Abstract
Located in the extreme northwest of Africa, the Kingdom of Morocco is increasingly affected by drought. Much of the country is characterised by an arid to semi-arid climate and the demand for water is considerably higher than the supply, particularly on the Haouz Plain in the centre of the country. The expansion of agriculture and tourism, in addition to industrial development and mining, have exacerbated the stress on water supplies resulting in drought. It is therefore necessary to adopt careful management practices to preserve the sustainability of the water resources in this region. The aquifer recharge rate in the piedmont region that links the High Atlas and the Central Haouz Plain was estimated using the chloride mass balance hydrochemical method, which is based on the relationship between the chloride concentrations in groundwater and rainwater. The addition of a geographical information system made it possible to estimate the recharge rate over the whole 400 km2 of the study area. The results are presented in the form of a map showing the spatialized recharge rate, which ranges from 13 to 100 mm/year and the recharge percentage of the total rainfall varies from 3 to 25 % for the hydrological year 2011–2012. This approach will enable the validation of empirical models covering areas >6200 km2, such as the Haouz nappe.
Highlights
Water is a limiting factor in semi-arid zones affected by repeated droughts
The aquifer recharge rate in the piedmont region that links the High Atlas and the Central Haouz Plain was estimated using the chloride mass balance hydrochemical method, which is based on the relationship between the chloride concentrations in groundwater and rainwater
The objective of this work was to estimate the infiltration recharge rate using the chloride mass balance (CMB) method developed by Eriksson and Khunakasem (1969), called the chloride budget technique
Summary
Water is a limiting factor in semi-arid zones affected by repeated droughts. The evaluation and optimum management of this resource are essential in regions such as the Haouz Plain, Morocco. The Mio-Plio-Quaternary nappe of the Haouz Plain provides more than 400 million m3 of water and this water is used to irrigate an area covering [200,000 ha. Several different methods can be used to determine this recharge rate, including hydrochemical approaches. Hydrochemisty is becoming increasingly important in solving problems in hydrology and hydrogeology (Eriksson 1985; Adelana and MacDonald 2008) and several researchers have used hydrochemical (Allison et al 1985; Adar et al 1988; Adar and Neuman 1988; Al-Bassam and Al-Rumikhani 2003; Stigter et al 2006; Fernandes et al 2009; Hagedorn 2015) and geochemical (Holland 1972; Dissanayake 1991; Glynn and Plummer 2005; Xiao et al 2012) approaches to address issues related to water management.
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