Assessment of the Groundwater Resources Balancing Using Sustainability Indicators

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 M.Sc. Graduate, Faculty of Civil, Water and Environmental Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Faculty of Civil, Water and Environmental Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

3 Research Assistant Professor, Water Research Institute, Ministry of Energy, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

One of the approaches to equilibrium assessment is the use of quantitative and qualitative indicators that can be a good tool. In this study, in order to evaluate the equilibrium scenarios in Hashtgerd aquifer, two indicators of intrinsic vulnerability of the aquifer and quantitative stability index of the aquifer were used. Five scenarios were defined based on the groundwater resources balancing scheme in the region and simulated using the MODFLOW numerical model. Equilibrium was calculated by combining three indicators of reliability, vulnerability and desirability of groundwater system stability index in different scenarios. The simulation results and application of different scenarios showed that by reducing the water withdrawal by 15 percent, the highest level of stability is created in the aquifer system and the system stability rate increases from 55 percent to 87 percent. The extent of changes in the aquifer stability index as a distribution in the observation wells also indicates that the middle part of the aquifer has the highest status of improving the stability index. This region, with its high density of exploitation wells, is most affected by the reduction of aquifer withdrawals. The results obtained from the aquifer stability index, considering the spatial distribution, show the feasibility of implementing different scenarios. On the other hand, due to the importance of development and the use of vulnerability indicators, the drastic index was analyzed at the regional level. The results showed that the upstream part of the aquifer has the highest level of vulnerability due to hydrogeological characteristics and the level of vulnerability has decreased in the direction of groundwater flow.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

  1. Aller, L. (1985). DRASTIC: a standardized system for evaluating ground water pollution potential using hydrogeologic settings. Robert S. Kerr Environmental Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, US Environmental Protection Agency.
  2. Akbari, F., Shourian, M., & Moridi, A. (2021). Optimum crop pattern planning considering surface and groundwater resources Interaction by coupling SWAT, MODFLOW and PSO. Iran-Water Resources Research, 56(1), 136-150. [Persian].
  3. Bui, N. T., Kawamura, A., Amaguchi, H., Du BUI, D., & Truong, N. T. (2016). Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Groundwater Resources in Hanoi, Vietnam by a simple AHP Approach, 72(5), 137-146.
  4. Frija, A., Dhehibi, B., Chebil, A., & Villholth, K.G. (2015). Performance evaluation of groundwater management instruments: The case of irrigation sector in Tunisia. Groundwater for Sustainable Development, 1(1), 23-32.
  5. Juwana, I., Perera, B., & Muttil, N. (2010). A water sustainability index for West Java-Part 2: refining the conceptual framework using Delphi technique. Water science and technology: a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research, 62(7), 1641-1652.
  6. Lipponen, A. ed. 2007. Groundwater resources sustainability indicators. Paris: UNESCO,
  7. Moghaddam, H.K., Banihabib, M.E., Javadi, S., & Randhir, T.O. (2021). A framework for the assessment of qualitative and quantitative sustainable development of groundwater system. Sustainable Development.
  8. Kardan Moghaddam, H., Milan, S.G., Kayhomayoon, Z., & Azar, N.A. (2021). The prediction of aquifer groundwater level based on spatial clustering approach using machine learning. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 193(4), pp.1-20.
  9. Kardan Moghaddam, H., Kivi, Z.R., Bahreinimotlagh, M., & Alizadeh, M.J. (2019). Developing comparative mathematic models, BN and ANN for forecasting of groundwater levels. Groundwater for Sustainable Development, 9, 100237.
  10. Kayhomayoon, Z., Ghordoyee Milan, S., Arya Azar, N., & Kardan Moghaddam, H. (2021). A new approach for regional groundwater level simulation: clustering, simulation, and optimization. Natural Resources Research, pp.1-21.
  11. Kayhomayoon, Z., Azar, N.A., Milan, S.G., Moghaddam, H.K., & Berndtsson, R. (2021). Novel approach for predicting groundwater storage loss using machine learning. Journal of Environmental Management, 296, 113237.
  12. Malmir, M., Javadi, S., Moridi, A., Neshat, A., & Razdar, B. (2021). A new combined framework for sustainable development using the DPSIR approach and numerical modeling. Geoscience Frontiers, 12(4), 101169.
  13. Ministry of Power. (2011). Prohibition discharge in Hashtgerd plain. (In Persian)
  14. Ministry of Power. (2014). Report of Reduction program and balance groundwater. (In Persian)
  15. Mortazavi Zadeh, F., & Godarzi, M. (2018). Evaluation of Climate Change Impacts on Surface Runoff and Groundwater Using HadGEM2 Climatological Model (Case Study: Hashtgerd). Journal of Water and Soil, 32(2), 433-436. (In Persian)
  16. Pandey, V., Shrestha, S., Chapagain, S., & Kazama, F. (2011). A framework for measuring groundwater sustainability. Environmental Science & Policy, 14, 396-407.
  17. Samani, S., Moghaddam, H.K., & Zareian, M.J. (2021). Evaluating time series integrated groundwater sustainability: a case study in Salt Lake catchment, Iran. Environmental Earth Sciences, 80(17), 1-13.
  18. Shahedi, M., & Talebi Hossein Abad, F. (2014). Introducing some indices to evaluate the balance of water resources and sustainable development. Journal of Water and Sustainable Development, 1(1), 73-79. (In Persian).
  19. Shemshaki, A., Mohammadi, Y., & Bolourchi, M.J. (2010). Investigation on Confined Aquifer & its Role on Subsidence Occurrence in Hashtgerd Plain. Journal of Geoscience, 20 (79), 137-142.
  20. Rasaei, A., Sharafati, A., & Kardan Moghaddam, H. (2020). Analysis of groundwater uncertainty in climate change (Case study: Hashtgerd Plain). Iranian Journal of Ecohydrology, 7(3), 815-827.
  21. Rezaei, M., Mousavi, S.F., Moridi, A., Eshaghi, M., & Karami, H. (2021). An Optimal Socialist Cooperative Game Theory Model in Agricultural Sector (Case Study: Dezful-Andimeshk Plain). International Journal of Nonlinear Analysis and Applications, 12(Special Issue), pp.719-731.
  22. Rezaei, M., Mousavi, S.F., Moridi, A., Gordji, M.E., & Karami, H. (2021). A new hybrid framework based on integration of optimization algorithms and numerical method for estimating monthly groundwater level. Arabian Journal of Geosciences, 14(11), 1-15.
  23. Yousefi, H., Omidi, M.J., Moridi, A., & Sarang, A. (2021). Groundwater Monitoring Network Design Using Optimized DRASTIC Method and Capture Zone Analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research, pp.1-11.
Water and Irrigation Management
Volume 12, Issue 2
July 2022
Pages 213-229

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics