Quantitative Assessment of Regional Rock Aquifers, South-Western Quebec, Canada

M. Nastev (), R. Lefebvre, A. Rivera and R. Martel

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2006, vol. 20, issue 1, 18 pages

Abstract: The population of the St. Lawrence Lowlands platform in south-western Quebec, Canada, is heavily dependent on groundwater. The present study summarizes the quantity, quality and sustainability estimations of the groundwater resources found mainly in sedimentary rock aquifers. Results show that the regional groundwater flow in the considered domain of 1,500 km 2 is 97.7 Mm 3 /y with: 86.6% infiltration from precipitation, 9.6% inflow from neighboring aquifers, and 3.8% induced recharge. The regional sustainability is defined with simulated drawdowns from uniform withdrawal scenarios. The current withdrawal rate of 18 Mm 3 /y results in median drawdown of 0.6 m, compared to pre-development conditions. This drawdown is situated well in the sustainable range, an indication that regional aquifers are not overexploited. Hypothetical pumping rate of 24 Mm 3 /y resulting in an average drawdown of 2.2 m is estimated as sustainable limit. Increasing exploitation from 24 to 51 Mm 3 /y would need tight control and planning. Pumping rates beyond 51 Mm 3 /y are judged not sustainable as regional drawdowns become high, ∼8 m. The water levels in recharge areas are the most sensitive to groundwater extraction. Combining drawdown maps, groundwater quality zones, and aquifer vulnerability to surface contamination delineated the areas most suitable for future groundwater developments. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 2006

Keywords: aquifer vulnerability; groundwater budget; groundwater development; groundwater quality; sustainable yield (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11269-006-2072-y (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:waterr:v:20:y:2006:i:1:p:1-18

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11269

DOI: 10.1007/s11269-006-2072-y

Access Statistics for this article

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) is currently edited by G. Tsakiris

More articles in Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) from Springer, European Water Resources Association (EWRA)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().