Due to growing demand and reduction of water resources and increasing pollution of water,driven by dramatic population and economic growth, arid and semi-arid land's imminent water problems are nowadays aggravatin...Due to growing demand and reduction of water resources and increasing pollution of water,driven by dramatic population and economic growth, arid and semi-arid land's imminent water problems are nowadays aggravating. This study aims to determine the most appropriate management strategies for balancing the Abhar plain aquifer using the SWOT coupled with AHP technique. The results indicate that weaknesses prevail over strengths as well as threats over opportunities. The placement in the quarter of weaknesses-threats with a defensive strategy indicates the critical condition of the Abhar plain aquifer. The most appropriate solutions to achieve the goal of balancing the groundwater were prioritized by AHP method. According to results, improper management of water consumption with a weight of 72.5% is the most destructive factor in reducing groundwater resources. Among the types of consumption, the effect of an agricultural factor carries a weight of 74.2%. The exploitation of illegal wells, overdraft of exploitation license provisions of wells, reduction of precipitation and traditional irrigation methods were selected as the destructive factors causing the deteriration of groundwater resources. Also, with filling the illegal wells,changing the type of cultivation and greenhouse crops cultivation, installing a smart water meter,observance the provisions of the water exploitation license, implementing integrated pressurized irrigation systems, benefiting from suitable climatic conditions and geographical location for cultivating and developing the low-water use species and industries and on the other hand, with implementing artificial recharge to control the surface water resources and reduce abstraction from groundwater aquifers, the adverse trend of Abhar Plain groundwater resources can be controlled.展开更多
Water shortage is the main problem facing any development in Egypt especially in the desert lands. River Nile is considered the main source of water in Egypt but its water covers only the area of flood plain where its...Water shortage is the main problem facing any development in Egypt especially in the desert lands. River Nile is considered the main source of water in Egypt but its water covers only the area of flood plain where its tributaries do not reach to the desert. The desert fringes, west of El-Minia governorate, Egypt, are areas of natural expansion for agricultural, industrial, and civil activities. This implies an increasing demand for groundwater. A numerical groundwater model is one of the main tools used for assessment of the resource potential and prediction of future impact under different circumstances and stresses. In this paper, a transient groundwater flow model in the desert district west of El-Minia, Egypt, was developed. The conceptual model was built by analyzing the hydrogeological data and previous work. Steady state model of year 1990 was used to investigate and calibrate the parameters such as hydraulic conductivities, recharge and conductance of the surface water streams. The storage coefficients are calibrated by the transient model based on the available data observed from 1990 to 2013, which provides insights to understand the behavior of groundwater system in Quaternary Aquifer and to predict spatial-temporal distributions of groundwater levels and groundwater flow in responding to extraction of water. The calibrated transient model will be used to predict the impacts of desert development schemes and water resources management schemes on groundwater in the study area.展开更多
In Southwestern China, karst covers an area of 540,000 km2, and supports a population of approximately 100 million people. This groundwater can easily become highly polluted without effective management. Sound managem...In Southwestern China, karst covers an area of 540,000 km2, and supports a population of approximately 100 million people. This groundwater can easily become highly polluted without effective management. Sound management of karst areas requires the conscientious participation of citizens including homeowners, planners, government officials, farmers and other land-use decision makers. Lingshui Spring was a good example. A series of educational materials were developed and delivered to the local government, residents, and students. A groundwater polluted accident was tracked as a natural tracer test in a spring to increase understanding of the vulnerability of the area’s karst aquifer. More than 200 people attended the communication and training course on groundwater protection and environmental justice law. Several efforts have appeared as a result, such as a proposal for Lingshui water resources protection that was put forward for the first time by Wuming county political consultative conference.展开更多
An effective evaluation system can provide specific and practical suggestions to the deep groundwater management. But such kind of evaluation system has not been proposed in China. In this study, an evaluation index s...An effective evaluation system can provide specific and practical suggestions to the deep groundwater management. But such kind of evaluation system has not been proposed in China. In this study, an evaluation index system is specifically developed to evaluate deep groundwater management efficiency. It is composed of three first-level indicators(law enforcement capability, management ability, and management effectiveness) and eleven second-level indicators. The second-level indicators include seven mandatory indicators and four optional indicators. Piecewise linear function is used to normalize the quantitative indicators, and expert scoring method and questionnaire survey method are used to normalize the qualitative indicators. Then a comprehensive indicator weighting evaluation method is used to evaluate the first-level indicators and the target topic. A case study is carried out to evaluate deep groundwater management efficiency in Tianjin City. According to the evaluation score in each period, the management efficiency of every district in Tianjin City gradually improved. The overall evaluation score in the early deep groundwater extraction period is 0.12. After a series of deep groundwater protection efforts, this score reached to 0.61 in 2007, and met the regulation criteria. The evaluation results also showed that the further groundwater management efforts in Tianjin City should be focused on building a dynamic database to collect comprehensive deep well-log data; and on a reasonable design and distribution of the groundwater monitoring network. It demonstrated that the index system is suitable to locate the deficiencies of current groundwater management systems and to guide further improvements. It can then be used to protect deep groundwater.展开更多
The rapid increase of urban population in coastal areas of developing countries is nowadays a widespread phenomenon that has several environmental, economical and social consequences.Internal migration, spread of info...The rapid increase of urban population in coastal areas of developing countries is nowadays a widespread phenomenon that has several environmental, economical and social consequences.Internal migration, spread of informal suburban settlements,lack of adequate sanitation,increase in water extraction。展开更多
