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Original Paper

Arabian Journal of Geosciences

February 2015, Volume 8, Issue 2, pp 659­675

First online: 28 December 2013

Evaluation of the groundwater resources potential ofSiwa Oasis using three­dimensional multilayergroundwater flow model, Mersa Matruh Governorate,Egypt

Abdulaziz M. Abdulaziz , Abdalla M. Faid

10.1007/s12517­013­1199­4

Copyright information

Abstract

Siwa represents the last virgin oasis in the western desert of Egypt. Recently, serious environmental changes pertaining tothe invaluable groundwater resources, such soil salinity and expansion in surface lakes have developed due to excessiveuncontrolled groundwater discharge associating land development for agriculture. The present work tackles theseproblems through monitoring the configuration of pressure head in carbonate and Nubian Sandstone aquifers usingmultilayer groundwater model. Several scenarios for pumping stress are tested, and the results indicated that the

optimum pumping should be close to 520,000 m3/day with important disturbances in the pressure head encounteredbetween Bahei El­Din Lake and Zeitoun Lake. This aquifer stress is capable of lowering the pressure head to stop artesianflow and inconsequence saves large water quantities draining daily to the lakes through natural flow and mitigates thewaterlogging problems. In addition, minimal changes are observed in the eastern part of the modeled area suggestingadditional production wells to tap the aquifer system at this barren area and initiate new development projects. Suchresults demonstrate the potential of groundwater flow modeling in water resources management to define the optimumpumping scenarios capable to mitigate environmental problems.

Keywords

3D Groundwater modeling Groundwater management Arid regions Siwa Oasis Egypt

Introduction

Over the past century, the total population of Egypt increased from 11 million in 1907 to 73.4 million in 2004, while thearea of cultivated land has only increased from 2.25 million to around 3.5 million ha (Abdulaziz et al. 2009). As aconsequence, the area of land per capita has fallen from 0.2 to 0.05 ha during the same period (FAO 2005). Toaccommodate the increasing demands for food, attentions are usually paid to reclaiming the desert, but the success ofsuch agricultural projects is entirely restricted to the availability of sustainable water resources. This is probably the reasonbehind the development programs of the “New Valley Project” and the “South Egypt Development Project,” great projectsof land reclamation around the oases of the Western Desert and south Egypt respectively.

While the agricultural land reclamation of the New Valley Project initiated in 1960 is based exclusively on groundwaterfrom the Nubian Sandstone aquifer, the south Egypt development project commenced in 1995 is based on the conjugateduse of groundwater from the same aquifer and surface water pumped from Nasser Lake (Ebraheem et al. 2004). Nubian

Sandstone is Cambrian to Late Cretaceous and is predominantly continental sediments extending over 2,000,000 km2

underneath the eastern Sahara with confinement condition prevailing to the north of latitude 25° N due to thedevelopment of the post­Cretaceous dense limestone, shale, and clay. Groundwater in the Nubian Sandstone aquifer,

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hydrologically unsteady aquifer over the past thousands of years, is known to be fossil water and its abstraction isunrenewable (Hellstrom 1940; Pallas 1980; Heinl and Thorweihe 1993; Ebraheem et al. 2002; Gossel et al. 2004). Thecalculated in­place groundwater of the Nubian Sandstone aquifer is arguable which generally tends to increase over time:

3,000 km3 (Ambroggi 1966), 20,000 km3 (Gischler 1976), 50,000 km3 (Heinl and Thorweihe 1993), and 28,000 km3

(Ebraheem et al. 2002). But generally only a small portion of these volumes can be suitable for exploitation. Isotopicstudies on groundwater supported these implications and asserted the deficit of recent recharge to the Nubian Sandstoneaquifer in Egypt. The estimated age of groundwater from the Nubian Sandstone aquifer has broadly varied with thedifferent techniques reporting 10,000–33,000 years (Abdelghafour 1993) and 25,000–40,000 years (Heinl andBrinkmann 1989) using Carbon­14, but much older values (200,000 years–1 Ma; Sturchio et al. 2004) are estimated usingKrypton­81 and Chlorine­36 techniques. The recharge to the fractured carbonate aquifer underneath Siwa Oasis is largelydisputable between local recharge from the deep Nubian Sandstone aquifer and surface recharge at a faraway catchmentarea near Gebel Akhdar, Libya (El­Shazly and Abdel­Mogheeth 1991). Accordingly, several pre­development studies aredevoted mainly for evaluating the groundwater potential and provide detailed characterization of groundwater quality andquantity in these regions (Ball 1927; Diab 1972; Ezzat et al. 1962; Ezzat 1974, 1976; Hesse et al. 1987; Nour 1996;MPWWR 1998).

Large­scale land development usually associates serious ecological and socioeconomic problems, such as waterloggingphenomenon (Masoud and Koike 2004), rapid falling water level and groundwater depletion (Nour 1996; Konikow andKendy 2005; Venot and Molle 2008), salt water intrusion (Kashef 1983; Ebraheem et al. 1997; Werner and Simmons2009), and disturbance to the overall groundwater system (Vrba and Pêkný 1991; Abdulaziz 2007; Ahmed et al. 2012). Thesituation becomes worse if high natural discharge of poor­quality groundwater through natural springs and/oruncontrolled dug wells is involved, which is recognized in Siwa Oasis. Water management is a decisive action withnumerous goals that may be partly conflicting to maintain and improve the state of water resources (Pahl­Wostl 2007).The principle objectives of water resources management and plans are to grant the increasing water demands for differentuses in a most environmentally effective, socially acceptable, and economically efficient manner (Biswas 2004).

