Locating suitable sites for the construction of subsurface dams using GIS
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Locating suitable sites for the construction of subsurface dams using GIS Imran Ali Jamali • Bo Olofsson • Ulla Mo¨rtberg
Received: 20 April 2012 / Accepted: 29 January 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
Abstract Subsurface dams constitute an affordable and effective method for the sustainable development and management of groundwater resources when constructed on suitable sites. Such dams have rarely been constructed in crystalline rock areas and to best of our knowledge, geographic information system (GIS) has never been used in any methodology for locating suitable sites for constructing these dams. This paper presents a new methodology to locate suitable sites for the construction of subsurface dams using GIS software supported by groundwater balance modelling in a study area Boda-Kalvsvik, Sweden. Groundwater resources were calculated based on digitized geological data and assumptions regarding stratigraphic layering taken from well archive data and geological maps. These estimates were then compared with future extractions for domestic water supply using a temporally dynamic water balance model. Suitability analyses for subsurface dams were based on calculated topographic wetness index (TWI) values and geological data, including stratigraphic information. Groundwater balance calculations indicated that many of the most populated areas were susceptible to frequent water supply shortages. Of the 34 sub-catchments within the study area: ten were over-extracted, nine did not have any water supply demand at all, one was self-sufficient and the remaining 14 were able to meet the water supply demand with surplus storage capacity. Six suitable sites for the construction of subsurface dams were suggested in the vicinity of the over-extracted sites based on suitability
I. A. Jamali (&) B. Olofsson U. Mo¨rtberg Department of Land and Water Resources Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), 10044 Stockholm, Sweden e-mail: [email protected]
analysis and groundwater balance estimates. The new methodology shows encouraging results for regions with humid climate but having limited natural water storage capacities. The developed methodology can be used as a preliminary planning step for subsurface dam construction, establishing a base for more detailed field investigations. Keywords Subsurface dam GIS Groundwater balance Wetness index Water supply
Introduction Water is an essential resource for life, and due to potential climate changes and current consumption trends, it is feared that water crises will be ubiquitous across the globe by the middle of this century (Danilenko et al. 2010). One of the ways to cope with the emerging trends of population growth and climatic severity is to store water in unconventional ways such as rain water harvesting (RWH) (Ngigi 2003) and artificial recharge (Bouwer 2002). RWH can be defined as a water conservation technique generally comprising accumulating, storing and collecting the rainwater for public and agricultural demands (Rockstro¨m 200
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