This study proposes a groundwater management model in which the solution is performed through a combined simulation-optimization model. In the proposed model, a modular three-dimensional finite difference groundwater ...This study proposes a groundwater management model in which the solution is performed through a combined simulation-optimization model. In the proposed model, a modular three-dimensional finite difference groundwater flow model, MODFLOW is used as simulation model. This model is then integrated with an optimization model, in which a modified Pareto dominance based Real-Coded Genetic Algorithm (mPRCGA) is adopted. The performance of the proposed mPRCGA based management model is tested on a hypothetical numerical example. The results indicate that the proposed mPRCGA based management model is an effective way to obtain good optimum management strategy and may be used to solve other type of groundwater simulation-optimization problems.展开更多
Tropical islands,about 50000 in number,are distributed over the Pacific,Indian and Atlantic Oceans.Limited groundwater resources in the form of lens shaped aquifers,in atolls,are extremely vulnerable to natural proces...Tropical islands,about 50000 in number,are distributed over the Pacific,Indian and Atlantic Oceans.Limited groundwater resources in the form of lens shaped aquifers,in atolls,are extremely vulnerable to natural processes and human activities.The increasing population on these islands has worsened the groundwater demand supply ratio significantly. This deteriorating ground water condition has come展开更多
Recently, the area located within the Unfinished Obelisk (UO) archeological site showed numerous seepages and accumulations of groundwater in a small pond located a few meters from the Unfinished Obelisk. The Supreme ...Recently, the area located within the Unfinished Obelisk (UO) archeological site showed numerous seepages and accumulations of groundwater in a small pond located a few meters from the Unfinished Obelisk. The Supreme Council of Antiques sponsored integrated geological, geophysical, and hydrogeological studies to identify the possible sources of groundwater and the optimum technique to manage the groundwater flow system that may jeopardize this invaluable sculpture. The geological units and the prevailing structure have been studied in detail using Landsat imagery and field work over two consecutive seasons. The field studies indicated the development of several fault/joint systems oriented mainly ENE-WSW with clear indications of mineralization and intensive weathering effects along these fabrics. Several resistivity (vertical seismic profile and resistivity imaging) measurements extending down to at least 20 m depth and Radar imaging down to 10 m depth are gathered to investigate the extension of outcrop units and the dominant structures prevailing the near subsurface. Geophysical data indicated the development of at least three hydrostratigraphic units arranged from top to bottom as valley fill, fractured/weathered granite, and slightly fractured to massive granitic unit. In addition, the major faults mapped by resistivity images helped to locate several observation wells and a production well to test the transmissivity across the groundwater system. The results of a pumping test indicated very low aquifer conductivity and the development of an aquitard with preferential vertical flow at the study area. This enforces a local interference through a shallow underground drainage system with sump and pump to maintain low groundwater level at the UO-archeological site.展开更多
The large concentration of human population,industry and services in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona has to confront scarce water resources,serious seasonal and inter-annual variations and quality deficiencies in t...The large concentration of human population,industry and services in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona has to confront scarce water resources,serious seasonal and inter-annual variations and quality deficiencies in the sources.A large fraction of these water resources are in the medium-size Llobregat River basin and the remaining ones correspond to a surface water transfer,seawater desalination and wastewater reclamation.Groundwater dominated water resources availability before 1950.Afterwards,water supply has evolved progressively to integrated water resources management,which includes serious water quality concerns to deal with population density,river pollution,seawater intrusion in the main aquifer,and brine generation in the mid Llobregat basin due to old mining of saline minerals.The role of the alluvial aquifers has progressively evolved from being the main water source to reserve storage to cope with seasonal and drought water resources availability.River-enhanced recharge and artificial recharge are needed to assure enough groundwater storage before surface water becomes scarce and/or suffers a serious temporal loss of quality.Enhanced river recharge started in 1950.Treated river water injection in dual-purpose wells was put into operation in the early 1970s.Basin and pond recharge was added later,as well as a deep well injection barrier along the coast to reduce seawater intrusion and to allow increased groundwater abstraction in moments of water scarcity.There is a progressive evolution from solving water quantity problems to consideration of water quality improvement during recharge,with attention to emergent concern pollutants in river water and in reclaimed water to be considered for artificial recharge.Improvement of artificial recharge operation activities has been introduced and research is being carried out on the difficult behavior to degrade organic pollutants during infiltration and in the terrain.This paper presents the different activities carried out and presents the research activities,and comments on the economic,social and administrative issues involved as well.展开更多
The major issues concerning water development and management include water conservation and the efficiency of water use, cost recovery, social and environmental factors. So continuous monitoring is essential to evalua...The major issues concerning water development and management include water conservation and the efficiency of water use, cost recovery, social and environmental factors. So continuous monitoring is essential to evaluate the reclamation impacts on the groundwater potentiality such as Esna Area. The main objective of this work is to determine the new development areas in Esna during the period from 1984 to 2011 using remote sensing technique. The impacts of the present and future development have been evaluated by using the two-dimensional numerical groundwater flow Simulation Package (visual modflow 4.2). The package is used to construct and calibrate a numerical model that can be used to simulate the response of the aquifer in the study area under implementing different management alternatives in the form of changes in piezometric levels and salinity. From land use maps of the study area in the year 2011, a lot of changes in development areas especially out the border of the old land were observed. The change in land reclaimed area was estimated with 44% in the period from year 1984 to 2011. This development accompanied with draw down about 2.5 meters through this period of time. The authors recommend applying different kinds of change detection technique on the study area. Comparing between results, continuous monitoring of the development area is highly recommended.展开更多