Recently, groundwater flow models became the most influential and effective tools that help water resource plannersmaking water plans and depicting management policies through time series with different scenarios using transientsimulations. However, managing such transient simulations involves large transient data sets including well pumpingdata, recharge data, and observation data (Abdulaziz 2007). In addition, Anderson and Woessner (1992) indicated thatspecifying storage characteristics of the hydrostratigraphic units, influences of the initial conditions and modelboundaries, propagation of hydraulic stresses to reach the model boundaries, and discretization in spatial and temporaldomains add inherently more complications to transient simulations. Generally, the key factors that influence the modelvalidity involve the selection of boundary conditions that properly simulate the common steady­state calibration andassigning the appropriate time steps with minimal influences on the numerical outputs. Finally, the use of model­generated head values ensures the initial head data and consistency of input hydrologic parameters (Franke et al. 1987).

Siwa represents the smallest oasis located in the Egyptian part of the extensive Libyan Desert and depends exclusively ongroundwater resources and drainage water reuse. Recently, farmers started to experience the challenging rising water levelin the soil zone together with the groundwater salinity and the escorted waterlogging and soil salinization, especially inthe topographically low lands at the proximity of the drainage lakes. To evaluate the adverse environmental impact ofsuch excessive groundwater, the Desert Research Center has initiated a program to periodically monitor the water levelsand electric conductivity of groundwater in 60 piezometers tapping the shallow aquifer and soil zone (DRC 1988). Asecond program sponsored by Research Institute for Groundwater (RIGW) in 2001 carried out extensive hydrogeologic andhydrochemical investigations and surveyed 1,265 piezometers throughout Siwa Oasis to determine wells with excessivedischarge and evaluate the variations in chemical composition (Sakr et al. 1999). These studies indicated that more than50 % of the naturally flowing groundwater through natural springs or wells tapping the confined aquifers is dispensed into

salt ponds through the poor drainage system. Through an action plan over the past few years, 80,000 m3/day dischargedthrough 180 critical well was managed and terminated to save approximately 40 % of the disposed groundwater (El­Hossary 1999). In the present study, the main objective is to develop a multilayer three­dimensional groundwater flowmodel to Siwa Oasis based on the thorough conceptual understanding of the aquifer system, the established monitoringnetwork, and the available well data. Such a model enables the prediction of future aquifer repercussions to differentpumping stresses and the potential of the groundwater system over a relatively long period of time, 50 years. Thisinformation is extremely valuable in evaluating the available groundwater resources and demonstrates the significancesgroundwater modeling applications.

Site description

Siwa Oasis occupies an EW elongated depression in the northwest part of the western, 300 km from Mersa Matruh,between latitudes 29°05′00″ N and 29°25′00″ N and longitudes 25°05′00″ E and 26°06′00″ E, with an area of

approximately 1,200 km2 (Fig. 1). Topographically, five local depressions are easily recognized in Siwa Oasis, the arealying below the zero elevation contours, and vary in altitude between ∼1 and −18 m above the mean sea level (a.m.s.l.)(Fig. 2). These depressions host the important lakes recognized from west to east as Maraqi, Siwa, Aghourmy, and Zeitounlakes. The climate is typical arid to semi­arid with a negligible rainfall, high evaporation rate, and moderate to highhumidity (Parsons 1963). Siwa was populated in historic times and has increased from 3,000 in 1840 to approximately23,000 in 2009.

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Fig. 1

Location map of Siwa area

Fig. 2

Geomorphological map of the important features developed in Siwa Oasis and the surrounding area.

As a part of the Western Desert, the climate in Siwa Oasis is very hot in summer and mild in winter with averagemaximum–minimum temperature between 20 and −5 °C in January and 38 and 21 °C in July (EMA 2012). Rainfall isscarce with an average annual rainfall of 13 mm, but humidity is relatively high ranges from 22 % in May to 45 % inDecember depending on the associating daily evaporation rate (average 17 mm in June–5.2 mm in December). The peopleof Siwa involve a mixture of Berber, Bedouin, and Sudanese races and have their own local language, a Berber dialect thatis unrelated to Arabic language. The important activity in Siwa is farming that showed a surplus increase from 2,000 acresin 1962 to 12,000 acres in 2012 and the main crops are dates and olives.

