China's Transboundary Groundwater Cooperation in the Context of Emerging Transboundary Aquifer Law

China shares more than 20 transboundary aquifers with its coaquifer states, but they have not exploited their transboundary groundwater resources, and these resources have not been governed by any international agreements. Given the close interaction between surface water and groundwater, and the growing demands for transboundary groundwater in China and its coaquifer states, there is increasing necessity for these countries to undertake international cooperation on this issue. This article overviews China's transboundary aquifers, reviews the duty to cooperate on China's transboundary groundwater as well as the emerging transboundary aquifer law. It concludes by providing some proposals on international cooperation in this context, based on the two theories of international water law—limited territorial sovereignty and common interests, taking into account the practicability of China's cooperation with its coaquifer states. The author suggests that China cooperates with its coaquifer states through such means as the exchange of data and information, joint monitoring, the conclusion of bilateral or multilateral aquifer agreements, the establishment of joint management mechanisms, and international technical cooperation.     

Transboundary problems associated with groundwater exploitation near the Russian-Estonian state boundary: Case study of the Lomonosovskii-Voronkovskii aquifer

Hydrogeological information for the territories of the Republic of Estonia, Leningrad province, and northern Pskov province of the Russian Federation is generalized. A unified groundwater flow model was developed for the Lomonosov-Voronkovskii aquifer, including its Estonian part is developed. The methodological approaches for solving transboundary problems as applied to groundwater are determined. The results of studying transboundary hydrodynamic interaction in Lomonosov-Voronkovskii aquifer in the Russian-Estonian boundary area are given. The direction of undisturbed groundwater flow is determined, and changes caused by the exploitation of the aquifer are assessed.     

Numerical groundwater modelling as an effective tool for management of water resources in arid areas

Abstract

Groundwater, possibly of fossil origin, is used for water supply in some arid regions where the replenishment of groundwater by precipitation is low. Numerical modelling is a helpful tool in the assessment of groundwater resources and analysis of future exploitation scenarios. To quantify the groundwater resources of the East Owienat area in the southwest of the Western Desert, Egypt, the present study assesses the groundwater resources management of the Nubian aquifer. Groundwater withdrawals have increased in this area, resulting in a disturbance of the aquifer’s natural equilibrium, and the large-scale and ongoing depletion of this critical water reserve. Negative impacts, such as a decline in water levels and increase in salinity, have been experienced. The methodology includes application of numerical groundwater modelling in steady and transient states under different measured and abstraction scenarios. The numerical simulation model developed was applied to assess the responses of the Nubian aquifer water level under different pumping scenarios during the next 30 years. Groundwater management scenarios are evaluated to find an optimal management solution to satisfy future needs. Based on analysis of three different development schemes that were formulated to predict the future response of the aquifer under long-term water stress, a gradual increase in groundwater pumping to 150% of present levels should be adopted for protection and better management of the aquifer. Similar techniques could be used to improve groundwater management in other parts of the country, as well as other similar arid regions.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Associate editor X. Chen     

Prediction of the effect of water supplying from Shirindare dam on the Bojnourd aquifer using MODFLOW2000

In recent years, the water demand has been increasing considerably in Bojnourd, capital of Northern Khorasan province in NE of Iran, and the extracted water from Bojnourd alluvial aquifer, with an area of 65 km², is not sufficient for residents. The required water is going to be supplied from Shirindare dam, located out of Bojnourd aquifer’s catchment area; therefore, the groundwater levels will rise in some parts of the aquifer, due to the return flow of supplied water, which will cause serious problems for the city. In this paper, the groundwater flow system of Bojnourd aquifer has been numerically simulated using MODFLOW code in GMS interface. The model, primarily, was calibrated for a steady state condition for the mean values of oneyear period (Sep. 2009 to Sep. 2010) which has a steady condition with low stresses on the aquifer. Then the model was run/calibrated for transient conditions for a two year period (Sep. 2007 to Sep. 2009). After determining the hydraulic properties of the aquifer and confirming their validity, different management scenarios, were applied to the model. Results reveal that groundwater levels in the urban area will rise by over 3 m, by infiltrating 40% of supplied water from the Shirindare dam into the aquifer. To manage the rising water levels, two different management scenarios were applied to the aquifer model. In doing so and with proper management of aquifer exploitation during critical situations, not only will the groundwater level drop; also the city of Bojnourd can develop urban landscaping by constructing sports/cultural camping area using the extra pumped water.     