Uncertainty in determining optimum conjunctive water use lies not only on variability of hydrological cycle and climate but also on lack of adequate data and perfect knowledge about groundwater-surface water system in...Uncertainty in determining optimum conjunctive water use lies not only on variability of hydrological cycle and climate but also on lack of adequate data and perfect knowledge about groundwater-surface water system interactions, errors in historic data and inherent variability of system parameters both in space and time. Simulation-optimization models are used for conjunctive water use management under uncertain conditions. However, direct application of such approach whereby all realizations are considered at every-iteration of the optimization process leads to a highly computational time-consuming optimization problem as the number of realizations increases. Hence, this study proposes a novel approach—a Retrospective Optimization Approximation (ROA) approach. In this approach, a simulation model was used to determine aquifer system responses (draw-downs) which were assembled as response matrices and incorporated in the optimization model (procedure) as coefficients in the constraints. The sample optimization sub-problems generated, were solved and analyzed through ROA-Active-Set procedure implemented under MATLAB code. The ROA-Active Set procedure solves and evaluates a sequence of sample path optimization sub-problems in an increasing number of realizations. The methodology was applied to a real-world conjunctive water use management problem found in Great Letaba River basin, South Africa. In the River basin, surface water source contributes 87% of the existing un-optimized total conjunctive water use withdrawal rate (6512.04 m<sup>3</sup>/day) and the remaining 13% is contributed by groundwater source. Through ROA approach, results indicate that the optimum percentages contribution of the surface and subsurface sources to the total water demand are 58% and 42% respectively. This implies that the existing percentage contribution can be increased or reduced by ±29% that is groundwater source can be increased by 29% while the surface water source contribution can be reduced by 29%. This reveals that the existing conjunctive water use practice is unsustainable wherein surface water system is overstressed while groundwater system is under-utilized. Through k-means sampling technique ROA-Active Set procedure was able to attain a converged maximum expected total optimum conjunctive water use withdrawal rate of 4.35 × 10<sup>4</sup> m<sup>3</sup>/day within a relatively few numbers of iterations (6 to 8 iterations) in about 2.30 Hrs. In conclusion, results demonstrated that ROA approach is capable of managing real-world regional aquifers sustainable conjunctive water use practice under hydro-geological uncertainty conditions.展开更多
The study integrates both the geological and geophysical mapping techniques for groundwater potential studies at Ekwegbe-Agu and the environs, Enugu state, Nigeria for optimal citing of borehole. Located in the Anambr...The study integrates both the geological and geophysical mapping techniques for groundwater potential studies at Ekwegbe-Agu and the environs, Enugu state, Nigeria for optimal citing of borehole. Located in the Anambra Basin between latitudes 6˚43'N and 6˚47'N and longitudes 7˚28'E and 7˚32'E, it is stratigraphycally underlain by, from bottom to top, the Enugu/Nkporo, Mamu and Ajali Formation respectively, a complex geology that make citing of productive borehole in the area problematic leading to borehole failure and dry holes due to inadequate sampling. The study adopted a field and analytic sampling approach, integrating field geological, electrical resistivity and self-potential methods. The software, SedLog v3.1, InterpexIx1Dv.3, and Surfer v10 were employed for the data integration and interpretation. The result of the geological field and borehole data shows 11 sedimentary facies consisting of sandstone, shales and heterolith of sandstone/shale, with the aquifer zone mostly prevalent in the more porous sand-dominated horizons. Mostly the AK and HK were the dominant curve types. An average of 6 geo-electric layers were delineated across all transects with resistivity values ranging from 25.42 - 105.85 Ωm, 186.38 - 3383.3 Ωm, and 2992 - 6286.4 Ωm in the Enugu, Mamu and Ajali Formations respectively. The resistivity of the main aquifer layer ranges from 1 to 500 Ωm. The aquifer thickness within the study area varies between 95 and 140 m. The western and northwestern part of the study area which is underlain mainly by the Ajali Formation showed the highest groundwater potential in the area and suitable for citing productive boreholes.展开更多
Groundwater quality assessment is important to assure safe and durable water use.In semi-arid areas of Algeria,groundwater represents the main water resource for drinking water supply of the rural population as well a...Groundwater quality assessment is important to assure safe and durable water use.In semi-arid areas of Algeria,groundwater represents the main water resource for drinking water supply of the rural population as well as for irrigation of agricultural lands.Groundwater samples from wells and springs were collected from the Gargaat Tarf and Annk Djemel sub-watersheds of the Oum El Bouaghi,Algeria,and were analyzed and compared with the World Health Organization(WHO)standards.Results showed that most of the measured physical and chemical parameters exceeded the quality limits according to the WHO standards.Groundwater had a slightly alkaline water pH(7.00-7.79),electrical conductivity>1500μS/cm,chloride>500 mg/L,calcium>250 mg/L,and magnesium>155 mg/L.Water quality index(WQI)results showed that 68%of the area had excellent water quality,24%of the samples fell into good category,and only 8%were of poor quality and unsuitable for human consumption.Six wells in the area showed bacterial contamination.Total coliforms(453.9(±180.3)CFU(colony-forming units)/100 mL),fecal coliforms(243.2(±99.2)CFU/100 mL),and fecal streptococci(77.9(±32.0)CFU/100 mL)loads were above the standard limits set by the WHO.These results confirmed that water resources in the study area were strongly influenced by anthropogenic activities and were not recommended for consumption as drinking water.展开更多
In groundwater hydrology,aquitard heterogeneity is often less considered compared to aquifers,despite its significant impact on groundwater hydraulics and groundwater resources evaluation.A semi-analytical solution is...In groundwater hydrology,aquitard heterogeneity is often less considered compared to aquifers,despite its significant impact on groundwater hydraulics and groundwater resources evaluation.A semi-analytical solution is derived for pumping-induced well hydraulics and groundwater budget with consideration of vertical heterogeneity in aquitard hydraulic conductivity(K)and specific storage(S_(s)).The proposed new solution is innovative in its partitioning of the aquitard into multiple homogeneous sub-layers to enable consideration of various forms of vertically heterogeneous K or S_(s).Two scenarios of analytical investigations are explored:one is the presence of aquitard interlayers with distinct K or S_(s) values,a common field-scale occurrence;another is an exponentially depth-decaying aquitard S_(s),a regional-scale phenomenon supported by statistical analysis.Analytical investigations reveal that a low-K interlayer can significantly increase aquifer drawdown and enhance aquifer/aquitard depletion;a high-S_(s) interlayer can noticeably reduce aquifer drawdown and increase aquitard depletion.Locations of low-K or high-S_(s) interlayers also significantly impact well hydraulics and groundwater budget.In the context of an exponentially depth-decaying aquitard S_(s),a larger decay exponent can enhance aquifer drawdown.When using current models with a vertically homogeneous aquitard,half the sum of the geometric and harmonic means of exponentially depth-decaying aquitard S_(s) should be used to calculate aquitard depletion and unconfined aquifer leakage.展开更多