At the environs of Siwa Oasis, the Middle Eocene chalky limestone (75 m) is exposed and overlain by quartzitic gravel andsilisified wood west of Timeira (Fig. 2). In subsurface (at Qattara, well located in the west of Qattara depression close toSiwa Oasis, Fig. 1), the Moghra Formation, a clastic fluviomarine delta­front sequence of Early Miocene that grades

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laterally to marine facies (Said 1990), unconformably overlies the Upper Eocene (Fig. 3). At the depression, a 94­m­thickMarmarica Formation of the Middle Miocene forms the greater part of Siwa Oasis and comprises mainly limestone,dolomite, and shale (Fig. 2). It mainly forms the northern scarp (78 m height) and many of the hills at Gebel El­Dakrour,Mortazak, Zomag, El­Mawta, and Khameisa (Fig. 2) (Gindy and El Askary 1969). Tertiary rocks are covered by theQuaternary alluvium and eolian deposits that constitute 2–3 m soil zone that is replaced by salt or sabkha at theproximity of the lakes. Siwa Oasis occupies a regional NNW–SSE synclinal fold (El Shazly et al. 1978) and is characterizedby well­developed NW–SE and ENE–WSW structural lineaments. The tectonic evolution in Siwa area indicates acomplicated geologic history of uplift and subsidence with developed folds, horsts, and grabens (Fig. 4) (Said 1960;Rizkalla 1975; Rizkalla and Awad 1990). This results in remarkable variations in formation thickness.

Fig. 3

Composite stratigraphic section in Siwa basin (modified from EGPC 1992)

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Fig. 4

Composite geological cross section from west to east across Siwa basin; scale is approximated

Water wells and springs are the only water supply available in Siwa Oasis with the majority tapping the shallow carbonate

aquifer at depths between less than 10 and 120 m and few deep wells (±1,000 m) that pump a total of 400,000 m3/day tomeet the water demands for agriculture and municipal uses. Most of these wells, especially the shallow and the hand­dugwells, are poorly designed and lack to casing and discharge valves to control the artesian flow. Given that irrigation wellsand springs are usually supplemented by water storage tanks to store the irrigation water of salinity between 1,200 and7,000 ppm, it is common to encounter a localized waterlogging nearby these tanks at each farm.

Material and methods

In the present study, a three­dimensional finite difference model was developed to simulate groundwater flow in theNubian Sandstone and carbonate aquifers underneath Siwa Oasis. MODFLOW 2000 (Harbaugh et al. 2000) was selectedto numerically solve the governing flow equation based on water balance with a fully implicit finite differentapproximation (Wang and Anderson 1982). All calculations and modeling processes were accomplished using GMS 6.5software (Aquaveo 2007). To develop a calibrated groundwater flow model that simulates the flow through the presentcomplex stratigraphy of the study area, the methodology presented in Fig. 5 was applied.

Fig. 5

The steps applied in groundwater model construction in Siwa Oasis

Building the three­dimensional stratigraphic model

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The deep wells (e.g., Siwa 1, Zeitoun, Desouki, and Kohla) disclosed successions of Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoicsediments (Fig. 3). The Paleozoic sediments involve alternation of sandstone, shale, and dolomite developed byepicontinental and marine sedimentation. The Hercynian unconformity inhabits Paleozoic–Mesozoic contact (El­Sweify1975) that is easily identified in most deep wells. The Mesozoic rocks (Alam EI­Bueib and Kharita formations) comprisesandstone with siltstone and shale with carbonate intercalations deposited in a shallow marine environment (Fig. 3). InEgypt, the clastic fluviomarine Lower Cretaceous sediments between the crystalline basement and the Upper Cenomaniancarbonates are known as the Nubian Sandstone (GPC (General Petroleum Company) 1991). Beneath Siwa, this sandstoneis 2,500–3,000 m thick and acts as a single groundwater system that is usually encountered 500–700 m below groundsurface (Fig. 4). The upper section of this system is characterized as Bahariya Formation (Norton 1967) and represents themain freshwater provider in the eastern part of Siwa Oasis as it is completely eroded in the western part (Figs. 3 and 4). Asequence of 500–600 m thick of limestone, shales, and marls, with some abundant salt and gypsum of Upper Cretaceous(Abu Roash and Khoman formations) and Tertiary (Apollonia formation), superimposes the Nubian Sandstone (Figs. 3and 4). These rocks are covered by 2 to 3 m of clay, providing soils for agriculture, and eolian sand of the Great Sand Sealocated to the south of the study area.

Mapping stratigraphy and allocating the hydraulic parameters through the aquifer system are achieved using the availableborehole data. The relationship between the hydrogeological units of 80 shallow and 13 deep boreholes selected in thestudy area (Fig. 6) was first checked to confirm a relative spatial continuation of the layers in the spatial domain. Thehydraulic conductivity and other hydraulic parameters were determined from either borehole samples or pumping testspublished in literature (Anderson and Woessner 1992; Morris and Johnson 1967; Domenico 1972) and unpublishedreports (RIGW 1997; Sakr et al. 1999). The resulting solids of the study area were divided vertically into 18 layers, with

discretizing each layer to 3,600 cells of square mesh 1,000 × 1,000 m2 each and occupying a space of x337,450∼417,450 m, y 3,216,270∼3,261,270 m, z 56∼−2,000 m representing the aquifer system together with an E–Wcross section through these solids as shown in Fig. 7. As shown in Fig. 7, three main aquifers are identified in theconstructed hydrostratigraphic model, called solid. The upper shallow clastic aquifer comprises 0∼70 m thick of loosesand and gravel sediments that locally cover the middle­southern part during the Quaternary and generally possess littlehydrogeological influences/importance on the aquifer system of the area. The middle fissure carbonate aquifer is made ofhard limestone with intercalations of shale and clay of the Tertiary age and average thickness 500 m that provide themajor share of natural surface groundwater discharge. The lower aquifer is made of Nubian Sandstone that comprises agreat thickness (500–700 m thick) of highly permeable sandstone of pre­Tertiary in the modeled area. The carbonateaquifer is partially covered by a relatively thin clay layer, layer 1, and is simulated by four layers, named 2, 5, 7, and 9.Several discontinuous marl (layer 3) and anhydrite (layers 4 and 8) strata together with a relatively continuous lower claylayer (layer 6) are mapped in three dimensions through the carbonate aquifer. The Nubian Sandstone aquifer comes incontact with the carbonate aquifer and is simulated in nine layers that extend from layer 10 to layer 18 (Table 1) tominimize the effect of the lower boundary of the model on the simulation results through the multilayer infinite thickness.

