Abstract
The Charf El Akab aquifer has a surface area of 17 km2 and is located about 20 km southwest of the Tangier city, it circulates in the Miocene sandy basin of the same name and comprises two layers, one high and the other low, these two are separated in some places by an airtight impenetrable sand-marly formation. The requirements for water whether potable or industrial, in the Tangier-Asilah region are expected to amplify in order to support the increasing demand prompted by the economical development, population growth as well as the heightened threat of scarcity related to climate change. Currently, the water supply of this region is ensured mostly by the two dams: Ibn Battouta and “April 9, 1947”. However, this aquifer plays the role of an easily usable emergency reservoir, in case of an extra water supply in rush hour or in the event where current service works of the cities of Tangier and Asilah are unavailable. Nevertheless, water resources are still vulnerable because of the existence of abandoned quarries in the area. Therefore, the protection of this aquifer against any source of pollution is the purpose of this work. The lower water layer is the only one that can be exploited by the ONEE (National Office for Electricity and Drinking Water), due to the fact that it has a better quality and very good hydrodynamic characteristics. The most important thing about this work is the establishment of an intrinsic vulnerability map to the pollution by the DRASTIC method, by exploiting of the calibrated hydrodynamical model results. In the same context of protection, a guesstimate of the close protection perimeter of 72.76 ha was acquired, using a new numerical modeling approach by the “Arcfem” software under the ArcMap environment.
Highlights
The Charf El Akab aquifer, with an area of 17 km2 and a location 20 km southwest away from the city of Tangier (Figure 1) has been used for quite a long time to provide potable water to the cities of Tangier and Asilah
The Charf El Akab aquifer has a surface area of 17 km2 and is located about 20 km southwest of the Tangier city, it circulates in the Miocene sandy basin of the same name and comprises two layers, one high and the other low, these two are separated in some places by an airtight impenetrable sand-marly formation
The requirements for water whether potable or industrial, in the Tangier-Asilah region are expected to amplify in order to support the increasing demand prompted by the economical development, population growth as well as the heightened threat of scarcity related to climate change
Summary
The Charf El Akab aquifer, with an area of 17 km and a location 20 km southwest away from the city of Tangier (Figure 1) has been used for quite a long time to provide potable water to the cities of Tangier and Asilah. The strategic reserves of this aquifer are used as additional security resources in case of an exceptional drought or unavailability of works currently serving drinking water in the cities of Tangier and Asilah. At this time, the aquifer has an artificial recharge system that includes 11 injections pits and a large infiltration basin. The protection of this latter against any source of contamination is considered to be the top worry; the absolute need to assess and map its vulnerability to pollution In this respect, the purpose of this work is to: - On one hand, to establish the most vulnerable areas by using the DRASTIC method. The reason behind this choice is the ease and the availability of the parameters used by this method. - On the other hand, to simulate the effect of a possible pollution to determine the perimeter of close protection, using numerical modeling by applying the Arcfem extension under the Arcmap environment
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