In the Tano River Basin,groundwater serves as a crucial resource;however,its quantity and quality with regard to trace elements and microbiological loadings remain poorly understood due to the lack of groundwater logs...In the Tano River Basin,groundwater serves as a crucial resource;however,its quantity and quality with regard to trace elements and microbiological loadings remain poorly understood due to the lack of groundwater logs and limited water research.This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the Tano River Basin,focusing on three key objectives.First,it investigated the aquifer hydraulic parameters and the results showed significant spatial variations in borehole depths,yields,transmissivity,hydraulic conductivity,and specific capacity.Deeper boreholes were concentrated in the northeastern and southeastern zones,while geological formations,particu-larly the Apollonian Formation,exhibit a strong influence on borehole yields.The study identified areas with high transmissivity and hydraulic conductivity in the southern and eastern regions,suggesting good groundwater avail-ability and suitability for sustainable water supply.Sec-ondly,the research investigated the groundwater quality and observed that the majority of borehole samples fall within WHO(Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality,Environmental Health Criteria,Geneva,2011,2017.http://www.who.int)limit.However,some samples have pH levels below the standards,although the groundwater generally qualifies as freshwater.The study further explores hydrochemical facies and health risk assessment,highlighting the dominance of Ca–HCO3 water type.Trace element analysis reveals minimal health risks from most elements,with chromium(Cr)as the primary contributor to chronic health risk.Overall,this study has provided a key insights into the Tano River Basin’s hydrogeology and associated health risks.The outcome of this research has contributed to the broader understanding of hydrogeologi-cal dynamics and the importance of managing groundwater resources sustainably in complex geological environments.展开更多
Groundwater resources are the main sources of water used to supply drinking water to the population of the Ouémé Delta via the Continental Terminal aquifer. Urbanization, population growth, and agricultural ...Groundwater resources are the main sources of water used to supply drinking water to the population of the Ouémé Delta via the Continental Terminal aquifer. Urbanization, population growth, and agricultural and industrial activities have resulted in a deterioration in the quality of these resources. To assess the quality of the delta’s groundwater and its suitability for human consumption and irrigation, a total of fourteen (14) physico-chemical parameters were analyzed in some forty existing water points between September 2020 and March 2021, using standard water analysis techniques. The values obtained were compared with the potability standards recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Republic of Benin and were subjected to statistical analysis (principal component analysis (PCA)). In addition, methods for determining the suitability of water for irrigation were used. The results showed that the waters are acidic to slightly neutral and influenced by ambient temperature. In addition, the waters are moderately mineralized, with conductivities (24 - 1205 μS/cm) in line with WHO standards. A comparison of the analytical results of the WHO (2017) and Benin (2001) standards indicates that the majority of the waters studied are of good quality for all the chemical parameters considered. Nevertheless, some samples show levels of nitrates (21%), potassium (14% to 16%), calcium (13%), ammonium (12%), nitrites (8%) and bicarbonates (10%) over their respective standards. The Wilcox and Riverside diagrams indicate that the majority of waters (90%) have excellent suitability for irrigation and no negative effect on soil fertilization.展开更多
Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a major public health problem due to its increasing frequency, mortality and management cost. This cost may require major financial efforts from patients, especially in deve...Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a major public health problem due to its increasing frequency, mortality and management cost. This cost may require major financial efforts from patients, especially in developing countries like ours where less than 7% of the population has health insurance. This study aimed to estimate the direct cost of managing VTE in three reference hospitals in Yaoundé. Methods: This was a cross-sectional retrospective study over a three-year period (from January 1st 2018 to December 31 2020) carried out in the Cardiology departments of the Central and General Hospitals, and the Emergency Centre of the city of Yaoundé. All patients managed during the study period for deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism confirmed by venous ultrasound coupled with Doppler and computed tomography pulmonary angiography respectively were included. For each patient, we collected sociodemographic and clinical data as well as data on the cost of consultation, hospital stay, workups and medications. These data were analysed using SPSS version 23.0. Results: A total of 92 patient’s records were analysed. The median age was 60 years [48 - 68] with a sex ratio of 0.53. The median direct cost of management of venous thromboembolism was 766,375 CFAF [536,455 - 1,029,745] or $1415 USD. Management of pulmonary embolism associated with deep vein thrombosis was more costly than isolated pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis. Factors influencing the direct cost of management of venous thromboembolism were: hospital structure (p = 0.015), health insurance (p 0.001), type of pulmonary embolism (p = 0.021), and length of hospital stay (p = 0.001). Conclusion: Management of VTE is a major financial burden for our patients and this burden is influenced by the hospital structure, health insurance, type of pulmonary embolism and length of hospital stay.展开更多
In permissioned blockchain networks,the Proof of Authority(PoA)consensus,which uses the election of authorized nodes to validate transactions and blocks,has beenwidely advocated thanks to its high transaction throughp...In permissioned blockchain networks,the Proof of Authority(PoA)consensus,which uses the election of authorized nodes to validate transactions and blocks,has beenwidely advocated thanks to its high transaction throughput and fault tolerance.However,PoA suffers from the drawback of centralization dominated by a limited number of authorized nodes and the lack of anonymity due to the round-robin block proposal mechanism.As a result,traditional PoA is vulnerable to a single point of failure that compromises the security of the blockchain network.To address these issues,we propose a novel decentralized reputation management mechanism for permissioned blockchain networks to enhance security,promote liveness,and mitigate centralization while retaining the same throughput as traditional PoA.This paper aims to design an off-chain reputation evaluation and an on-chain reputation-aided consensus.First,we evaluate the nodes’reputation in the context of the blockchain networks and make the reputation globally verifiable through smart contracts.Second,building upon traditional PoA,we propose a reputation-aided PoA(rPoA)consensus to enhance securitywithout sacrificing throughput.In particular,rPoA can incentivize nodes to autonomously form committees based on reputation authority,which prevents block generation from being tracked through the randomness of reputation variation.Moreover,we develop a reputation-aided fork-choice rule for rPoA to promote the network’s liveness.Finally,experimental results show that the proposed rPoA achieves higher security performance while retaining transaction throughput compared to traditional PoA.展开更多