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Fig. 6

3D view of the 13 deep wells together with their lithological succession (upper) used in building solids of Siwamodel and map view (lower) showing their spatial distribution (black circles). The blue hexagons in thelower map represent the location of the six monitoring stations

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Fig. 7

3D view of the gridded solid (lower) and east–west cross section (upper) showing the complex distribution ofthe different units in Siwa model. The y­axis follows the north direction; figures are not to scale

Table 1

The hydraulic parameters for the different rock units obtained during the final optimizations of the static model in Siwaarea

Modellayers

Lithology

Level (m)Hydraulic conductivity(m/day)

Specificyield

Specific

storage (m−1)

Max Min Horizontal Vertical

1 Upper clay 42 −113 0.00015 0.00006 0.02 0.0125

2 Limestone 50 −282 0.8 to 7.2 0.73 0.24 0.000036

3 Marl −55 −398 0.25 0.0001 0.04 0.00016

4 Anhydrite −136 −449 0.00000001 0.0000000001 0 Negligible

5 Limestone −19 −610 0.8 to 8 0.73 0.23 0.000042

6 Lower clay −57 −728 0.00015 0.00006 0.02 Negligible

7 Limestone −74 −933 0.8 to 9 0.73 0.21 0.000047

8 Anhydrite −230 −1,031 0.00000001 0.0000000001 0 Negligible

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8 Anhydrite −230 −1,031 0.00000001 0.0000000001 0 Negligible

9 Limestone −530 −1,235 0.8 to 7.8 0.73 0.21 0.000047

10:18 Sandstone −531 −2,100 0.41 to 6 0.22 0.19 0.000069

Leakance (in meters) 0.016; average evaporation (in meters per day) 0.012; average precipitation (in meters per day)0.00004

Building the conceptual model

In conceptual models, all model parameters are designed as sources and sinks, boundary conditions, or observation pointsin the map module using the GIS tools. A basic assumption in Siwa model considers insignificant water level changes atthe model boundary, particularly the deeper Nubian Sandstone aquifer system, during the study period. This can be

simply acknowledged if the local flow system was considered as a part of the regional flow system (∼2 million km2 arealextension and more than 400 m thick) extending throughout the western desert of Egypt and southeast Libya to the northand northeast Chad and part of north Sudan to the south. In addition, the high flux springs and the gushing artesian flow

of drilled shallow and/or deep wells (400,000 m3/day) with approximately no change in the pressure head indicate steadyinflux through the aquifer system in Siwa area. Further, the deepest parts of freshwater bearing Nubian Sandstone areencountered underneath Siwa Oasis while one of the highest levels in the subsurface is found in Kharga Oasis (Fig. 1),indicating that the groundwater head in study area is located down­gradient to locations of the potential groundwaterabstraction located south and southwest. These conditions together with salt–freshwater contact on Nubian Sandstoneaquifer located in lower levels to the north of Siwa Oasis (Fig. 1) provide a shield protecting the groundwater head in SiwaOasis from significant changes. Therefore, all model boundaries were assigned as specified head boundary in whichunlimited volume of water inters or leaves the system based only on hydraulic properties and aquifer stress. It should beclear that the results of this model depend strongly on the validity of the specified head assumption, and headperturbations would be encountered if this assumption is violated with degree of perturbations correlatable to thedeviation from the specified head. Published research (Brinkmann et al. 1987; Ball 1927; Said 1990; Ebraheem et al. 2002,2003, 2004), unpublished reports (Ezzat et al. 1962, 1974; Pallas 1991; RIGW 1997; Sakr et al. 1999), and fieldmeasurements were utilized to determine groundwater level at more than 75 points at model boundaries in the years of2000 and 2010.

Faults located in the Nubian Sandstone and carbonate aquifers are represented by wall boundaries (vertical flow conduits).The important lakes in Siwa such as Aghourmy, Bahei El­Din, and Zeitoun lakes were mapped as a general head with lake

bed conductance (0.0001 and 0.003 m2/day) to swiftly manipulate the variations in hydraulic head. Due to highevaporation and scarce precipitation, recharge to shallow aquifer is considered negligible. Infiltration from agriculturalfields was simulated as recharge zones with recharge rate of 0.0000058 to 0.00005 m/day to the shallow aquifer (valuesare approximated using Abdulaziz 2007). Due to the presence of the surface sticky clay layer covering most of the studyarea, evaporation from wetlands and sabkha is considered as a part of the aquifer system discharge through wells as mostof these features are developed as effluent discharge sites for the artesian springs and wells.

