Implementation of Simple Strategies to Improve Wellfield Management in Arid Regions: The Case Study of Wadi Al Arab Wellfield, Jordan

Mohammad Alqadi, Armin Margane, Marwan Al Raggad, Ali Subah He, Markus Disse, Ibraheem Hamdan and Gabriele Chiogna
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Mohammad Alqadi: Lehrstuhl für Hydrologie und Flussgebietsmanagement, Technische Universität München (TUM), 80333 München, Germany
Armin Margane: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), 65760 Eschborn, Germany
Marwan Al Raggad: Water, Energy and Environment Center, University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan
Ali Subah He: Ministry of Water and Irrigation, Amman 11181, Jordan
Markus Disse: Lehrstuhl für Hydrologie und Flussgebietsmanagement, Technische Universität München (TUM), 80333 München, Germany
Ibraheem Hamdan: Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Al al-Bayt University, Mafraq 25113, Jordan
Gabriele Chiogna: Lehrstuhl für Hydrologie und Flussgebietsmanagement, Technische Universität München (TUM), 80333 München, Germany

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 21, 1-23

Abstract: Groundwater is the main source of drinking water supply in Jordan. Over the past 30 years, many wellfields have been drilled and expanded to cover increasing drinking water demand caused by natural population growth, development of life standards and as a result of the influx of refugees to Jordan. In particular, northern Jordan groundwater resources have been severely depleted. Therefore, water suppliers and utilities have been increasingly challenged to meet water demand and deliver water of adequate quality and quantity to households in a timely manner. Meeting these objectives requires good data management, proper maintenance of groundwater wells, and effective wellfield management plans. We developed a novel monitoring strategy that allows the collection of relevant data for wellfield managers (e.g., yield, static and dynamic water level, as well as energy consumption). The new monitoring system, implemented in 2017, has greatly enhanced data availability in comparison to the situation between 2012 and 2016. The data are used in an operational decision support tool based on simple interpretation of the field observations. The implementation of the project was done using both bottom-up and top-down approaches for the Wadi Al Arab wellfield. Our results evidence that (i) simple strategies can lead to a significant improvement of wellfield management, reducing the maintenance time of the wells though appropriate monitoring (from an average of four days/maintenance/well in 2012 to less than one day/maintenance/well in 2017); (ii) the joint combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches leads to an effective implementation of the monitoring system; (iii) the simplicity of the proposed monitoring strategy makes it suitable for further implementation in other wellfields in Jordan and countries in a similar situation of both data and water scarcity.

Keywords: groundwater management; wellfield management; decision support system (DSS); arid region; water supply; maintenance and operation (M&O) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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