Hydrogeological characterization of groundwater storage and drainage in an alpine karst aquifer (the Kanin massif,Julian Alps)

The Kanin massif is an important trans‐boundary aquifer, which stretches between Slovenia and Italy. The groundwater is only partially exploited, mainly for water supply, but the aquifer exhibits great potential for future exploitation. Since no consistent regional overview of the hydrogeological functioning of the Kanin massif was available, the decision was made to perform a study of this area, using a pragmatic approach based on 3D geological and hydrogeological modelling. The so‐called KARSYS approach was applied, with the aim of characterizing the groundwater reserves within this karst massif and of locating the main drainage axes that carry groundwater from the recharge areas to the respective springs. Delineation of the catchment areas of the corresponding springs was carried out, and some new explanations were obtained, especially with regard to the Mo?nica spring, which is located in Slovenia and forms a potential source of drinking water. It was found that this spring's catchment area extends as far as the Italian ski resort of Sella Nevea. The conceptual model also provides a possible explanation about the underground drainage towards the Boka spring and waterfall, which has been a challenge for decades. This new explanation is based on the existence of a perched groundwater body that feeds the Boka spring via a system of conduits. Despite some limitations, the results, which consist of a visualization of the underground drainage and groundwater storage within the Kanin massif, can be used as a basis for planning the sustainable management of karst waters in the studied area. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impacts of Seasonal Pumping on Stream‐Aquifer Interactions in Miryang,Korea

Large agricultural fields in South Korea are located mostly on alluvial plains, where a significant amount of groundwater is used for heating of water‐curtain insulated greenhouses. Such greenhouses are commonly used for crop cultivation during the winter dry season from November to March. After use the groundwater is discharged directly into streams, causing groundwater depletion. A hydrogeological study was carried out in a typical agricultural area of this type, located on an alluvial aquifer near the Nakdong River. Groundwater levels, chemical characteristics, and temperatures from 68 observation wells were analyzed to determine the impacts of seasonal groundwater pumping on the groundwater system and stream‐aquifer interactions. Our results show that the groundwater system has not yet reached a state of dynamic equilibrium. Decades of excessive seasonal pumping have caused a gradual decline of groundwater levels, leading to groundwater depletion, especially in areas further from the river. Seasonal pumping has also significantly affected groundwater quality in the aquifer near the river. Groundwater temperature is decreasing (in this case a disadvantage), and saline groundwater is being diluted by induced recharge. The results of this study provide a basic outline for effective integrated water management that is widely applicable in South Korea.     

Estimation of groundwater vulnerability to pollution based on DRASTIC in the Niipele sub-basin of the Cuvelai Etosha Basin,Namibia

Surface water is a scarce resource in Namibia with about sixty percent of Namibia's population dependent on groundwater for drinking purposes. With increasing population, the country faces water challenges and thus groundwater resources need to be managed properly. One important aspect of Integrated Water Resources Management is the protection of water resources, including protection of groundwater from contamination and over-exploitation. This study explores vulnerability mapping as a basic tool for protecting groundwater resources from pollution. It estimates groundwater vulnerability to pollution in the upper Niipele sub-basin of the Cuvelai-Etosha in Northern Namibia using the DRASTIC index. The DRASTIC index uses GIS to estimate groundwater vulnerability by overlaying different spatially referenced hydrogeological parameters that affect groundwater contamination. The study assesses the discontinuous perched aquifer (KDP) and the Ohangwena multi-layered aquifer 1 (KOH-1). For perched aquifers, point data was regionalized by a hydrotope approach whereas for KOH-1 aquifer, inverse distance weighting was used. The hydrotope approach categorized different parts of the hydrogeological system with similar properties into five hydrotopes. The result suggests that the discontinuous perched aquifers are more vulnerable than Ohangwena multi-layered aquifer 1. This implies that vulnerability increases with decreasing depth to water table because contaminants have short travel time to reach the aquifer when they are introduced on land surface. The nitrate concentration ranges between 2 and 288 mg/l in perched aquifers while in Ohangwena multi-layered aquifer 1, it ranges between 1 and 133 mg/l. It was observed that perched aquifers have high nitrate concentrations than Ohangwena 1 aquifer, which correlates well with the vulnerability results.     

Developing a reliable model for aquifer vulnerability

The assessment of aquifer vulnerability to pollution is crucial for planning a sound management strategy of groundwater quality protection and farmland fertilizer use. This study establishes a reliable model for aquifer vulnerability assessment with an excellent performance for predicting groundwater nitrate-N contamination in the Choushui River alluvial fan, Taiwan based on the DRASTIC method. To promote the prediction performance of aquifer vulnerability assessment, discriminant analysis (DA) was applied to determine the weights of factors in the DRASTIC model by comparing the model results with the observed nitrate-N data. Key factors influencing the presence of groundwater nitrate-N pollution were characterized for different concentration thresholds. The results of analysis reveal that the modified DRASTIC model using DA significantly improves prediction performance for aquifer vulnerability assessment, and groundwater protection zones can be determined correctly based on the modified DRASTIC index. Furthermore, the sensitivity of the factors in the modified DRASTIC model indicates that the depth to the groundwater and aquifer media are critical when the nitrate-N concentration is less than 3 mg/L, while the impact of the vadose zone plays a vital role in controlling nitrate-N pollution of over 5 mg/L.     

An approach to catchment‐scale groundwater nitrate risk assessment from diffuse agricultural sources: a case study in the Upper Bann,Northern Ireland

DRASTIC has drawbacks in groundwater risk assessment that are important in guiding activities to prevention agricultural diffuse groundwater pollution. This paper presents an improved and GIS‐based D‐DRASTIC approach for groundwater nitrate risk assessment from diffuse agricultural sources based on DRASTIC. D‐DRASTIC considers the risk concept, nitrate loading, pollutant transport with runoff, depth to water, net recharge, aquifer media, soil media, topography, impact of the vadose zone media, and the hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer. D‐DRASTIC was developed within an ArcGIS environment and applied to the Upper Bann Catchment, Northern Ireland as a case study. D‐DRASTIC shows that ‘very high’ and ‘high’ zones of groundwater nitrate risk occupy 5% and 11% of the case study area, respectively. When considering groundwater pollution sources and pathways, the results using D‐DRASTIC are helpful in guiding the activities of groundwater pollution prevention at the catchment scale in the context of better implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On understanding and predicting groundwater response time

An aquifer system, when perturbed, has a tendency to evolve to a new equilibrium, a process that can take from just a few seconds to possibly millions of years. The time scale on which a system adjusts to a new equilibrium is often referred to as "response time" or "lag time." Because groundwater response time affects the physical and economic viability of various management options in a basin, natural resource managers are increasingly interested in incorporating it into policy. However, the processes of how groundwater responds to land-use change are not well understood, making it difficult to predict the timing of groundwater response to such change. The difficulty in estimating groundwater response time is further compounded because the data needed to quantify this process are not usually readily available. This article synthesizes disparate pieces of information on aquifer response times into a relatively brief but hopefully comprehensive review that the community of water professionals can use to better assess the impact of aquifer response time in future groundwater management investigations. A brief exposition on dimensional/scaling analysis is presented first, followed by an overview of aquifer response time for simplified aquifer systems. The aquifer response time is considered first from a water-quantity viewpoint and later expanded to incorporate groundwater age and water-quality aspects. Monitoring programs today, as well as water policies and regulations, should address this issue of aquifer response time so that more realistic management expectations can be reached.     

Aquifers Shared Between Mexico and the United States: Management Perspectives and Their Transboundary Nature

Totally 36 aquifers have been identified along the Mexico‐U.S. border. Of these, only 16 have adequate data to provide a reasonable level of confidence to categorize them as transboundary. Limited and/or contrasting data over the other aquifers in the region reflects the void in transboundary groundwater management and assessment mechanisms throughout much of the Mexico‐U.S. border. This paper identifies management mechanisms, structures, and institutional prioritization related to transboundary aquifers shared between Mexico and the United States. It also evaluates the differences in the transboundary nature of these aquifers, and how their combined hydrological and geographical considerations interrelate with local and regional social, economic, political, and even scale dimensions to create complex management challenges.     

