GROUNDWATER MONITORING ANNUAL SUMMARY REPORT

Transcription

1 GROUNDWATER MONITORING ANNUAL SUMMARY REPORT 2016

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3 01 INTRODUCTION The Emirate of Abu Dhabi is located in an extreme arid region, with an average rain fall around 100 mm/year. Groundwater is considered as one of the major water supply contributor among other resources, especially in the irrigation fields of agriculture and forestry, meanwhile groundwater in the Emirate is a non-renewable resource with limited potentialities and enormous stresses. These reserves have been severely depleted due to the prevailing climatic conditions which has affected the natural replenishment to be extremely slow. Only 5% of what is used annually is naturally recharged. Since 2005, The Environment Agency- Abu Dhabi (EAD) is handling the groundwater management in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, since then EAD is committed to protect this valuable resource and considered it as one of EADs top priorities. In alignment with Abu Dhabi Environmental Vision 2030, the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD) is paying an extensive attention in managing groundwater as part of its role as the environmental regulator in the Emirate. There are various activities going around aiming to conserve the groundwater resource, like groundwater exploration, groundwater monitoring, well permitting, inspection, and groundwater capital projects. In terms of groundwater exploration, over the last thirty years many studies took place to explore groundwater and assess its potentialities, part of this more than 1400 exploratory and monitoring wells have been drilled across the Emirate, in parallel, the first groundwater monitoring network has been delivered which is ruling the major tool in reporting the status of groundwater now days. The groundwater Monitoring (GWM) section in alignment with EAD priorities and commitments is working to provide up-todate groundwater monitoring data and analysis to EAD management and all concerned departments; internal and external; to ensure attaining the maximum knowledge about the state of groundwater.

4 BACKGROUND In the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, water resource management is facing many challenges, particularly the scarcity of fresh water. Daily domestic water consumption in the emirate is considered one of the highest consumption around the world. In addition, the expected increase in demand for water, due to the emirate s rapid economic and human development, is making the challenge even more serious. Groundwater in Abu Dhabi Emirate is mainly used for agriculture and afforestation. Over the last few decades, intensive agriculture and irrigation of forests have altered the hydrogeological system in the emirate. Agricultural policy in the emirate poses a serious challenge in maintaining the current agriculture sector relative to the level of groundwater depletion and deterioration. With an estimated 24,000 farms now operating in Abu Dhabi Emirate, the number of plant holdings has increased rapidly in the last four decades, with more than 38 times more now operating than in The increased demand for groundwater has also been fueled by a number of policies in Abu Dhabi Emirate: food security, which aims to make the emirate less dependent on imported food and achieve 40 % local production levels; greening the desert policies, with a view to providing habitat for wild animals and stabilizing the sand around roads; public parks to enhance the aesthetic value of outdoor spaces; residential and commercial megaprojects catering to the local population and a growing tourism industry; and rapid industrialization driven by the Government s diversification efforts towards non-oil industries. Inefficient irrigation techniques and the inappropriate choice of crops have also contributed to the over-consumption of groundwater.

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6 03 STATUS MAP1\\ GROUND WATER LEVEL MONITORING WELL Km

7 The significant contribution of groundwater among other water supplies has been highly demand in irrigation purposes in different areas across the Emirate and pumped from different aquifers and depths through huge number of wells. In consequences of groundwater pumping is directly threatening and changing the quantity and quality of groundwater, those changes must be closely assessed through a carefully designed GWM Network that managed by EAD through 1,506 monitoring wells distributed across the emirate(see Map 1). In general, the design of the network should be established upon comprehensive criteria that consider the aquifer systems and hydraulic parameters, stressed groundwater zones, natural recharge zones, and land uses. Through the automated monitoring wells, there are different measuring devices installed in the wells that are distributed based on local monitoring objectives and criteria, the criteria setting are influenced by hydro-geologic aquifer characterization, the level of changing in groundwater parameters, and surrounding activities. The measured parameters of groundwater are water level (wl), electrical conductivity (ec), temperature (T), Precipitation (P), and Meteorology (met). In addition to the manual water level. The beside map is showing the distribution of the monitoring wells in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. S MEASUREMENT FREQUENCY Annual BiMonth TriAnnual Abu Dhabi Emirate

8 04CHANGE IN GROUNDWATER LEVELS MAP2\\ CHANGE IN GROUNDWATER LEVELS BETWEEN 2OO5 TO 2O16 Decline>15m -15 to to to to to to to 11 >11 Groundwater is the only source of natural fresh water in the emirate. However, due to the lack of rainfall and high levels of evaporation, the rate of groundwater recharge is insignificant compared to the rate of abstraction from shallow groundwater aquifer systems. As a result, the emirate s aquifers comprise mostly non-renewable fossil groundwater. The increasing demand for groundwater has led to reduced groundwater levels, influenced by the intensity of agriculture and afforestation activities in Abu Dhabi Emirate. Between 2005 and 2016, overall groundwater levels experienced a steady decline, with a severe decline in the Al Ain Region, mainly due to high groundwater withdrawal activities, resulting in depleted areas or red zones (see Map 2). The depletion of groundwater level is a serious issue due to the high rate of extraction. With a total of approximately 100,000 wells across Abu Dhabi Emirate, most of these are located in the Al Ain Region, which suffers from extreme groundwater level decline (see Figure 1 and Figure 2).

