Vengosh, A., & Rosenthal, E. (1994). Saline groundwater in Israel: its bearing on the water crisis in the country. Journal of Hydrology, 156(1), 389–430.
Abstract: One of the major causes for the deterioration of water quality bearing heavily on the water crisis in Israel is the ongoing contamination of its water resources by saline water bodies. The present paper reviews the geochemical processes forming saline water, lists and explains certain chemical and isotopic parameters which enable understanding these processes and describes the saline groundwater bodies and various salinization phenomena occurring in the country’s various aquifers. Deterioration of groundwater in Israel is caused by numerous natural processes such as encroachment of sea water, migration of connate, highly pressurized brines penetrating into fresh groundwater, by subsurface dissolution of soluble salts originating in surrounding country rocks and by water-rock interaction. In addition to sea water, two saline water bodies were identified as the main factors causing salinization of fresh groundwater: (a) Ca-chloride brines encountered in the Jordan-Dead Sea Rift Valley, in various parts of the Negev and of the Coastal Plain, and (b) Na-chloride saline water identified in the subsurface of the Negev and in the southern part of the Coastal Plain. Intensive exploitation of groundwater in Israel has disturbed the natural equilibrium which prevailed between fresh and saline water. The newly established groundwater flow regimes have facilitated the migration of saline water bodies, their participation in the active hydrological cycle and the progressive contamination of fresh groundwater. These processes which were not anticipated by planners and water resources managers emphasize that large-scale groundwater exploitation was undertaken without giving sufficient consideration to the occurrence and subsurface migration of saline water and brines.
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Cardenal, J., Benavente, J., & Cruz-Sanjulián, J. J. (1994). Chemical evolution of groundwater in Triassic gypsum-bearing carbonate aquifers (Las Alpujarras, southern Spain). Journal of Hydrology, 161(1), 3–30.
Abstract: A hydrochemical study employing modelling techniques, was carried out using samples taken at 65 points (springs and wells) in Triassic carbonate aquifers (Lújar-Gádor Unit, Alpujárride Complex, Betic Cordillera). These aquifers are made up of limestones and dolomites with some gypsum scattered or interbedded. Though the area is semi-arid, recharge is relatively high because of their mountainous nature. The carbonate rocks contain dense microfissuration; the groundwater flow regime is predominantly diffuse. The karstic forms are in general poorly developed. Two main hydrochemical processes have been identified in these aquifers. One is incongruent dissolution of dolomite that determines the chemical composition of the less mineralised water. The other is dedolomitisation (dolomite dissolution together with calcite precipitation caused by dissolution of gypsum), which becomes predominant when the flow encounters interbedded gypsum. This reaction is also frequently associated with low temperature thermalism, and can play a part in more intense local karstification (cavities, sinkholes, high transmisivity in wells) observed in the sectors of these aquifers where gypsum is more abundant. A reaction path model has been used to simulate the geochemical processes through a hypothetical aquifer (with similar lithology to the Alpujárride carbonate aquifers). Successive stages of evolution through the carbonate sequence, represented by different saturation states with respect to calcite, dolomite gypsum and CO2, have been modelled and then compared with the field data.
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Di Lorenzo, T., & Galassi, D. M. P. (2013). Agricultural impact on Mediterranean alluvial aquifers: do groundwater communities respond? Fundamental and Applied Limnology/Archiv für Hydrobiologie, 182(4), 271–282.
Abstract: In Mediterranean countries agricultural development heavily depends on groundwater availability due
to arid and semi-arid climate and poor surface-water resources. Agriculture represents one of the most relevant
pressures which generate impacts in alluvial aquifers by means of fertilizers and pesticides usage and groundwater
overexploitation. Until now, very few studies have addressed the ecological response of groundwater fauna to
groundwater contamination and overexploitation due to agricultural practices. We investigated a Mediterranean
alluvial aquifer heavily affected by nitrates contamination and groundwater abstraction stress due to crop irrigation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity of groundwater communities to (a) groundwater nitrate
contamination, (b) groundwater abstraction due to irrigation practices, and (c) saltwater intrusion. The present
work suggests that nitrate concentration lower than 150 mg l
–1 is not an immediate threat to groundwater biodiversity in alluvial aquifers. This conclusion must be carefully considered in the light of the total lack of knowledge
of the effects of long-term nitrate pollution on the groundwater biota. Moreover, local extinctions of less tolerant
species, prior to monitoring, cannot be ruled out. Conversely, species abundances in ground water are affected by
groundwater withdrawal, but species richness may be less sensitive. This result is attributable to the disappearance
of saturated microhabitats and to the depletion of fine unconsolidated sediments, reducing the surface available
to bacterial biofilm, which represent the trophic resource for several groundwater invertebrates and where the
main aquifer self-purification processes, such as denitrification, take place. Saltwater intrusion seems not to affect
groundwater species at the values measured in this coastal aquifer.
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Sivakumar*, B., Harter, T., & Zhang, H. (2005). A fractal investigation of solute travel time in a heterogeneous aquifer: transition probability/Markov chain representation. Ecol. Modell., 182, 355–370.
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Jalali*, M., Karami, S., & Marj, A. F. (2019). On the problem of the spatial distribution delineation of the groundwater quality indicators via multivariate statistical and geostatistical approaches. Environ. Monit. Assess., 191(S2), 323.
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