- Tuesday, September 1, 2009
- Published at:Environmental Modelling & Software, Volume 24, Issue 9, September 2009, Pages 1073-1087
- In this paper, lumped-parameter models (LPMs) were developed and utilized to simulate nitrate concentration in the groundwater of Gaza City and Jabalia Camp (GCJC) in the Gaza Coastal Aquifer (GCA) in Palestine. In the GCJC area, nitrate levels exceed the maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 10 mg/L NO3-N (45 mg/L NO3) in many wells. Elevated nitrate concentrations in the groundwater of GCJC area are due to the disposal of untreated wastewater, the existence of heavy agriculture in the surrounding areas, and the use of cesspits for wastewater disposal. The developed LPMs utilize monthly time steps and take into consideration all the sources and sinks of water and nitrate in the study area. The main outcomes of the LPMs are the average temporal water table elevation and nitrate concentration. In order to demonstrate LPMs usability, a set of management options to reduce nitrate concentration in the groundwater of the study area were proposed and evaluated using the developed LPMs. Four broad management
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- Saturday, March 7, 2009
- Published at:Applied Geography
- Groundwater is the major source of water to the Palestinians. Efficient management of this resource requires a good understanding of its status. This understanding necessitates a characterization of the quality of the utilizable volumes. This paper focuses on the assessment of nitrate concentrations in the aquifers of the West Bank, Palestine. A preliminary statistical analysis is carried out for the spatial and temporal distributions of the nitrate concentrations. GIS is utilized to facilitate the analysis and to efficiently account for the spatiality of nitrate concentrations. The analysis was carried out at different spatial levels and key parameters including soil type, watersheds, depth, population, and rainfall. It is observed that elevated nitrate concentrations in the groundwater greatly coincide with increasing rainfall, particularly in the last few years. Results confirm that the annual mean nitrate concentration in the Western groundwater basin has an increasing trend over the period from 1982 to 2
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- Monday, September 1, 2008
- Published at:Not Found
- Gaza coastal aquifer (GCA) is the major source of fresh water for the 1.5 million residents of Gaza Strip, Palestine. The aquifer is under deteriorating quality conditions mainly due to the excessive application of fertilizers. The intrinsic vulnerability of GCA to contamination was assessed using the well-known DRASTIC method. Detailed analysis of the intrinsic vulnerability map of GCA was carried out and did consider different relationships between the vulnerability indices and the on-ground nitrogen loadings and land use classes. In addition, correlation between vulnerability values and the nitrate concentrations in GCA was studied. Based on the vulnerability analysis, it was found that 10% and 13% of Gaza Strip area is under low and high vulnerability of groundwater contamination, respectively, while more than 77% of the area of Gaza Strip can be designated as an area of moderate vulnerability of groundwater contamination. It was found that the density of groundwater sampling wells for nitrate concentrati
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- Tuesday, April 1, 2008
- Published at:J. Irrig. and Drain. Engrg. Volume 134, Issue 2, pp. 267-268 (March/April 2008)
- Abstract not available.
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- Saturday, March 1, 2008
- Published at:Not Found
- The ongoing degradation of the water quality of the Gaza Coastal Aquifer (GCA) is of a great concern for the different authorities and agencies involved in the water sector in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. The GCA is almost the only source of fresh water to over 1.5 million residents where it is utilized extensively to satisfy agricultural, domestic, and industrial water demands. The aquifer is currently being overpumped where pumping largely exceeds total recharge. In addition, manmade sources of pollution endanger the water resources supplies in the major municipalities of the Gaza Strip. Many water quality parameters in the GCA presently exceed the maximum contaminant level (MCL) of the US Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standards, especially for nitrate and chloride. This case study analyzes nitrate concentration distribution for the GCA at different levels such as land use classes and sampling depth. Nitrate concentration data from 1990 and from 2000 to 2004 were compiled and assembled into a
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