9 Location: Al Ain UTM Coordinates: Easting Northing Start of Monitoring: 1997 Elevation Above mean Sea Level M Water Level [m] Jan/97 Jan/98 Jan/99 Jan/00 Jan/01 Jan/02 Jan/03 Jan/04 Jan/05 Jan/06 Jan/07 Jan/08 Jan/09 Jan/10 Jan/11 Jan/12 Jan/13 Jan/14 Jan/15 Jan/16 Drawdown [m] Date[mmm-yy] FIGURE 1 \\ Hydrograph of Monitoring Well GOW Location: Al Khazna (Al Rodah) UTM Coordinates: Easting Northing Start of Monitoring: 1999/19/9 Water Level [m] Drawdown [m] Jan/99 Jan/00 Jan/01 Jan/02 Jan/03 Jan/04 Jan/05 Jan/06 Jan/07 Jan/08 Jan/09 Jan/10 Jan/11 Jan/12 Jan/13 Jan/14 Jan/15 Jan/16 Date [mmm-yy] FIGURE 2 \\ Hydrograph of Monitoring Well GWA-010 Abu Dhabi Well GOW- 017 Well GWA- 010

10 05 Region around the Liwa crescent. Besides the evident impact of CHANGE IN GROUNDWATER SALINITY Groundwater salinity is the concentration of dissolved solids in a defined unit of groundwater expressed as milligrams per litre. In Abu Dhabi Emirate, most of the groundwater in the surficial aquifers is brackish, saline or brine. EAD considers the emirate s groundwater as useable, with total dissolved solids (TDS) not exceeding 15,000 mg/l. In coastal areas and much of the area between Al Dhafra Region and Al Ain Region the brine water has higher levels of TDS, exceeding 100,000 mg/l. Fresh groundwater is found in surficial aquifers in the Al Ain Region and in Al Dhafra evaporation on groundwater salinity, unsustainable groundwater abstraction and poor irrigation practice have also contributed to increasing salinisation of the aquifers in certain locations. Map 3,4,5. show a direct comparison of changes in salinity between 2016 and 2005 in the Abu Dhabi emirate.

11 MAP 3\\ GROUND WATER SALINITY 2OO5 Abu Dhabi Sila Ruwais Mirfa Al Ain Ghyathy Madinat Zayed ppm Fresh ppm Fresh ppm Fresh ppm Brackish ppm Brackish ppm Brackish ppm Saline ppm Saline ppm Saline ppm Brine ppm Brine Liwa MAP 4\\ GROUND WATER SALINITY 2OO8 Abu Dhabi Sila Ruwais Mirfa Al Ain Ghyathy Madinat Zayed ppm Fresh ppm Fresh ppm Fresh ppm Brackish ppm Brackish ppm Brackish ppm Saline ppm Saline ppm Saline ppm Brine ppm Brine Liwa Oasis MAP 5\\ GROUND WATER SALINITY 2O16 Abu Dhabi Sila Ruwais Mirfa Al Ain Ghyathy Madinat Zayed 1000 ppm Fresh (WHO Standard) 1500 ppm Fresh (UAE Standard) 4000 ppm Slightly Brackish 7000 ppm Medium Brackish ppm Strongly Brackish ppm Slightly Saline ppm Medium Saline Strongly Saline Liwa

12 06 RESPONSES Towards achieving Building a Comprehensive Understanding of Groundwater Resources in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, major developments took place as follow: 1\\ WELL INVENTORY PROJECT EAD started a comprehensive Well Inventory Project to collect information about all wells in the Emirate entirely and assess the Soil quality within farming activities. The project will come out with significant and foremost deliverables that will enable to understand the contribution of groundwater within the water budget. 2\\ GROUNDWATER MONITORING NET WORK OPTIMIZATION As part of the continuous developments in groundwater management, EAD is working towards achieving a comprehensive understanding of groundwater resources in Abu Dhabi Emirate, by optimizing the groundwater monitoring network that was achieved during 2016 and come out with three major outputs that are: Groundwater Level Monitoring Network, Groundwater Quality Monitoring Network, and Preliminiray Groundwater Model in the Al Ain Region. 3\\ STRATEGIC GROUNDWATER STOCK In Abu Dhabi emirate, the groundwater withdrawal exceeds 23 times the natural recharge rate which deem it under challenges to conserve and integrated water management, EAD cooperated with other institutions to create major steps to take in concern in order to restore fresh groundwater reserves and arrest declines in quality. Developing an integrated plan to enhance the strategic fresh groundwater reserve in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, by fill some groundwater aquifers with fresh water, thus creating a strategic reserve for use in emergency conditions, and by investing existing unused wells fields to provide water in emergency cases. Principally, there are Three main strategic projects ae underway, The first is the Liwa groundwater Storage and Recovery; that aim to inject 31,822 m3 of desalinated water per day into the aquifer. This project will create enough refreshed groundwater to serve the needs of the Abu Dhabi City and Al Dhafra regions for 90 days, as and when called upon. The second investigating strategic groundwater aquifers take place in Al Shuaib, which will serve the needs of Al Ain and its environs with a freshwater for 90-day emergency period. The third strategic projects is to explore the possibility of rehabilitating disused groundwater wellfields and recharging them with desalinated water to supplement emergency reserves.

