Lithostratigraphic identification using 3D geophysical/hydrogeological modeling for monitoring the aquifer’s vulnerability to contamination in El-Oweinat, Egypt

Abstract

The integration between advanced techniques for groundwater vulnerability to contamination is necessary for groundwater management and risk assessment for aquifer systems. 3D geophysical/hydrogeological modeling has been developed for the delineation of lithostratigraphic layers of the Nubian Sandstone aquifer system based on geophysical and hydrogeological borehole data for 79 groundwater wells with a distance of 1 km between each well in the study area of El-Oweinat. Several parameters contributing to groundwater vulnerability have been selected and represented in 3D views as follows: surface elevation; water table; unsaturated and saturated thicknesses; laminar head losses; turbulent head losses; total drawdown; specific capacity; aquitard and aquifer thicknesses to monitor the aquifer vulnerability to contamination using Petrel software. This integration of lithostratigraphic layers and aquifer parameters (e.g. water depth) can significantly help to delineate and understand both the water pathway and attenuation processes caused by the aquitard layers, which serve as a protective layer for the underlying aquifer layers. 3D modeling of the aquifer system allows the decision-maker to visualize and deal with the issue of contamination as quickly as possible.

Keywords

• Groundwater vulnerability
• 3D modeling
• Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS)