The location of deep salinity sources in the Israeli Coastal aquifer

The salinization process of the Israeli Coastal aquifer has led to an average concentration of about 200 mgCl/l with a significant number of discrete salinity plumes in the middle and southern regions. The salinity of these plumes is high (500–1000 mgCl/l) and is increasing rapidly. Geochemical evidence has suggested that the salinity source in the Be'er Tuvia plume (in the south part of the aquifer) is at the bottom of the aquifer. This paper describes a solution of the source inverse problem and its application in the Be'er Tuvia plume. A transient two-dimensional finite element model was solved and the source terms were computed at each node in a 14×14 km² area. An error analysis has shown that when no errors are introduced in the input data the reconstruction is perfect. The results of a sensitivity analysis are presented and the actual reconstruction errors are estimated. Applying the model in the Be'er Tuvia region indicates that a salinity source exists about 1 km to the west and 1.5 km to the north of the center of the salinity plume. This source is believed to be the plume source.