Restoration Peculiarities of Ground Water Basins in the Mountainous Relief Regions

Abstract

The goal of the present research is to figure out how to increase the efficiency with which water resources are used in mountainous relief regions on the example of the Ararat Artesian Basin of the Republic of Armenia. The accumulation of significant water runoffs in reservoirs under difficult hydrogeological conditions requires not only large investments in construction, but also in the transportation of water to the consumer, which is fraught with significant water infiltration losses. The paper shows that by the example of artificial recharge of the Ararat Artesian Basin, instead of building a new reservoir to collect 40 million m3 of water per year, which requires huge capital investments (5.75-6.25 USD/m3), the financial costs can be significantly reduced (0.05-0.075 USD/m3) by pumping the same volume of water into the groundwater basin. The obtained results can be used both in different regions of Armenia and in countries with mountainous relief.