Rainwater Harvesting and Artificial Groundwater Recharge in Arid Areas: Case Study in Wadi Al-Alb, Saudi Arabia
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 145, Issue 1
Abstract
Accelerated economic development in arid areas results in harmful stress on limited surface and groundwater resources. Flash flood and rainfall harvesting is a promising renewable resource. Using a theoretical water budget approach, this paper investigates groundwater recharge after a flash flood in three small dam reservoirs and one moderate-capacity dam reservoir in the Al-Alb basin, central Saudi Arabia. This approach is validated against water level measurements at five recharge wells. Watershed modeling of this basin was conducted using an analysis of Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) digital elevation models, in which the morphometric variables were calculated. Landsat-8 and Spot-5 images from April 2015 were classified to identify different land-use and land-cover categories. The soil conservation service curve number (SCS CN) method was used to estimate the effective rainfall, where the estimated CN values of different land uses and the spatially distributed time-area zones of the catchment were identified. The rainfall-runoff relationship was assessed using the Hydrologic Engineering Center–Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) model, and the results were validated using the actual reservoir storages of these dams. The lag time, time of concentration, time to peak, and maximum of discharge storage reservoir sizes and volumes were estimated for the main and subbasins of the Al-Alb basin. This research shows that considerable amounts of water can be harvested using these small dams ( to ). The hydrographs show that the construction of smaller dams upstream of the main dam at the Al-Alb location decreases the main peak magnitude by 14%, and the main runoff volume by 3%. Because of the high evaporation rate and low natural groundwater recharge as a result of siltation process in the dam lakes, recharge wells were drilled in the dam reservoir, increasing groundwater recharge by 44% and decreasing evaporation loss by 86%. With time, well recharge efficiency decreases, owing to clogging by the siltation process. Consequently, it is recommended to periodically clean and maintain the recharge wells.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the editor, associate editor, reviewers, and Dr. David Jalajel for their valuable comments and manuscript revision. The authors are thankful to the RAAD program (NFG-15-03-17), King Saud University for its financial support of this research.
References
Al-Abed, N., F. Abdulla, and A. Abu Khyarah. 2005. “GIS-hydrological models for managing water resources in the Zarqa River basin.” Environ. Geol. 47 (3): 405–411. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-004-1165-2.
Al-Bassam, A., M. Al-Dabbagh, and M. Hussein. 2000. “Application of a revised hydrostratigraphical classification and nomenclature to the Mesozoic and Cenozoic succession of Saudi Arabia.” J. Afr. Earth Sci. 30 (4): 917–927. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0899-5362(00)00060-9.
Al-Othman, A. 2011. “Enhancing groundwater recharge in arid region: A case study from central Saudi Arabia.” Sci. Res. Essays 6 (13): 2757–2762. https://doi.org/10.5897/SRE11.173.
Alrehaili, A., and M. Hussein. 2012. “Use of remote sensing, GIS and groundwater monitoring to estimate artificial groundwater recharge in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.” Arab. J. Geosci. 5 (6): 1367–1377. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-011-0306-7.
Al-Shareef, A. 2002. Geography of Saudi Arabia. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Dar Almareikh.
ASTER GDEM Validation Team. 2011. ASTER global digital elevation model version 2—Summary of validation results, 26. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Bouwer, H. 2002. “Artificial recharge of groundwater: Hydrogeology and engineering.” Hydrogeol. J. 10 (1): 121–142. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-001-0182-4.
Choong, S., and A. El-Shafie. 2015. “State-of-the-art for modelling reservoir inflows and management optimization.” Water Resour. Manage. 29 (4): 1267–1282. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-014-0872-z.
Congalton, R. 1991. “A review of assessing the accuracy of classifications of remotely sensed data.” Remote Sens. Environ. 37: 35–46.
El Alfy, M. 1998. “Applications of engineering geology on the geomorphological and hydrogeological situations of the area between Rafah and Ras El-Naqab.” M.Sc. thesis, Faculty of Science, Mansoura Univ.
El Alfy, M. 2016. “Assessing the impact of arid area urbanization on flash floods using GIS, remote sensing and HEC-HMS rainfall-runoff modeling.” Hydrol. Res. 47 (6): 1142–1160. https://doi.org/10.2166/nh.2016.133.
