A modified modeling of potentiality and vulnerability of the groundwater resources in Amman Zarqa Basin, Jordan
Keywords:
Amman-Zarqa Basin (AZB), DRASTIC index, groundwater potentiality, groundwater vulnerability, managed aquifer recharge (MAR).Abstract
This study aims at assessing the potentiality of groundwater resources in Amman-Zarqa Basin, North Jordan, in addition to the effect of vulnerability of groundwaterwithin the catchment and building a multiple criteria method to manage artificialrecharge process. This is one of the most important basins in Jordan, where most ofthe agricultural and industrial activities are located. The groundwater potentiality isdetermined using managed aquifer recharge (MAR) tool, along with other importanttools to evaluate the sensitivity of groundwater, to pollution of the area under study.In order to ensure the quality of water that will be recharged in areas of high potential,vulnerability of groundwater is considered, while determining a suitable area inwhich to apply the MAR project. Under the geographic information system (GIS)environment, both groundwater vulnerability and MAR layers were prepared for thebasin. MAR mapping showed very high and high potential areas, over 13% and 44%of the total basin area respectively, while low potential areas represented 14% of thetotal area. However, while evaluating groundwater vulnerability with MAR-producedmap, very high and high potential areas of the managed aquifer recharge were foundto be 8% and 29% respectively. For areas that have high and very high groundwatervulnerability, there is no scope to apply MAR project in 44% of the total area. The finalresults indicate importance of applying the studies together, in order to better enhancethe results of MAR method, as there might be areas with high MAR potentiality andvulnerability rates within the same areas, which will eliminate the ability of the areasto be used as potential recharge areas.References
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