In mega-constellation Communication Systems, efficient routing algorithms and data transmission technologies are employed to ensure fast and reliable data transfer. However, the limited computational resources of sate...In mega-constellation Communication Systems, efficient routing algorithms and data transmission technologies are employed to ensure fast and reliable data transfer. However, the limited computational resources of satellites necessitate the use of edge computing to enhance secure communication.While edge computing reduces the burden on cloud computing, it introduces security and reliability challenges in open satellite communication channels. To address these challenges, we propose a blockchain architecture specifically designed for edge computing in mega-constellation communication systems. This architecture narrows down the consensus scope of the blockchain to meet the requirements of edge computing while ensuring comprehensive log storage across the network. Additionally, we introduce a reputation management mechanism for nodes within the blockchain, evaluating their trustworthiness, workload, and efficiency. Nodes with higher reputation scores are selected to participate in tasks and are appropriately incentivized. Simulation results demonstrate that our approach achieves a task result reliability of 95% while improving computational speed.展开更多
文摘Due to growing demand and reduction of water resources and increasing pollution of water,driven by dramatic population and economic growth, arid and semi-arid land's imminent water problems are nowadays aggravating. This study aims to determine the most appropriate management strategies for balancing the Abhar plain aquifer using the SWOT coupled with AHP technique. The results indicate that weaknesses prevail over strengths as well as threats over opportunities. The placement in the quarter of weaknesses-threats with a defensive strategy indicates the critical condition of the Abhar plain aquifer. The most appropriate solutions to achieve the goal of balancing the groundwater were prioritized by AHP method. According to results, improper management of water consumption with a weight of 72.5% is the most destructive factor in reducing groundwater resources. Among the types of consumption, the effect of an agricultural factor carries a weight of 74.2%. The exploitation of illegal wells, overdraft of exploitation license provisions of wells, reduction of precipitation and traditional irrigation methods were selected as the destructive factors causing the deteriration of groundwater resources. Also, with filling the illegal wells,changing the type of cultivation and greenhouse crops cultivation, installing a smart water meter,observance the provisions of the water exploitation license, implementing integrated pressurized irrigation systems, benefiting from suitable climatic conditions and geographical location for cultivating and developing the low-water use species and industries and on the other hand, with implementing artificial recharge to control the surface water resources and reduce abstraction from groundwater aquifers, the adverse trend of Abhar Plain groundwater resources can be controlled.
文摘Water shortage is the main problem facing any development in Egypt especially in the desert lands. River Nile is considered the main source of water in Egypt but its water covers only the area of flood plain where its tributaries do not reach to the desert. The desert fringes, west of El-Minia governorate, Egypt, are areas of natural expansion for agricultural, industrial, and civil activities. This implies an increasing demand for groundwater. A numerical groundwater model is one of the main tools used for assessment of the resource potential and prediction of future impact under different circumstances and stresses. In this paper, a transient groundwater flow model in the desert district west of El-Minia, Egypt, was developed. The conceptual model was built by analyzing the hydrogeological data and previous work. Steady state model of year 1990 was used to investigate and calibrate the parameters such as hydraulic conductivities, recharge and conductance of the surface water streams. The storage coefficients are calibrated by the transient model based on the available data observed from 1990 to 2013, which provides insights to understand the behavior of groundwater system in Quaternary Aquifer and to predict spatial-temporal distributions of groundwater levels and groundwater flow in responding to extraction of water. The calibrated transient model will be used to predict the impacts of desert development schemes and water resources management schemes on groundwater in the study area.
文摘In Southwestern China, karst covers an area of 540,000 km2, and supports a population of approximately 100 million people. This groundwater can easily become highly polluted without effective management. Sound management of karst areas requires the conscientious participation of citizens including homeowners, planners, government officials, farmers and other land-use decision makers. Lingshui Spring was a good example. A series of educational materials were developed and delivered to the local government, residents, and students. A groundwater polluted accident was tracked as a natural tracer test in a spring to increase understanding of the vulnerability of the area’s karst aquifer. More than 200 people attended the communication and training course on groundwater protection and environmental justice law. Several efforts have appeared as a result, such as a proposal for Lingshui water resources protection that was put forward for the first time by Wuming county political consultative conference.
基金Under the auspices of National Basic Research Program of China(No.2010CB428804)
文摘An effective evaluation system can provide specific and practical suggestions to the deep groundwater management. But such kind of evaluation system has not been proposed in China. In this study, an evaluation index system is specifically developed to evaluate deep groundwater management efficiency. It is composed of three first-level indicators(law enforcement capability, management ability, and management effectiveness) and eleven second-level indicators. The second-level indicators include seven mandatory indicators and four optional indicators. Piecewise linear function is used to normalize the quantitative indicators, and expert scoring method and questionnaire survey method are used to normalize the qualitative indicators. Then a comprehensive indicator weighting evaluation method is used to evaluate the first-level indicators and the target topic. A case study is carried out to evaluate deep groundwater management efficiency in Tianjin City. According to the evaluation score in each period, the management efficiency of every district in Tianjin City gradually improved. The overall evaluation score in the early deep groundwater extraction period is 0.12. After a series of deep groundwater protection efforts, this score reached to 0.61 in 2007, and met the regulation criteria. The evaluation results also showed that the further groundwater management efforts in Tianjin City should be focused on building a dynamic database to collect comprehensive deep well-log data; and on a reasonable design and distribution of the groundwater monitoring network. It demonstrated that the index system is suitable to locate the deficiencies of current groundwater management systems and to guide further improvements. It can then be used to protect deep groundwater.
文摘The rapid increase of urban population in coastal areas of developing countries is nowadays a widespread phenomenon that has several environmental, economical and social consequences.Internal migration, spread of informal suburban settlements,lack of adequate sanitation,increase in water extraction。
文摘This study proposes a groundwater management model in which the solution is performed through a combined simulation-optimization model. In the proposed model, a modular three-dimensional finite difference groundwater flow model, MODFLOW is used as simulation model. This model is then integrated with an optimization model, in which a modified Pareto dominance based Real-Coded Genetic Algorithm (mPRCGA) is adopted. The performance of the proposed mPRCGA based management model is tested on a hypothetical numerical example. The results indicate that the proposed mPRCGA based management model is an effective way to obtain good optimum management strategy and may be used to solve other type of groundwater simulation-optimization problems.