El Alfy, M., A. Lashin, N. Al-Arifi, and A. Al-Bassam. 2015. “Groundwater characteristics and pollution assessment using integrated hydrochemical investigations GIS and multivariate geostatistical techniques in arid areas.” Water Resour. Manage. 29 (15): 5593–5612. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-015-1136-2.
Gromaire-Mertz, M., S. Garnaud, A. Gonzalez, and G. Chebbo. 1999. “Characterisation of urban runoff pollution in Paris.” Water Sci. Technol. 39 (2): 1–8. https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.1999.0071.
Healy, R., and P. Cook. 2002. “Using groundwater levels to estimate recharge.” Hydrogeol. J. 10 (1): 91–109. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-001-0178-0.
Jensen, R. 2005. Introductory digital image processing. 3rd ed. New York: Prentice Hall.
Jha, M., V. Chowdary, Y. Kulkarni, and B. Mal. 2014. “Rainwater harvesting planning using geospatial techniques and multicriteria decision analysis.” Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 83 (2): 96–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2013.12.003.
Leta, O., A. El-Kadi, and H. Dulai. 2017. “Implications of climate change on water budgets and reservoir water harvesting of Nuuanu Area Watersheds, Oahu, Hawaii.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage. 143 (11): 05017013. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000839.
Mishra, S., M. Jain, and V. Singh. 2004. “Evaluation of the SCS-CN-based model incorporating antecedent moisture.” Water Resour. Manage. 18 (6): 567–589. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-004-8765-1.
PME (Presidency of Meteorology and Environment). 2011. Meteorological data of Riyadh area. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: PME.
Powers, R., L. Ramirez, C. Redmond, and E. Elberg. 1966. Geology of the Arabian peninsula: Sedimentary geology of Saudi Arabia. Washington, DC: US GPO.
Sarma, D., and Y. Xu. 2017. “The recharge process in alluvial strip aquifers in arid Namibia and implication for artificial recharge.” Hydrogeol. J. 25 (1): 123–134. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-016-1474-z.
Sayl, K. H., N. Muhammad, Z. Yaseen, and A. El-Shafie. 2016. “Estimation the physical variables of rainwater harvesting system using integrated GIS-based remote sensing approach.” Water Resour. Manage. 30 (9): 3299–3313. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-016-1350-6.
Şen, Z., A. Al-Alsheikh, A. Al-Turbak, A. Al-Bassam, and A. Al-Dakheel. 2013. “Climate change impact and runoff harvesting in arid regions.” Arab. J. Geosci. 6 (1): 287–295. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-011-0354-z.
Sendil, U., A. Salih, and S. Alvi. 1983. “Hydrological characteristic of wadi hanifah.” In Vol. 1 of Proc., Water Resources in Saudi Arabia, 1–14. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Sturm, M., M. Zimmermann, K. Schütz, W. Urban, and H. Hartung. 2009. “Rainwater harvesting as an alternative water resource in rural sites in central northern Namibia.” Phys. Chem. Earth Parts A/B/C 34 (13–16): 776–785. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pce.2009.07.004.
Tizro, A., K. Voudouris, and K. Akbari. 2011. “Simulation of a groundwater artificial recharge in a semi-arid region of Iran.” Irrig. Drain. 60 (3): 393–403. https://doi.org/10.1002/ird.567.
Todd, D., and L. Mays. 2005. Groundwater hydrology, 636. 3rd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Villarreal, E., and A. Dixon. 2005. “Analysis of a rainwater collection system for domestic water supply in Ringdansen, Norrkoping, Sweden.” Build Environ. 40 (9): 1174–1184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2004.10.018.
Wanielista, M., R. Kersten, and R. Eaglin. 1997. Hydrology water quantity and quality control. 2nd ed. New York: Wiley.
Wheater, H. S., and N. C. Bell. 1983. “Northern Oman flood study.” Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng. 75 (2): 453–473.
Zavala, M., R. Vega, and R. Miranda. 2016. “Potential of rainwater harvesting and greywater reuse for water consumption reduction and wastewater minimization.” Water 8 (6): 264. https://doi.org/10.3390/w8060264.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 145 • Issue 1 • January 2019
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 29, 2017
Accepted: Jun 6, 2018
Published online: Oct 24, 2018
Published in print: Jan 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Mar 24, 2019
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.