced by the wind tunnel experiments. The study proposes possible design indicators for building forms to minimize the impact of sand deposition on such forms.

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“…Even though these oases are mainly characterized by a traditional layout based on date palms, they represent an agroforestry system, and the proposal mainly focuses not on the management of the oases but on the irrigation system. So, this is particularly important for water regulation, as well as agricultural products and dates, even if in the proposal palms are also mentioned in relation to agrobiodiversity and landscape [34,35].…”

Section: Europementioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of the Role of Forests and Agroforestry Systems in the FAO Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Programme

Santoro

Venturi

Bertani³

et al. 2020

Forests

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Traditional agroforestry systems have received increasing attention in recent decades for their multifunctional role and as a sustainable development model for rural areas. At the international level, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) programme in 2002 with the aim of identifying agricultural systems of global importance; preserving landscapes, agrobiodiversity and traditional knowledge; applying the dynamic conservation principles while promoting sustainable development. The aim of the research is to carry out a review of the inscription dossiers of all the 59 sites already included in the GIAHS programme, in order to analyze the role of forests and agroforestry systems. Moreover, the main traditional management techniques have been identified and briefly described, as traditional forest-related knowledge is particularly important for sustainable forest management. Forests and agroforestry systems have been found to be important or crucial in about half of the sites. The main role assigned to forests and agroforestry systems in GIAHS proposals is related to the production of timber, fuelwood and by-products for the local communities according to sustainable and traditional management techniques. Among these, they also play important roles in hydrogeological protection, water regulation and biodiversity maintenance, representing examples both of human adaptation to different environments and of resilient systems that could help to face global challenges such as hydrogeological risk and climate change. The review of the GIAHS inscription dossiers also highlighted the lack of a uniform approach in dealing with forest issues, especially for what concern the description of management plans and the relation with protected areas or forest planning instruments.

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The Ghout of Souf: An Original Hydroagricultural System

Cited by 7 publications

References 7 publications

Assessment of Spatial Distribution and Temporal Variations of the Phreatic Groundwater Level Using Geostatistical Modelling: The Case of Oued Souf Valley—Southern East of Algeria

Assessment of Spatial Distribution and Temporal Variations of the Phreatic Groundwater Level Using Geostatistical Modelling: The Case of Oued Souf Valley—Southern East of Algeria

Wind Tunnel Experiments and Field Observations of Aeolian Sand Encroachment around Vernacular Settlements in the Saharan and Arabian Deserts

A Review of the Role of Forests and Agroforestry Systems in the FAO Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Programme

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