文摘Tropical islands,about 50000 in number,are distributed over the Pacific,Indian and Atlantic Oceans.Limited groundwater resources in the form of lens shaped aquifers,in atolls,are extremely vulnerable to natural processes and human activities.The increasing population on these islands has worsened the groundwater demand supply ratio significantly. This deteriorating ground water condition has come
文摘Recently, the area located within the Unfinished Obelisk (UO) archeological site showed numerous seepages and accumulations of groundwater in a small pond located a few meters from the Unfinished Obelisk. The Supreme Council of Antiques sponsored integrated geological, geophysical, and hydrogeological studies to identify the possible sources of groundwater and the optimum technique to manage the groundwater flow system that may jeopardize this invaluable sculpture. The geological units and the prevailing structure have been studied in detail using Landsat imagery and field work over two consecutive seasons. The field studies indicated the development of several fault/joint systems oriented mainly ENE-WSW with clear indications of mineralization and intensive weathering effects along these fabrics. Several resistivity (vertical seismic profile and resistivity imaging) measurements extending down to at least 20 m depth and Radar imaging down to 10 m depth are gathered to investigate the extension of outcrop units and the dominant structures prevailing the near subsurface. Geophysical data indicated the development of at least three hydrostratigraphic units arranged from top to bottom as valley fill, fractured/weathered granite, and slightly fractured to massive granitic unit. In addition, the major faults mapped by resistivity images helped to locate several observation wells and a production well to test the transmissivity across the groundwater system. The results of a pumping test indicated very low aquifer conductivity and the development of an aquitard with preferential vertical flow at the study area. This enforces a local interference through a shallow underground drainage system with sump and pump to maintain low groundwater level at the UO-archeological site.
文摘The large concentration of human population,industry and services in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona has to confront scarce water resources,serious seasonal and inter-annual variations and quality deficiencies in the sources.A large fraction of these water resources are in the medium-size Llobregat River basin and the remaining ones correspond to a surface water transfer,seawater desalination and wastewater reclamation.Groundwater dominated water resources availability before 1950.Afterwards,water supply has evolved progressively to integrated water resources management,which includes serious water quality concerns to deal with population density,river pollution,seawater intrusion in the main aquifer,and brine generation in the mid Llobregat basin due to old mining of saline minerals.The role of the alluvial aquifers has progressively evolved from being the main water source to reserve storage to cope with seasonal and drought water resources availability.River-enhanced recharge and artificial recharge are needed to assure enough groundwater storage before surface water becomes scarce and/or suffers a serious temporal loss of quality.Enhanced river recharge started in 1950.Treated river water injection in dual-purpose wells was put into operation in the early 1970s.Basin and pond recharge was added later,as well as a deep well injection barrier along the coast to reduce seawater intrusion and to allow increased groundwater abstraction in moments of water scarcity.There is a progressive evolution from solving water quantity problems to consideration of water quality improvement during recharge,with attention to emergent concern pollutants in river water and in reclaimed water to be considered for artificial recharge.Improvement of artificial recharge operation activities has been introduced and research is being carried out on the difficult behavior to degrade organic pollutants during infiltration and in the terrain.This paper presents the different activities carried out and presents the research activities,and comments on the economic,social and administrative issues involved as well.
文摘The major issues concerning water development and management include water conservation and the efficiency of water use, cost recovery, social and environmental factors. So continuous monitoring is essential to evaluate the reclamation impacts on the groundwater potentiality such as Esna Area. The main objective of this work is to determine the new development areas in Esna during the period from 1984 to 2011 using remote sensing technique. The impacts of the present and future development have been evaluated by using the two-dimensional numerical groundwater flow Simulation Package (visual modflow 4.2). The package is used to construct and calibrate a numerical model that can be used to simulate the response of the aquifer in the study area under implementing different management alternatives in the form of changes in piezometric levels and salinity. From land use maps of the study area in the year 2011, a lot of changes in development areas especially out the border of the old land were observed. The change in land reclaimed area was estimated with 44% in the period from year 1984 to 2011. This development accompanied with draw down about 2.5 meters through this period of time. The authors recommend applying different kinds of change detection technique on the study area. Comparing between results, continuous monitoring of the development area is highly recommended.
文摘Uncertainty in determining optimum conjunctive water use lies not only on variability of hydrological cycle and climate but also on lack of adequate data and perfect knowledge about groundwater-surface water system interactions, errors in historic data and inherent variability of system parameters both in space and time. Simulation-optimization models are used for conjunctive water use management under uncertain conditions. However, direct application of such approach whereby all realizations are considered at every-iteration of the optimization process leads to a highly computational time-consuming optimization problem as the number of realizations increases. Hence, this study proposes a novel approach—a Retrospective Optimization Approximation (ROA) approach. In this approach, a simulation model was used to determine aquifer system responses (draw-downs) which were assembled as response matrices and incorporated in the optimization model (procedure) as coefficients in the constraints. The sample optimization sub-problems generated, were solved and analyzed through ROA-Active-Set procedure implemented under MATLAB code. The ROA-Active Set procedure solves and evaluates a sequence of sample path optimization sub-problems in an increasing number of realizations. The methodology was applied to a real-world conjunctive water use management problem found in Great Letaba River basin, South Africa. In the River basin, surface water source contributes 87% of the existing un-optimized total conjunctive water use withdrawal rate (6512.04 m<sup>3</sup>/day) and the remaining 13% is contributed by groundwater source. Through ROA approach, results indicate that the optimum percentages contribution of the surface and subsurface sources to the total water demand are 58% and 42% respectively. This implies that the existing percentage contribution can be increased or reduced by ±29% that is groundwater source can be increased by 29% while the surface water source contribution can be reduced by 29%. This reveals that the existing conjunctive water use practice is unsustainable wherein surface water system is overstressed while groundwater system is under-utilized. Through k-means sampling technique ROA-Active Set procedure was able to attain a converged maximum expected total optimum conjunctive water use withdrawal rate of 4.35 × 10<sup>4</sup> m<sup>3</sup>/day within a relatively few numbers of iterations (6 to 8 iterations) in about 2.30 Hrs. In conclusion, results demonstrated that ROA approach is capable of managing real-world regional aquifers sustainable conjunctive water use practice under hydro-geological uncertainty conditions.
