Groundwater potentials of eocene limestone aquifer in west-west el-Minya area, Egypt

Abstract EN

The objective of this research is to estimate the groundwater potentials of the Eocene limestone aquifer through the application of GIS technique on the collected and measured data of the drilled wells. Through the investigation of 53 drilled wells, the depth to water increases from 70.8 m at south to 103.8 m at north.

Thegroundwater flow direction is from east to west and from south to north.

The salinity ranges from 1000 mg/l to 2982 mg/l.

The penetrated depth of the aquifer ranges between 175 m and 500 m.

The Eocene fractured limestone aquifer is considered as highly productive aquifer having transmissivity values of 99 - 20160 m²/day and attaining specific capacity values range between < 18 m³/h/m and > 300 m³/h/m.

The geologic structures have a considerable effect on aquifer productivity due to increasing the fracture systems and caves.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technique was appliedas a tool to achieve the target of this study, where two scenarios were proposed.

In scenario 1, the economic factor is the main factor in the process of extracting groundwater; the western and northeastern parts have the best priority representing 71.7% (100406 Feddan) of the investigated area.

In scenario 2, the high productivity of groundwater is the influencing factor; the northern half of the study area and the southwestern corner have the high productivity zones representing about 60.8% (85058 Feddan) of the investigated area.