Aquifer discharge from natural springs and wells is simulated by 192 production wells of average daily discharge 400–

500 m3 and 356 production wells with 850–1,000 m3/day. Aquifer discharge locations and quantities were determinedbased on the inventory datasets delivered by Desert Research Center (DRC 1988) and Research Institute for Groundwater(RIGW 2001). Additional discharge sites and quantities that simulate future abstractions were allocated based on fieldobservations on 2010 and remotes sensing data by Masoud and Koike (2006). The majority of these wells are screenedwithin the upper and middle carbonate aquifer with the few wells targeting the Nubian Sandstone aquifer (RIGW 2001).More than two thirds of the total water production was simulated to abstract the shallow zone of the carbonate aquifer, i.e.,wells and springs less than 120 m depth form the surface (RIGW 2001). Additional 100 wells mostly targeting the deeperlayer of the carbonate aquifer and the upper layer of the Nubian Sandstone aquifer are placed in the model together withincreasing the pumping rate to simulate aquifer stress through the scenarios of the transient model. For model calibration,ten observation wells distributed throughout the study area were constructed with two, five, and three wells tapping theshallow, middle, and deep aquifers, respectively. Groundwater head in the ten observation wells reported in Sakr et al.1999 and head data recorded in the field measurements were utilized for the 2000 static and 2010 transient model,respectively. An additional 30 monitoring wells located at six monitoring stations were set up in study area to monitor thegroundwater head with six wells in the upper shallow aquifer occupying layer 2, 18 wells for the middle carbonate aquiferdistributed equally to monitor layers 5, 7, and 9 of the model, and six wells for the deeper Nubian Sandstone aquifertapping layer 10.

Finally, the conceptual model is exported to the MODFLOW grid, so that all hydraulic data are automatically arranged inarrays coinciding with the grid cells and solvable by MODFLOW algorithm. Accepting two orders of magnitude contrast inhydraulic conductivity of the successive aquifer layers to cause refraction in flow lines (Anderson and Woessner 1992) andsufficient to justify the placement of impermeable boundary (Freeze and Witherspoon 1967), the confinement conditionswere automatically assigned, based on variations in hydraulic conductivity of the hydrostratigraphic units.

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Results

Steady­state model

To ensure a precise model conversion and truthful solution, the simulation input parameters were checked for errors andwarnings before model execution. For solving flow equation (Eq. 1), head change and residual criteria for convergence were

set to 0.01 m and 0.01 m3/day, respectively, while the maximum iteration was set to 25.

(1)where K xx , K yy , K zz are hydraulic conductivity values (in meters per day) along x­, y­, and z­axis; h is the hydraulic head(in meters); ω is a source and sink term (volumetric flux per unit volume per day); S s is the specific storage (per meter);and t is time (in days).After the first successful run in the unstressed steady state, the resulting wet and dry cells in addition to the erroneoushead distribution are fixed during model calibration by adjusting the input parameters until the calculated and observedhead in observation points reach acceptable match. Sensible parameters that effectively used in model calibration includehydraulic conductivity, recharge rate, and conductance values. The sets of these parameters were systematically adjustedstarting with K values, recharge rates, and finally conductance values, and the model was repeatedly saved and run.Table 1 shows the final input parameters that were used in the calibrated unstressed steady­state model. Figure 8 showsthe simulated head distribution in the Nubian Sandstone aquifer as calculated from the calibrated unstressed steady statethat represents the conditions of aquifer system in January, 2000. In addition, the calibration indicator bars of 11observation wells are also presented in Fig. 8 that shows good calibration (a green bar indicates less than 0.5 m differencebetween calculated and observed groundwater head) throughout the area, but the northern part of the modeled area hadintermediate calibration (a yellow bar indicates 0.5–1.5 m difference in groundwater head). The poor calibration indicatorat the southwestern boundary (a red bar indicates poor calibration that reports more than 1.5 m difference in head) isencountered due to the skeptic head value reported to this well. Figure 9 presents the plot of the calculated and observedhead values for ten observation points; skeptic value was eliminated, used in model calibration.

Fig. 8

Plane view to the distribution of groundwater head in meters (a.m.s.l.) calculated in the steady state for theupper layer of Nubian sandstone, layer 10 of Siwa model. The error bar corresponds to target ±0.5 to a meterinterval. The bar is green when lies entirely within the target, yellow when error is less than 200 %, and redwhen error is greater than 200 %

( ) + ( ) + ( ) − ω =∂∂x

K xx∂h∂x

∂∂y

K yy∂h∂y

∂∂z

K zz∂h∂z

S s∂h∂t

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Fig. 9

Statistical plot to the observed and calculated head for the observation wells shown in Fig. 8 (symbolsindicate individual wells)