文摘The study integrates both the geological and geophysical mapping techniques for groundwater potential studies at Ekwegbe-Agu and the environs, Enugu state, Nigeria for optimal citing of borehole. Located in the Anambra Basin between latitudes 6˚43'N and 6˚47'N and longitudes 7˚28'E and 7˚32'E, it is stratigraphycally underlain by, from bottom to top, the Enugu/Nkporo, Mamu and Ajali Formation respectively, a complex geology that make citing of productive borehole in the area problematic leading to borehole failure and dry holes due to inadequate sampling. The study adopted a field and analytic sampling approach, integrating field geological, electrical resistivity and self-potential methods. The software, SedLog v3.1, InterpexIx1Dv.3, and Surfer v10 were employed for the data integration and interpretation. The result of the geological field and borehole data shows 11 sedimentary facies consisting of sandstone, shales and heterolith of sandstone/shale, with the aquifer zone mostly prevalent in the more porous sand-dominated horizons. Mostly the AK and HK were the dominant curve types. An average of 6 geo-electric layers were delineated across all transects with resistivity values ranging from 25.42 - 105.85 Ωm, 186.38 - 3383.3 Ωm, and 2992 - 6286.4 Ωm in the Enugu, Mamu and Ajali Formations respectively. The resistivity of the main aquifer layer ranges from 1 to 500 Ωm. The aquifer thickness within the study area varies between 95 and 140 m. The western and northwestern part of the study area which is underlain mainly by the Ajali Formation showed the highest groundwater potential in the area and suitable for citing productive boreholes.
基金funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research&Innovation Programme(2211)under the Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area(PRIMA)Project"SHARInG-MeD"from the Directorate-General for Scientific Research and Technological Development(DGRSDT)under the Projets de Recherche Formation-Universitaire(PRFU)Projects(D00L02UN120120230002,D01N01UN120120230005)。
文摘Groundwater quality assessment is important to assure safe and durable water use.In semi-arid areas of Algeria,groundwater represents the main water resource for drinking water supply of the rural population as well as for irrigation of agricultural lands.Groundwater samples from wells and springs were collected from the Gargaat Tarf and Annk Djemel sub-watersheds of the Oum El Bouaghi,Algeria,and were analyzed and compared with the World Health Organization(WHO)standards.Results showed that most of the measured physical and chemical parameters exceeded the quality limits according to the WHO standards.Groundwater had a slightly alkaline water pH(7.00-7.79),electrical conductivity>1500μS/cm,chloride>500 mg/L,calcium>250 mg/L,and magnesium>155 mg/L.Water quality index(WQI)results showed that 68%of the area had excellent water quality,24%of the samples fell into good category,and only 8%were of poor quality and unsuitable for human consumption.Six wells in the area showed bacterial contamination.Total coliforms(453.9(±180.3)CFU(colony-forming units)/100 mL),fecal coliforms(243.2(±99.2)CFU/100 mL),and fecal streptococci(77.9(±32.0)CFU/100 mL)loads were above the standard limits set by the WHO.These results confirmed that water resources in the study area were strongly influenced by anthropogenic activities and were not recommended for consumption as drinking water.
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(Grant No.2019YFC1804301)the National Science Fourdation of China(Grant No.42272279,41902244).
文摘In groundwater hydrology,aquitard heterogeneity is often less considered compared to aquifers,despite its significant impact on groundwater hydraulics and groundwater resources evaluation.A semi-analytical solution is derived for pumping-induced well hydraulics and groundwater budget with consideration of vertical heterogeneity in aquitard hydraulic conductivity(K)and specific storage(S_(s)).The proposed new solution is innovative in its partitioning of the aquitard into multiple homogeneous sub-layers to enable consideration of various forms of vertically heterogeneous K or S_(s).Two scenarios of analytical investigations are explored:one is the presence of aquitard interlayers with distinct K or S_(s) values,a common field-scale occurrence;another is an exponentially depth-decaying aquitard S_(s),a regional-scale phenomenon supported by statistical analysis.Analytical investigations reveal that a low-K interlayer can significantly increase aquifer drawdown and enhance aquifer/aquitard depletion;a high-S_(s) interlayer can noticeably reduce aquifer drawdown and increase aquitard depletion.Locations of low-K or high-S_(s) interlayers also significantly impact well hydraulics and groundwater budget.In the context of an exponentially depth-decaying aquitard S_(s),a larger decay exponent can enhance aquifer drawdown.When using current models with a vertically homogeneous aquitard,half the sum of the geometric and harmonic means of exponentially depth-decaying aquitard S_(s) should be used to calculate aquitard depletion and unconfined aquifer leakage.
文摘In the Tano River Basin,groundwater serves as a crucial resource;however,its quantity and quality with regard to trace elements and microbiological loadings remain poorly understood due to the lack of groundwater logs and limited water research.This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the Tano River Basin,focusing on three key objectives.First,it investigated the aquifer hydraulic parameters and the results showed significant spatial variations in borehole depths,yields,transmissivity,hydraulic conductivity,and specific capacity.Deeper boreholes were concentrated in the northeastern and southeastern zones,while geological formations,particu-larly the Apollonian Formation,exhibit a strong influence on borehole yields.The study identified areas with high transmissivity and hydraulic conductivity in the southern and eastern regions,suggesting good groundwater avail-ability and suitability for sustainable water supply.Sec-ondly,the research investigated the groundwater quality and observed that the majority of borehole samples fall within WHO(Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality,Environmental Health Criteria,Geneva,2011,2017.http://www.who.int)limit.However,some samples have pH levels below the standards,although the groundwater generally qualifies as freshwater.The study further explores hydrochemical facies and health risk assessment,highlighting the dominance of Ca–HCO3 water type.Trace element analysis reveals minimal health risks from most elements,with chromium(Cr)as the primary contributor to chronic health risk.Overall,this study has provided a key insights into the Tano River Basin’s hydrogeology and associated health risks.The outcome of this research has contributed to the broader understanding of hydrogeologi-cal dynamics and the importance of managing groundwater resources sustainably in complex geological environments.
