Effect of the groundwater contribution, the climatic change, and the human-induced activities on the hydrological behavior of discharge playas: a case study Sidi El Hani discharge playa, Tunisian Sahel

Abstract

This study is meant to provide an insight into how discharge playas, which are strongly influenced by a regional salty groundwater flow regime, such as the discharge playa of Sidi El Hani, would respond to the climatic variability and to the materials coming from the subsurface of the Sahel area. In order to choose the appropriate method, a special care was given in this paper to different methods of investigation of the groundwater contribution in water and salt budgets of saline systems. The hydrogeological map of the surrounding aquifers proved their convergence toward Sidi El Hani discharge playa. As consequence of the dominance of a salty groundwater contribution, the climate variability may be considered minor. Accordingly, the model proposed by this study showed the dominance of the salty water coming from the hydrogeology at the expense of the fresh water coming from the climatic contribution. Moreover, according to the adopted model, the effect of the human-induced activity on the hydrogeological contribution such as the installation of dams in the Tunisian center and the overexploitation of the phreatic aquifer of Kairouan was judged increasing the convergence of Kairouan aquifer towards Sidi El Hani discharge playa. On the other hand, the consumption of salt reserves from the discharge playa tends to decrease its salinization.