Abstract
(Englisch)
|
The project is oriented to the socio-economic aspects of water management in Cyprus and its allocation to the diverse groups of users. The role of the Engineering Geology (ETHZ) in the project is to evaluate the quantity and quality of the groundwater resources mainly used for drinking water supply by private households, by industrial and tourist facilities, and by the agricultural sector for irrigation purposes. The investigations are focused on two typical areas with respect to their hydrogeological situation, to their landscape, and to their agricultural production schemes:
a) Troodos mountainous area
The hydrogeological aspects of this area situated within the inner mountain range of the Troodos complex consisting mainly of fractured mafic crystalline rocks have been investigated by hydrogeological methods.
Based on field measurements and the evaluation of existing data, a 2D finite difference groundwater model has been developed. Based on the results of the groundwater model and the water balance calculations the following characterisation of the ongoing evolution of the aquifer results:
- Increase of groundwater production in the upstream areas of the Troodos mountains, leading to more water availability for the agriculture at low price within the less populated hilly area, but which is
- affecting the downstream areas within the low groundwater yielding sedimentary rocks as also the high productive coastal areas, by lower river runoff and lower stored volumes within the dam sites available for irrigation as also for general water supply of the dense populated areas.
b) Kiti coastal area
The Kiti aquifer is a small porous (gravel) coastal aquifer which is highly exploited for irrigation. The density of private boreholes is extreme (around 1 well every 200 meters on an area of 25 km2). Based on the borehole database introduced in a geographical information system (GIS) a 3D finite element groundwater simulation model (density dependent) of the Kiti area was established. With this model it was possible to simulate the evolution of the salt water intrusion within the Kiti area. According to these model simulations the actual situation can be characterised as following:
During the period 1960 to 1970 the overall groundwater abstraction within the Kiti aquifer was almost equal and locally higher than the natural recharge. Caused by this over exploitation the process of sea water intrusion was activated, with inflow of sea water and mixing with the original fresh groundwater. The effect of this process are the observed high salinities more than 1000 mg/l of chloride in the observed boreholes.
Although the water abstraction from the boreholes in annual amounts was reduced to about 80% as further stabilised abstraction rate (equivalent to 1.5 Mm3/a) since in the late 1980ies (as additional surface water from the Southern Conveyor Project (especially from the Kouris river dam) was available, and the groundwater levels were stabilised, the salinity of the groundwater still remained at the same high concentrations as provoked by the intense pumping in the 1960ies.This situation illustrates that the sanitation of the aquifer is a very long process, as the denser, immobile salt water has to be pushed back by fresh groundwater, what would only be possible if the groundwater level would be restored at least to their initial levels before the start of the pumping period. Furthermore the coastal areas situated near the shore line remain especially vulnerable to the seawater intrusion process, especially as over exploitation locally during the dry seasons of high water demand still occur.
The results of these hydrogeological investigations of the two areas show that the real problem of the actual water scarcity and the quality of groundwater on Cyprus is related to the actual distribution policies, and to the general use of all available resources of water for the several sectors, as agriculture, industry and households. The now demonstrated dilemma of water resources allocation was now further examined based on the hydrogeological parameters of the two study areas for the application of economic models of groundwater management by the other project partners of the University of Cyprus and University College of London and for the legal aspects of water allocation by the University of Maastricht.
Reports and Publications:
a) ETH Diploma Thesis:
Detailed results of the hydrogeological and geological investigations of 2 selected areas within the Kouris catchment / Troodos are presented in the ETH diploma thesis of Andreas Moll and Mathias Steiner in April 2000.
Two further diploma thesis of Ueli Jörin and Simon Oertli presenting the results of the hydrogeological and geological investigations of 2 selected areas within the Yermasoya catchment / Troodos Massif were presented in April 2001.
b) Further Publications and presentations in scientific Conferences and Symposia:
Renard, Ph. And A. Poller, 2001, On the slow recess of sea-water intrusion: an example in Cyprus, First International Conference on Saltwater Intrusion and Coastal Aquifers - Monitoring, Modeling and Management, Essaouira, Morocco, April 23-25, 2001.
Boronina, A., Renard, P. , Balderer, W. and Cristodoulides, A. (2001): WATER CONFLICTS IN THE KOURIS CATCHMENT (CYPRUS): DATA ANALYSIS AND NUMERICAL MODELING. Proceedings of Int. Conference on Balancing the Groundwater Budget, May, 12-17. 2002, Darwin, Australia
Balderer, W., Boronina, A., Renard, Ph., Christodoulides, A. (2001): General Introduction: Water balance concepts in modelling hydrogeological features. In: Cyprus Integrated Water Management: Volume II: Technical Annex: Cyprus Case Study, Chapter 2, pp. 43-45. Final Report of EU Project, 2001.
Millness, E., Renard, Ph., Christodoulides, A. (2001): Hydrogeological Aspects of the Water Supply in Cyprus(A): KITI. In: Cyprus Integrated Water Management: Volume II: Technical Annex: Cyprus Case Study, Chapter 4, pp. 113-126. Final Report of EU Project, 2001.
Boronina, A., Renard, Ph, Balderer, W., Christodoulides, A. (2001): Hydrogeological Aspects of the Water Supply in Cyprus (B): KOURIS. In: Cyprus Integrated Water Management: Volume II: Technical Annex: Cyprus Case Study, Chapter 5, pp.127-141. Final Report of EU Project, 2001.
|