Sustainable groundwater management of the stressed Coastal aquifer in the Gaza region

Abstract

This study proposes an empirical approach that can lead to the sustainable management of groundwater resources. This approach enables a comprehensive understanding of an aquifer, delineates distinct hydrological scenarios, and recommends a set of operational activities for each sub-region of the aquifer. The paper focuses on the Coastal aquifer of the Gaza Strip region which has been divided into three sub-regions. The southern sub-region (WSW) is classified as scenario “+a2”, which indicates that it can be used as a multi-annual groundwater reservoir. The northern sub-region (NW-E) is designated scenario “-a2”, where the recommended operational measures include injection of freshwater in wells and cleaning of the surface environment. The third sub-region (CSE), is classified as scenario “-b2”, which requires severe management measures to correct both a negative hydrological and environmental situation. The approach also involves on-going monitoring of the aquifer, and can be considered as an empirical tool to provide preliminary guidelines for long-term groundwater management.     

浙江北部地区地下水高氟和高砷分布特点和建议

在分析了浙江北部地区地下水类型、特征、地下水开采现状和水位变化基础上,通过对不同类型地下水深井样品测试数据的研究,查明了区域地下水高氟和高砷的分布特点。高氟区主要出现于妙西花岗岩裂隙水和白雀岩溶水分布区,高砷区主要位于南浔第Ⅱ承压含水层局部区域。研究认为高氟和高砷地下水分布区与区域土壤和浅层地下水中总氟和总砷含量没有直接联系,深井地下水中的高氟和高砷主要与深部断裂构造有关。研究地区的这种高氟和高砷地下水目前仍然为很多居民所饮用,作者认为长期饮用这种高氟和高砷地下水容易导致地方病的产生,建议在高氟和高砷地下水分布区停止生活用水开采,有条件的企事业单位应实行改水方案。     

Evaluation of an over-used coastal aquifer (Orissa,India) using statistical approaches

Abstract

This study evaluates an over-exploited aquifer (Balasor, India) and also explores the possibilities of sustainable management using several statistical approaches. First, bootstrap analysis indicates that groundwater pumping has resulted in the reduction of mean cultivated area as the average irrigation capacity per bore well dropped from 3.74 ha to 1.5 ha within a period of 10 years of operation. However, modelling the groundwater levels using the seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) procedure showed no evidence of large-scale groundwater withdrawals. The derived models can be used for water table forecasting and also for infilling the missing observations. The empirical relationship among pumping test results indicated that well depth and aquifer thickness significantly influence the discharge from the aquifer. This discharge may have encouraged the resource-rich farmers to exploit the lower aquifer. Based on a contour plot, the zone of groundwater exploitation was estimated to vary from 25 to 60 m below the surface. Therefore, a uniform aquifer exploitation policy needs to be implemented to curb the vertical competition in exploiting the aquifer and to develop sustainable management of the groundwater.

Citation Panda, D. K. & Kumar, A. (2011) Evaluation of an over-used coastal aquifer (Orissa, India) using statistical approaches. Hydrol. Sci. J. 56(3), 486–497.     

Implications for groundwater recharge from stable isotopic composition of precipitation in Hawai'i during the 2017–2018 La Niña

The project captured a subset of the hydrological cycle for the tropical island of O'ahu, linking precipitation to groundwater recharge and aquifer storage. We determined seasonal storm events contributed more to aquifer recharge than year-round baseline orographic trade wind rainfall. Hydrogen and oxygen isotope values from an island-wide rain collector network with 20 locations deployed for 16 months and sampled at 3-month intervals were used to create the first local meteoric water line for O'ahu. Isotopic measurements were influenced by the amount effect, seasonality, storm type, and La Niña, though little elevation control was noted. Certain groundwater compositions from legacy data showed a strong similarity with collected precipitation from our stations. The majority of these significant relationships were between wet season precipitation and groundwater. A high number of moderate and heavy rainfall days during the dry season, large percentage of event-based rainfall, and wind directions outside of the typical NE trade wind direction were characteristics of the 2017–2018 wet season. This indicates that the majority of wet season precipitation is from event-based storms rather than typical trade wind weather. The deuterium-excess values provided the strongest evidence of a relationship between groundwater and different precipitation sources, indicating that this may be a useful metric for determining the extent of recharge from different rain events and systems.     