Transient state model

Typically starts with a calibrated steady­state model, transient simulations are usually recommended to analyze time­dependent hydrogeological problems. In the present transient simulation, most of the input parameters of the calibratedunstressed steady model were utilized, and the model was set to convertible confinement conditions, confined orunconfined, based on K value contrast of the alternating model layers (Freeze and Witherspoon 1967). The storagecharacteristics of hydrostratigraphic units were fine­tuned using the data in Table 1, considering the possible ranges ofspecific yield values published in literatures (Morris and Johnson 1967; Domenico 1972). The 36 head data of 2010 (13deep and 23 shallow wells) with 95 % confidence and 10 % head interval were imported as observed transient head. Startedwith the 2000 steady state and using try and error technique, the transient model was calibrated through fine tuning thehydraulic parameters. The transient model was considered calibrated and represents the hydrogeological setting in Siwaarea on 2010 when the difference between the observed and calculated heads was minimal and the statistical parameters ofcalibration (mean error, standard error, and RMS) approached the values in Table 2. Figure 10 shows a plot of calculatedand observed head value for ten observation points at the same sites shown in Fig. 8. Generally, a good match betweenobserved and calculated values except for intermediate match at the proximity of Aghormy Lake is a poor match for anobservation well located to the East of Siwa Lake. The head distribution of the calibrated interpretive transient modelfollows the general trends of the steady state (Fig. 8) with insignificant changes to be presented, and the groundwater flowbudgets calculated for the transient state are presented in Table 3. To set up the model for future stress predictions, tenstress periods of 5 years each were assigned throughout the total simulation period with five time steps assigned to eachstress period. All model parameters were assumed relatively unchanged during the stress period.Table 2

The statistical parameters for assessment the calibration of transient model

Statistical parameters Value (m)

Mean error −0.185

Mean absolute error 0.42

Root mean square 0.461

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Fig. 10

Plot of the observed and calculated head for the calibrated transient model obtained in the observation pointsshown in Fig. 8 (symbols indicate individual wells)

Table 3

In­ and out­flow budgets calculated from the 2010 transient model

Budget item In (m3/day) Out (m3/day)

Constant heads 5,996,035

1,059,843

General heads 28

4,533,683

Wells 0

402,537

Total 5,996,063

5,996,063

In − out % discrepancy

2.14E−07

Model prediction and management scenarios

Theoretically, several strategies can be adapted to groundwater development in Siwa region, but the selected strategyshould remain a practical methodology (Farid and Tuinhof 1991). Three main groundwater development strategies weredeveloped for evaluation using drawdown in head against groundwater abstraction over 50­year period. These strategies

include low (400,000 m3/day), intermediate (500,000 and 600,000 m3/day), and relatively high (800,000 m3/day)pumping stresses. In all scenarios, the additional groundwater withdrawal was extracted from the present wells inaddition to 100 supplementary sites distributed throughout the modeled area with the majority placed in the eastern part,especially in the reclamation lands and around the main populated areas.

The first strategy simulates the current situation and adopts the present aquifer discharge, 400,000 m3/day, from boththe carbonate and Nubian Sandstone aquifers with the bulk volume abstracted from the carbonate aquifer. The second

strategy considers two scenarios: The first involves increasing water extraction gradually to 500,000 m3/day through themodeled time span with some additional wells discharging the Nubian Sandstone aquifer. The second scenario resembles

the previous scenario but adopts increasing the total abstraction to 600,000 m3/day. The third strategy predicts the

aquifer situation with increasing the pumping rate gradually to 800,000 m3/day and placing the additional wells to tapboth the carbonate and Nubian Sandstone aquifers. The decline in the pressure head of the Nubian Sandstone aquifer andlimestone aquifer is monitored during the proposed stress periods of the different scenarios at six observation stationsdistributed throughout the modeled area and the results are presented in Figs. 11 and 12.

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Fig. 11

Plane view to the head distribution in upper carbonate aquifer (layer 5), lower carbonate aquifer (layer 7), andNubian Sandstone aquifer at the end of the 50­year time span due to different pumping stresses:

400,000 m3/day (a, left), 500,000 m3/day (a, right), 600,000 m3/day (b, left), and 800,000 m3/day (b,right)

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Fig. 12

Monitoring the decline of pressure head associating the different pumping scenarios in the important layersof the aquifers using six monitoring stations (location is shown in Fig. 6)

Discussion

The calibrated groundwater flow model of Siwa Oasis provides a detailed description to the configuration of thehydrogeological system and spatial distribution of the groundwater level in the consecutive layers of the importantaquifers, carbonate and Nubian Sandstone, associating the different proposed scenarios (Fig. 11a, b). The average reportedpressure head in the artesian flowing deep wells in Siwa varies between 70 m a.m.s.l. in areas of great aquifer discharge, thearea between Bahei El­Din Lake and Zeitoun Lake, and 120 m a.m.s.l. in the south eastern area. Alternatively, thegroundwater head in the carbonate aquifer varies in average between 50 and 60 m a.m.s.l. that shows a considerabledifference to the pressure head in the Nubian Sandstone aquifer. Such a hydrologic setting favors a dominant local rechargeto the carbonate aquifer via the upward leakage from the Nubian Sandstone aquifer through fault plains and the developedfracture system. This may explain the higher TDS in water abstracted from the carbonated aquifer (>3,500 ppm) comparedto that reported in the Nubian sandstone aquifer (∼2,000 ppm) through passing across the Eocene sediments where TDSdramatically increases. In addition, the high flux springs developed along major fault plains and tapping the carbonate

aquifer (e.g., Abu Shrouf with a natural flow of 9,600 m3/day) introduce an obvious evident to the in situ recharge tocarbonate aquifer. Other sources of recharge to the carbonate aquifer are assumed to occur through water influx fromsurface water runoff during Post­Middle Miocene time (El­Hossary 1999). In fact the contradicting age dating and widerange of ages reported to groundwater from the Nubian aquifer as discussed earlier lead to consider appreciable recharge or

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at least mixture with water from fluvial environment dominated at the Post­Miocene time in Egypt. This explains thepresence of good quality groundwater overlying a bulk poor quality at the shallow parts of the carbonate aquifer andnotable signs of water erosions in carbonates and other surface units such as old channels, dry gorges, and cavities alongSiwa­Matruh road (El­Hossary 1999).

