Modeling approaches and strategies for data-scarce aquifers: example of the Dar es Salaam aquifer in Tanzania
Van Camp, M.; Mjemah Chikira, I.; Al Farrah, N.; Walraevens, K. (2013). Modeling approaches and strategies for data-scarce aquifers: example of the Dar es Salaam aquifer in Tanzania. Hydrogeol. J. 21(2): 341-356. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10040-012-0908-5
Management of groundwater resources can be improved by using groundwater models to perform risk analyses and to improve development strategies, but a lack of extensive basic data often limits the implementation of sophisticated models. Dar es Salaam in Tanzania is an example of a city where increasing groundwater use in a Pleistocene aquifer is causing groundwater-related problems such as saline intrusion along the coastline, lowering of water-table levels, and contamination of pumping wells. The lack of a water-level monitoring network introduces a problem for basic data collection and model calibration and validation. As a replacement, local water-supply wells were used for measuring groundwater depth, and well-top heights were estimated from a regional digital elevation model to recalculate water depths to hydraulic heads. These were used to draw a regional piezometric map. Hydraulic parameters were estimated from short-time pumping tests in the local wells, but variation in hydraulic conductivity was attributed to uncertainty in well characteristics (information often unavailable) and not to aquifer heterogeneity. A MODFLOW model was calibrated with a homogeneous hydraulic conductivity field and a sensitivity analysis between the conductivity and aquifer recharge showed that average annual recharge will likely be in the range 80–100 mm/year.
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