Economics of transboundary aquifer management

This paper presents a general model of optimal water management for a transboundary aquifer under three different management approaches: cooperative, noncooperative, and myopic. Comparing the results from the approaches, we find the cooperative solution, where a single management plan is executed for all parts of the aquifer, results in the highest level of net social welfare, followed by the noncooperative and then the myopic. The trade-offs we find for the higher levels of welfare are lower use levels in the earlier periods. We present a short discussion of factors that can increase the inefficiencies of the models and suggest directions for future research.     

A stochastic optimization framework for the restoration of an over-exploited aquifer

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the impact of hydraulic conductivity uncertainty on the sustainable management of the aquifer of Lake Karla, Greece, using the stochastic optimization approach. The lack of surface water resources in combination with the sharp increase in irrigation needs in the basin over the last 30 years have led to an unprecedented degradation of the aquifer. In addition, the lack of data regarding hydraulic conductivity in a heterogeneous aquifer leads to hydrogeologic uncertainty. This uncertainty has to be taken into consideration when developing the optimization procedure in order to achieve the aquifer’s sustainable management. Multiple Monte Carlo realizations of this spatially-distributed parameter are generated and groundwater flow is simulated for each one of them. The main goal of the sustainable management of the ‘depleted’ aquifer of Lake Karla is two-fold: to determine the optimum volume of renewable groundwater that can be extracted, while, at the same time, restoring its water table to a historic high level. A stochastic optimization problem is therefore formulated, based on the application of the optimization method for each of the aquifer’s multiple stochastic realizations in a future period. In order to carry out this stochastic optimization procedure, a modelling system consisting of a series of interlinked models was developed. The results show that the proposed stochastic optimization framework can be a very useful tool for estimating the impact of hydraulic conductivity uncertainty on the management strategies of a depleted aquifer restoration. They also prove that the optimization process is affected more by hydraulic conductivity uncertainty than the simulation process.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Guest editor S. Weijs     

Application of Multivariate Statistical Techniques for Characterization of Groundwater Quality in the Coastal Aquifer of Nador,Tipaza (Algeria)

The study focuses on the characterization of the groundwater salinity on the Nador coastal aquifer (Algeria). The groundwater quality has undergone serious deterioration due to overexploitation. Groundwater samplings were carried out in high and low waters in 2013, in order to study the evolution of groundwater hydrochemistry from the recharge to the coastal area. Different kinds of statistical analysis were made in order to identify the main hydrogeochemical processes occurring in the aquifer and to discriminate between different groups of groundwater. These statistical methods provide a better understanding of the aquifer hydrochem-istry, and put in evidence a hydrochemical classification of wells, showing that the area with higher salinity is located close to the coast, in the first two kilometers, where the salinity gradually increases as one approaches the seaside and suggests the groundwater salinization by sea-water intrusion.     

Characterising groundwater–surface water interactions in idealised ephemeral stream systems

Transmission losses from the beds of ephemeral streams are thought to be a widespread mechanism of groundwater recharge in arid and semi-arid regions and support a range of dryland hydro-ecology. Dryland areas cover ~40% of the Earth's land surface and groundwater resources are often the main source of freshwater. It is commonly assumed that where an unsaturated zone exists beneath a stream, the interaction between surface water and groundwater is unidirectional and that groundwater does not exert a significant feedback on transmission losses. To test this assumption, we conducted a series of numerical model experiments using idealised two-dimensional channel-transects to assess the sensitivity and degree of interaction between surface and groundwater for typical dryland ephemeral stream geometries, hydraulic properties and flow regimes. We broaden the use of the term ‘stream–aquifer interactions’ to refer not just to fluxes and water exchange but also to include the ways in which the stream and aquifer have a hydraulic effect on one another. Our results indicate that deep water tables, less frequent streamflow events and/or highly permeable sediments tend to result in limited bi-directional hydraulic interaction between the stream and the underlying groundwater which, in turn, results in high amounts of infiltration. With shallower initial depth to the water table, higher streamflow frequency and/or lower bed permeability, greater ‘negative’ hydraulic feedback from the groundwater occurs which in turn results in lower amounts of infiltration. Streambed losses eventually reach a constant rate as initial water table depths increase, but only at depths of 10s of metres in some of the cases studied. Our results highlight that bi-directional stream–aquifer hydraulic interactions in ephemeral streams may be more widespread than is commonly assumed. We conclude that groundwater and surface water should be considered as connected systems for water resource management unless there is clear evidence to the contrary.