The dominant groundwater flow in Siwa area follows WNW direction with two major local flow systems encountered at thevicinity of Maraqi and Siwa lakes. These local flow systems are associated to discontinuity in the hydrostratigraphic unitsthat correlate with the extensional faulted bedrocks, and such setting strongly supports the theory that the area is astructurally controlled tectonic depression (El­Askary 1969; Mohammad et al. 1999). The converging groundwater flowtoward the center of Maraqi and Siwa lakes (Fig. 11) depicts higher rates of groundwater effluent to the lakes and indicateszones of high vertical hydraulic conductivity resulting from the intersection of conjugate sets of faults as defined byMasoud and Koike (2006). This hydrogeological setting together with high groundwater discharge through naturalsprings and/or uncontrolled dug wells may ultimately lead to further extension in the surface area of the lakes; for

example, the surface extension of the lake Siwa has increased from 5.82 in 1987 to 25.97 km2 in 2003 (Masoud and Koike2004). Furthermore, the tectonic history not only controlled the groundwater flow toward the topographic depressionsoccupied by the lakes but also configured the orientation of the lakes (Knetsch and Yallouze 1955) toward the NW followingthe normal faults while the coupled slip movements may dissect large lakes into parts such as the NE­trending regionalfault dislocating Massir Lake from Zeitoun Lake (Fig. 2) (Masoud and Koike 2006).

Monitoring the ground water levels in shallow and deep wells throughout Siwa Oasis indicated direct hydraulic interactionbetween the Nubian Sandstone aquifer and the overlying carbonate aquifer (El­Hossary 1999). This stands true for settingsat the proximity of high vertical hydraulic conductivity and/or where the aquitards are thin or extinct; otherwise, suchinteraction seems unclear as observed in evaluating the present model output. The pressure head in the different layers ofthe steady­state and transient models (Fig. 12) indicated that the head in the upper two layers (layers 2 and 5) of thecarbonate aquifer is almost identical, except for the middle part where the separating marl layer is well developed (Fig. 7).Such similarity indicates hydraulic continuity and uniform distribution of the confining pressure through the two layersand therefore can be denoted as the upper carbonate aquifer. Characterizing it as the lower carbonate aquifer, the pressurehead distribution in the third carbonate layer (layer 7 of the multilayer model), bounded at the top by the lower clayaquitard and at the bottom by the anhydrite aquifuge, of the carbonate aquifer is distinctly different from that of the fourthcarbonate layer (layer 9 of the multilayer model) that occurs in contact with Nubian Sandstone aquifer. Although thefourth layer in the carbonate aquifer represents the stratigraphic extent to the third layer, particularly the area locatedsoutheast of Siwa Lake, their head closely resembles that of the Nubian Sandstone aquifer due to their hydrostratigraphicposition (Fig. 7). This represents a typical conjugate control of the developed geologic structure and hydrostratigraphy ongroundwater head distribution in the multilayer aquifer system of Siwa Oasis.

During different transient model trials, monitoring of pressure head in carbonate aquifer, particularly the upper part,showed a distinct fluctuation associating pumping both the carbonate and Nubian Sandstone aquifers and the fluctuationrhythm appears dependent to the pumping scenarios and the influences of the neighboring hydrologic disturbances(Figs. 11 and 12). This obviously indicates the direct groundwater replenishment of both shallow clastic and carbonateaquifers through the vertical leakage from the deeper Nubian Sandstone that widely extends throughout Egypt and part ofLibya. To evaluate the feasibility of various exploitation plans for the groundwater resources in Siwa Oasis, the calibratedtransient model is utilized to evaluate the impact of a total discharge of 400,000, 500,000, 600,000, and

800,000 m3/day from both carbonate and Nubian Sandstone aquifers. In addition, the results may help to indicate theoptimum pumping rate that controls the natural flow from springs and untapped shallow hand­dug wells. Over 50 years,the transient model run showed insignificant change in groundwater level of the alternating layers throughout Siwa area

with ongoing pumping rate, 400,000 m3/day, except for the area at the environ of monitoring station 1 (Fig. 12). Thepressure head distribution appears highly sensitive to the vertical hydraulic conductivity, presence and continuity of theaquitard, and the input of boundary conditions (tested only in this scenario to evaluate the effect of constant boundaryhypothesis). Similarly, the other scenarios showed minimal effect of pumping on the model layers below the lowercarbonate aquifer, and generally, the drawdown did not exceed a meter. However, both the upper and lower carbonateaquifer showed significantly different responses to various pumping stress from the west to the east of the modeled area(Figs. 11 and 12). Spatially, the western part, the area around Bahei El­Din Lake, and middle part, the area between SiwaLake and Zeitoun Lake, of the model demonstrated the important drawdown in pressure head compared to the eastern

part through the different pumping stresses with the significant changes resulting from 800,000 m3/day scenario. Theinsignificant changes in groundwater level of east Siwa, the area between Massir Lake and Zeitoun Lake, with differentaquifer stresses are attributed to the minimal groundwater abstraction associating seldom human activities in this area.

