Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Metwaly, Mohamed
• Elawadi, Eslam
• Taha, Ayman I.
• El-Qady, Gad
• Anter, Ahmed
• Szalai, Sándor

Titel

Geophysical studies for the aquifer properties along Wadi Nu’man, Holy Makkah area, Saudi Arabia

Ist Teil von

• Arabian journal of geosciences, 2021-11, Vol.14 (22), Article 2316

Ort / Verlag

Cham: Springer International Publishing

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• One of the main factors for the urban sustainable development planning is the fresh water availability, especially in arid area such as Holy Makkah, Saudi Arabia. The area has most important religious places for the Islamic world, and thus, millions of visitors are coming to the city every year. Almost half of fresh water demands in the area are coming from the decreasing groundwater that are embodied in the wadi deposits and fractured crystalline rocks. However, the fresh water demands are rapidly increasing; therefore, the evaluation of the water resources along the area is strongly needed. Integrated geophysical methods to evaluate the subsurface situation and water content have been applied along Wadi Nu’man that is bounding the Holy area. Aeromagnetic and geoelectrical resistivity sounding measurements have been carried out along the wadi. Processing and modeling of the magnetic data indicated that the depth to the basement is irregular and controlled by the subsurface structure elements and the basement topography. The subsurface basement relief model indicated two local basins that undergo to keep the precipitated rainfall. Moreover, processing a suite of 155 vertical electrical soundings (VES) has been carried out along the wadi to determine the varying alluvial thickness covering the subsurface basement and the degree of water saturation. The processing and interpretation of VES data had been controlled by the subsurface lithological information of the available borehole as well as the magnetic data interpretation. Based on the output interpreted models, 2D cross sections have been constructed to emphasize the alluvial wadi deposits and the basement. Finally, the water budget along the wadi has been estimated using the results of geophysical and available metrological data sets. The estimated water stored in the subsurface wadi deposits and shallow fracture basement is around 56 million m 3 .