Potential natural obstacles to groundwater engineering

Abstract

Countries have constantly experienced problems with water resources: much, little, polluted, variable. Over generations, humankind has tried to manage these water resources problems by intervening in its natural courses through redistribution, storage, and regulation. Management and exploitation resulted in systematic knowledge of the behavior of surface and underground water. The center of importance subsequently shifted to groundwater at the beginning of the 20th century, notably because of its importance for the development of semi-arid areas, like the study area, to accommodate their requirements, particularly in connection with the search for unpolluted drinking water for the growing villages, under controlled conditions. In this respect, the groundwater studies performed earlier in the study area revolved around very simplistic conceptualizations for estimated the groundwater volume far away from the obstacles that may face these works, especially to understanding and modeling subsurface flow and transport. In this study, some values of the mathematical equations used to model subsurface flow and transport have been highlighted, which are subject to uncertainty in determining their actual values, hindering groundwater engineering.