The monitoring programs conducted by RIGW (1996) and local community interview during field work indicated that thenaturally flowing shallow wells and springs tapping the carbonate aquifer and located at the environs of active pumpingdeep wells that tap the Nubian Sandstone aquifer show a gradual reduction in artesian flow followed eventually bycomplete cease of natural flow. These observations may indicate local interaction between the Nubian Sandstone aquiferand the upper carbonate aquifer that could be facilitated by development of vertical fault systems. El­Hossary 1999reported that the shallow wells stop natural flow when the drawdown in pressure head approaches 4 m, and the deep wellsmay behave in correspondence when the pressure head falls to 60 m a.m.s.l. Based on these criteria and according to thecurrent transient model runs, most of the shallow wells in the western part of the study area are expected to discontinueartesian flow while the majority wells in the middle part encounter a considerable reduction in flow rate within the first

10 years if the pumping rate increased to 500,000 m3/day. Alternatively when the total pumping increases to 600,000

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and 800,000 m3/day, the simulation results demonstrated drawdown in groundwater head between 4 and 18 m at thewestern and middle parts of Siwa area which would prevent the natural flow of both shallow wells and dramatically reduceartesian flow from deep wells after 4 months to 2 years, and ultimately, most pumping wells should be supplemented withwater pumps. The groundwater level monitored in the eastern part of the Nubian Sandstone and carbonate aquifers did notshow important variations, less than 2 m, and appeared stable to a great extent through most pumping scenarios. This isapparently pertinent to the few pumping wells tapping the system that are incompetent to cause important disequilibriumand reconfiguration of pressure head within the model layers, and in consequence, a trivial change in groundwater levelhas been observed through the tested time span. This indicates the capability of the Nubian Sandstone and carbonateaquifers to supply additional groundwater, despite the additional pumping stress added at this area in the differentscenarios, for future land development plans.

Detailed water budget analysis for different layers (Table 4) through the different scenarios indicated that there is more

than 320,000–570,000 m3/day of groundwater abstracted the carbonate aquifer, particularly layers 5 and 7 of the uppercarbonate aquifer. While considerable volume of the additional pumping stress targeted the lower parts of the model,layers 9 and 10, 25­35% the total stress was assigned to the upper carbonate aquifer. In addition, the simulation results ofvarious pumping stresses indicate that the recommended pumping scenario should fall between 500,000 and

600,000 m3/day and such increase in groundwater abstraction should be gradual. These values are defined by marked fallin groundwater head of the shallow aquifers that considerably reduce the natural flow of the hand­dug wells and springstapping them (Fig. 12). Accordingly, several trial runs have been tested to define the optimum pumping rate that preservesthe groundwater system balance under the current boundary conditions. The model run that best fits the above criteria has

adopted a total abstraction of 520,000 m3/day from the carbonate and Nubian Sandstone aquifers. This total abstractionis expected to save large water quantities draining daily to the different lakes and mitigate the waterlogging problems inSiwa Oasis (Sakr et al. 2002). Furthermore, additional production wells should tap the area east of Zeitoun Lake thatseems suitable to host new development projects. Finally, it is recommended to continue the monitoring programs ofgroundwater level and soil salinity to update the model input and apparently test the reliability of the model output.Table 4

Daily pumping rates from the different layers in Siwa aquifer system during the different scenarios

Layer Daily pumping rate scenarios (×1,000 m3/day)

2 40 40 40 40

5 145 150 160 170

7 170 190 220 300

9 20 40 70 100

10 25 80 110 190

Total 400 500 600 800

Conclusion

Simulation of impact of present and future groundwater extraction scenarios from the non­replenished carbonate andNubian Sandstone Aquifers in Siwa Oasis indicated the presence of local flow systems at the vicinity of Bahei El­Din Lakeand Siwa Lake, interrupting the regional WNW groundwater flow system. These local flow systems are tectonicallydependent and generally associate zones of significant high vertical hydraulic conductivity that match the development ofnormal faults. The multilayer model simulations indicated that most shallow wells will cease artesian flow if the total

abstraction increases to 500,000 m3/day while phenomenon of natural flow would disappear if the pumping rate

increased to 800,000 m3/day. The optimum pumping rate that best fits the aquifer potentiality and controls the artesian

flow was found close to 520,000 m3/day from the carbonate and Nubian Sandstone aquifers. The insignificantdisturbances in pressure head with various pumping stress in the eastern part of the modeled area are attributed to the fewproduction wells and lack of important human activities. The gleaned information represents the importance of multilayer

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groundwater flow models in solving intervening groundwater problems and demarcating the broad portrait of waterresources management policy.

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of National Authority of Remote Sensing and Space Sciencesduring the field work. The innumerous RIGW and Desert Research Center employees who collected and processed the fielddata together with the internal reports are truly appreciated for providing well and pumping data that constitute thefoundation of this work.

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