Groundwater Resources: Pollution, Monitoring and Sustainable Development

A special issue of Geosciences (ISSN 2076-3263).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2016) | Viewed by 23924

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Guest Editor
School of Water and Environment, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710054, China
Interests: water resources; hydrogeology; groundwater quality; groundwater pollution; groundwater modeling; health risk assessment; geochemical modeling; hyrogeochemistry
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Department of Natural & Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin—Green Bay, Green Bay, WI 54311, USA
Interests: carbonate petrology; geochemistry; ground water hydrology
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Guest Editor
Professor of Hydrogeology, Institute of Geological Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, 12249 Berlin, Germany
Interests: groundwater management, managed aquifer recharge, urban water cycle; environmental hydrogeology, hydrogeology of arid areas

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The objectives of this Special Issue of Geosciences are to examine the sustainable development, monitoring, and protection of groundwater resources, and to cope with groundwater pollution induced by natural environmental change and human activities. With intensification of human activities and environmental change, groundwater is changing both in quality and quantity. Therefore, research in groundwater resources is necessary and important to ensure that adequate groundwater resources are available for future generations.

This Special Issue aims to provide an outlet for rapid, widely accessible publication of peer-reviewed studies on various aspects of groundwater research. Both high quality research papers and review papers are welcomed. Research topics focusing on groundwater may include, but are not limited to the following: (1) groundwater resource monitoring, (2) sustainable development of groundwater resources, (3) hydrogeochemistry and pollution of groundwater, (4) groundwater quality and/or quantity assessments, (5) Water quality impacts from hydraulic fracturing, and (6) managing groundwater resources during drought

Dr. Peiyue Li
Prof. Dr. John Luczaj
Prof. Dr. Michael Schneider
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • groundwater resources
  • groundwater pollution
  • groundwater quality assessment
  • hydrogeochemistry
  • groundwater modeling
  • groundwater circulation
  • groundwater recharge
  • groundwater development
  • groundwater protection
  • groundwater management
  • hydraulic fracturing
  • drought risk

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

2347 KiB  
Article
Sewage-Borne Ammonium at a River Bank Filtration Site in Central Delhi, India: Simplified Flow and Reactive Transport Modeling to Support Decision-Making about Water Management Strategies
by Maike Groeschke, Theresa Frommen, Andreas Winkler and Michael Schneider
Geosciences 2017, 7(3), 48; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences7030048 - 25 Jun 2017
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 5386
Abstract
In the Indian metropolis of Delhi, the Yamuna River is highly influenced by sewage water, which has led to elevated ammonium (NH4+) concentrations up to 20 mg/L in the river water during 2012–2013. Large drinking water production wells located in [...] Read more.
In the Indian metropolis of Delhi, the Yamuna River is highly influenced by sewage water, which has led to elevated ammonium (NH4+) concentrations up to 20 mg/L in the river water during 2012–2013. Large drinking water production wells located in the alluvial aquifer draw high shares of bank filtrate. Due to the infiltrating river water, the raw water NH4+ concentrations in some wells exceed the threshold value of 0.5 mg/L ammonia-N of the Indian drinking water specifications, making the water unfit for human consumption without prior treatment. However, to meet the city’s growing water demand, it might be advantageous to consider the long-term use of the well field. This requires the development of an adapted post-treatment unit in concert with an adjusted well field management. To better understand the groundwater dynamics and contamination and decontamination times at the well field, a theoretical modeling study has been conducted. The results of 2D numerical modeling reveal that the groundwater flux beneath the river is negligible because of the aquifer and river geometry, indicating that infiltrating river water is not diluted by the ambient groundwater. Increasing the water abstraction in the wells closest to the river would result in a larger share of bank filtrate and a decreasing groundwater table decline. Simplified 1D reactive transport models set up for a distance of 500 m (transect from the riverbank to the first production well) showed that the NH4+ contamination will prevail for the coming decades. Different lithological units of the aquifer (sand and kankar—a sediment containing calcareous nodules) have a strong influence on the respective contamination and decontamination periods, as the retardation of NH4+ is higher in the kankar than in the sand layer. Although this simplified approach does not allow for a quantification of processes, it can support decision-making about a possible future use of the well field and point to associated research needs. Full article
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13044 KiB  
Article
Assessment of Groundwater Vulnerability to Nitrate Based on the Optimised DRASTIC Models in the GIS Environment (Case of Sidi Rached Basin, Algeria)
by Sbargoud Saida, Hartani Tarik, Aidaoui Abdellah, Herda Farid and Bachir Hakim
Geosciences 2017, 7(2), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences7020020 - 31 Mar 2017
Cited by 35 | Viewed by 7002
Abstract
The DRASTIC model was tested on the Mitidja aquifer to assess vulnerability to nitrate pollution. Vulnerability indexes were obtained from classic DRASTIC (MDC) and pesticide DRASTIC (MDP) coupled with a geographic information system in which the weights of the model’s parameters were calculated [...] Read more.
The DRASTIC model was tested on the Mitidja aquifer to assess vulnerability to nitrate pollution. Vulnerability indexes were obtained from classic DRASTIC (MDC) and pesticide DRASTIC (MDP) coupled with a geographic information system in which the weights of the model’s parameters were calculated using two weighting techniques: analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and single parameter sensitivity analysis (SPSA). The correlations between vulnerability indexes produced by both models and actual nitrate concentration values—measured from 34 system aquifers—show that the best combination is obtained from MDP–AHP (R = 0.72) followed by MDP–SPSA (R = 0.68), MDC–AHP (R = 0.67), MDC–SPSA (R =0.65), MDP (R = 0.64) and lastly MDC (R = 0.60). Pesticide DRASTIC/Analytic hierarchy Process (MDP–AHP) may be recommended as the best model for this case study. This result is important for the spatial analysis of nitrate pollution and will contribute to better management of intensive agricultural plans. Full article
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18571 KiB  
Article
Aquifer Drawdown and Recovery in the Northeast Groundwater Management Area, Wisconsin, USA: A Century of Groundwater Use
by John A. Luczaj, Julie Maas, David J. Hart and Jonathan Odekirk
Geosciences 2017, 7(1), 11; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences7010011 - 7 Mar 2017
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 9671
Abstract
The Northeast Groundwater Management Area of Wisconsin, USA contains two major cones of depression in a confined sandstone aquifer. Each cone is centered near cities that have used groundwater for over 100 years. Near one of these cities (Green Bay), episodic changes in [...] Read more.
The Northeast Groundwater Management Area of Wisconsin, USA contains two major cones of depression in a confined sandstone aquifer. Each cone is centered near cities that have used groundwater for over 100 years. Near one of these cities (Green Bay), episodic changes in the development of groundwater and surface water resources during this period have resulted in major changes to the potentiometric surface. On two occasions, roughly 50 years apart, reductions in groundwater withdrawals have resulted from the construction of pipelines drawing surface water from Lake Michigan. In each case, rapid recovery of the potentiometric surface by as much as 70 m has occurred in the northern of the two pumping cones. The most recent switch occurred during 2006 and 2007 when eight communities stopped pumping groundwater, reducing daily withdrawals by approximately 46.37 million liters. The rate of water level recovery has diminished in some areas, with a return to a flowing artesian state for some municipal and residential wells. Although the northern portion of the groundwater management area has returned to a sustainable condition in the confined aquifer, the portion with the southern cone of depression remains in a state of prolonged drawdown. Full article
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