Winning Works
Sustainable use of coastal freshwater resources is an important problem for the Arab region, as well as all coastal regions around the world. The research work is a joint research effort developed in Morocco at the Laboratory of Identification and Modeling the Natural Environment (LIMEN), University of Mohamed V Agdal, Rabat, Morocco in the framework of research projects funded by national and international organisms, such as the EU, NSF and Fulbright programs.
The objective of this research is to characterise seawater intrusion and to develop optimal models for sustainable water management in coastal aquifers of Morocco and other countries in the world. The expected outcomes include the optimal exploitation of groundwater under the constraint of seawater intrusion, better management of monitoring programs and recharge assessment, and water resources protection. Water resources managers and decision makers can utilize these tools to conduct their planning and decision making more efficiently
An efficient mathematical code with robust solvers is developed and used to study the coastal aquifers, including analyzing available data such as groundwater piezometric head, pumping activities, and salinity concentrations. A third part such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Graphic User Interface (GUI) is integrated for pre- and post-processing, especially for mesh generation and visualization. Problems involving saltwater intrusion, upconing near pumping wells, optimal pumping rate, artificial recharge assessment, and their environmental and socio-economic impacts, are also studied. A combination of groundwater numerical simulation tools and optimization models is also used to accomplish these objectives. The model has been validated and applied to study some Moroccan field cases, including seawater intrusion problems. Numerical groundwater models are constructed, based on finite element and finite difference techniques, to develop an understanding of the groundwater flowing systems, the pollution migration, evaluate the effects of development on groundwater resources and support groundwater management. For this purpose, several regional models have been developed for areas confronted with problems of seawater intrusion, depletion or rapid degradation of the groundwater quality, including Morocco and Palestine. These developed models are both based on the sharp interface (GEO_SWIM) and dispersive solute transport approaches (GEO_SWIM, SEAWAT, CODESA-3D). Depending on the local physical conditions, one physical approach is selected to be applied for the case study. For developing these seawater intrusion regional models, a methodological approach has been followed for each case study, and will serve as a model to perform future studies of similar coastal aquifers. The main objectives of these regional models are to study the aquifer water balance, and the impact of the groundwater exploitation on the flow system in the future with a view to directing the existing socio-economical activities, including agricultural, industrial, tourism and others within a rational development plan, so as to keep the available water resources away from depletion and seawater intrusion. Emphasis is made on the importance of such project based on the fact that groundwater resources are limited under scarcity and seawater intrusion risk, and the necessity to rationally plan their exploitation.
The research works submitted to the prize include 5 researches entitled below:
- Development of a Sharp interface code for seawater intrusion in coastal aquifers with applications (GEO_SWIM sharp) (3 published papers);
- Development of Variable density code for seawater intrusion in coastal aquifers with applications to take into account the dispersive solute transport (GEO_SWIM dense) (3 published papers);
- Methodological Approach for the development of Regional Models to deal with Seawater Intrusion in Coastal Aquifer(3 published papers) s;
- Characterization of Seawater Intrusion in Coastal Aquifers for Sustainable Management (4 published papers);
- Optimization of Groundwater Models for Management of Coastal Aquifers (2 published papers).
Several cases are selected, as the demonstration sites for these integrated models, from Morocco and Palestine (Gaza); because their aquifers are suffering serious saltwater intrusion from the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea due to overexploitation of groundwater and the limited natural and artificial recharge. Scenarios varying recharge locations, pumping regulation, and optimal pumping rate distribution are simulated to assess the best seawater intrusion control strategies, especially these case studies are located in the Arab region which is characterized by arid and semi-arid climates varying climate, less natural recharge and groundwater exploitation.