13 4\\ GROUNDWATER POLICY In November 2016, an Emiri decree was issued on the permissible extraction and use of groundwater in Abu Dhabi. The decree makes a number of important stipulations which will have the effect of strengthening our ability to apply and enforce regulation. Groundwater is a natural resource owned wholly by the emirate and its extraction and use must adhere strictly to rules and regulations laid down by the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi. Managing Groundwater through licensing the relevant activities like: well drilling, groundwater use, groundwater transport, along with the installation of small scale desalination units for non-potable water is prohibited without the relevant government permits. Owners of groundwater wells are legally bound to register them and install water meters. These meters and associated equipment such as pumps must be regularly checked and maintained. Groundwater well owners must not exceed their prescribed extraction levels. They are not allowed to sell extracted groundwater and must comply in all other respects with existing regulations. Well drilling contractors must be fully aware of new guidelines regarding their activities and must abide by them. Any discoveries of groundwater must be reported to the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi. Contaminating and polluting groundwater is an offense punishable by law. All that effort from the leadership and government to protect the groundwater from depletion and proved freshwater for next generation.

14 07 OUTLOOK 1// Groundwater Policy and regulations: after the release of law No. 5, 2016, consequently, it s bylaw has been prepared and submitted for final approval according to the process in place. 2// Comprehensive Groundwater Quality Baseline Survey: The Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD) is aiming to assess the groundwater quality in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, particularly, within areas with directly useable groundwater zones, expanding to cover other areas that have significant distribution of activities relying on groundwater. EAD has developed a Groundwater Quality Monitoring (GWQM) Network, through this project EAD is aiming to implement this network to achieve the intended objectives. The land developments have taken place widely in the Emirate, and that act as an increasing pressure on the groundwater resource in terms of quantities and qualities. Meantime, the diversity in the nature of activities on land and their potential impacts should be assessed parallel through collecting groundwater samples from pre-allocated sites and analyzed correspondently by international accredited lab. The lab analysis results should be interpreted, compared to EAD s groundwater quality guidelines, and further use the results to generate groundwater index maps. On the way forwards, EAD is aiming to obtain a ten/fifteen year groundwater quality monitoring future plan. The primary goals of implementing the groundwater quality monitoring network in the Emirate are to: 2.1// develop a groundwater quality baseline and study the status of groundwater quality within useable groundwater areas of water-producing aquifers, the useable groundwater areas are defined by EAD and gridded into 120 cells. 2.2// Assess the occurrence of anthropogenic compounds in groundwater within higher-intensity developed land-use areas. The basis for determining the quality of groundwater are measured concentrations of naturally-occurring or anthropogenic compounds relative to regulatory standards. Useable groundwater area is defined as those areas of the Emirate with groundwater salinity equal to or less than 15,000 mg/l TDS. 2.3// Assess the occurrence and age of natural recharge in the Abu Dhabi aquifers.

15 3// 2.4// Generate Groundwater Quality Index maps, according to the in place groundwater quality guidelines. 2.5// Design a ten/fifteen year groundwater quality monitoring plan considering to conduct quick review on the current monitoring grid system and cell sizes. The GWQM network is designed to monitor groundwater quality of the surficial aquifer across the Emirate, and of water-bearing deeper sediments underlying the surficial aquifer in the eastern region. For purposes of network design, areas of useable groundwater in the eastern and western regions are considered groundwater quality subunits. USGS NAWQA monitoring studies commonly use subunits to delineate regional groundwater networks and are defined as areas with consistent physiographic, geohydrologic, or water-quality characteristics (Lapham and others, 1995). Useable groundwater of the surficial aquifer have differing groundwater flow characteristics, recharge sources, and groundwater salinity distributions. For these reasons, each subunit is considered an independent regional flow system with unique groundwater characteristics. The subunits are herein referred to as the eastern subunit and western subunit of the regional groundwater-quality monitoring network (regional network). Update Groundwater Salinity and Level Maps: one of the major projects that has been completed in 2016 was updating the salinity and level maps project, the deliverables of this project enabled to update the groundwater status in the Emirate, hence, the Depleted Areas Map has been updated as well and incorporated into the above mentioned Bylaw of Law No. 5, // Well Inventory Project: this project is progressing as per plan, field work phase almost completed successfully, early outcomes emphasized the importance of such project proven by comprehensive data about more than 120,000 wells, where about 50,000 are in functional state. The project completion is expected project later on during 2018.

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