文摘Groundwater resources are the main sources of water used to supply drinking water to the population of the Ouémé Delta via the Continental Terminal aquifer. Urbanization, population growth, and agricultural and industrial activities have resulted in a deterioration in the quality of these resources. To assess the quality of the delta’s groundwater and its suitability for human consumption and irrigation, a total of fourteen (14) physico-chemical parameters were analyzed in some forty existing water points between September 2020 and March 2021, using standard water analysis techniques. The values obtained were compared with the potability standards recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Republic of Benin and were subjected to statistical analysis (principal component analysis (PCA)). In addition, methods for determining the suitability of water for irrigation were used. The results showed that the waters are acidic to slightly neutral and influenced by ambient temperature. In addition, the waters are moderately mineralized, with conductivities (24 - 1205 μS/cm) in line with WHO standards. A comparison of the analytical results of the WHO (2017) and Benin (2001) standards indicates that the majority of the waters studied are of good quality for all the chemical parameters considered. Nevertheless, some samples show levels of nitrates (21%), potassium (14% to 16%), calcium (13%), ammonium (12%), nitrites (8%) and bicarbonates (10%) over their respective standards. The Wilcox and Riverside diagrams indicate that the majority of waters (90%) have excellent suitability for irrigation and no negative effect on soil fertilization.
文摘Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a major public health problem due to its increasing frequency, mortality and management cost. This cost may require major financial efforts from patients, especially in developing countries like ours where less than 7% of the population has health insurance. This study aimed to estimate the direct cost of managing VTE in three reference hospitals in Yaoundé. Methods: This was a cross-sectional retrospective study over a three-year period (from January 1st 2018 to December 31 2020) carried out in the Cardiology departments of the Central and General Hospitals, and the Emergency Centre of the city of Yaoundé. All patients managed during the study period for deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism confirmed by venous ultrasound coupled with Doppler and computed tomography pulmonary angiography respectively were included. For each patient, we collected sociodemographic and clinical data as well as data on the cost of consultation, hospital stay, workups and medications. These data were analysed using SPSS version 23.0. Results: A total of 92 patient’s records were analysed. The median age was 60 years [48 - 68] with a sex ratio of 0.53. The median direct cost of management of venous thromboembolism was 766,375 CFAF [536,455 - 1,029,745] or $1415 USD. Management of pulmonary embolism associated with deep vein thrombosis was more costly than isolated pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis. Factors influencing the direct cost of management of venous thromboembolism were: hospital structure (p = 0.015), health insurance (p 0.001), type of pulmonary embolism (p = 0.021), and length of hospital stay (p = 0.001). Conclusion: Management of VTE is a major financial burden for our patients and this burden is influenced by the hospital structure, health insurance, type of pulmonary embolism and length of hospital stay.
基金supported by the Shenzhen Science and Technology Program under Grants KCXST20221021111404010,JSGG20220831103400002,JSGGKQTD20221101115655027,JCYJ 20210324094609027the National KeyR&DProgram of China under Grant 2021YFB2700900+1 种基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 62371239,62376074,72301083the Jiangsu Specially-Appointed Professor Program 2021.
文摘In permissioned blockchain networks,the Proof of Authority(PoA)consensus,which uses the election of authorized nodes to validate transactions and blocks,has beenwidely advocated thanks to its high transaction throughput and fault tolerance.However,PoA suffers from the drawback of centralization dominated by a limited number of authorized nodes and the lack of anonymity due to the round-robin block proposal mechanism.As a result,traditional PoA is vulnerable to a single point of failure that compromises the security of the blockchain network.To address these issues,we propose a novel decentralized reputation management mechanism for permissioned blockchain networks to enhance security,promote liveness,and mitigate centralization while retaining the same throughput as traditional PoA.This paper aims to design an off-chain reputation evaluation and an on-chain reputation-aided consensus.First,we evaluate the nodes’reputation in the context of the blockchain networks and make the reputation globally verifiable through smart contracts.Second,building upon traditional PoA,we propose a reputation-aided PoA(rPoA)consensus to enhance securitywithout sacrificing throughput.In particular,rPoA can incentivize nodes to autonomously form committees based on reputation authority,which prevents block generation from being tracked through the randomness of reputation variation.Moreover,we develop a reputation-aided fork-choice rule for rPoA to promote the network’s liveness.Finally,experimental results show that the proposed rPoA achieves higher security performance while retaining transaction throughput compared to traditional PoA.
基金supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No.U2268204,62172061 and 61871422National Key R&D Program of China under Grant No.2020YFB1711800 and 2020YFB1707900+2 种基金the Science and Technology Project of Sichuan Province under Grant No.2023ZHCG0014,2023ZHCG0011,2022YFG0155,2022YFG0157,2021GFW019,2021YFG0152,2021YFG0025,2020YFG0322Central Universities of Southwest Minzu University under Grant No.ZYN2022032,2023NYXXS034the State Scholarship Fund of the China Scholarship Council under Grant No.202008510081。
文摘In mega-constellation Communication Systems, efficient routing algorithms and data transmission technologies are employed to ensure fast and reliable data transfer. However, the limited computational resources of satellites necessitate the use of edge computing to enhance secure communication.While edge computing reduces the burden on cloud computing, it introduces security and reliability challenges in open satellite communication channels. To address these challenges, we propose a blockchain architecture specifically designed for edge computing in mega-constellation communication systems. This architecture narrows down the consensus scope of the blockchain to meet the requirements of edge computing while ensuring comprehensive log storage across the network. Additionally, we introduce a reputation management mechanism for nodes within the blockchain, evaluating their trustworthiness, workload, and efficiency. Nodes with higher reputation scores are selected to participate in tasks and are appropriately incentivized. Simulation results demonstrate that our approach achieves a task result reliability of 95% while improving computational speed.
