Author(s)

A. Melloul & M. Collin

Abstract

When considering theories of climatic changes, some alarming scenarios forecast a sea level rise of dozens of cms over up-coming decades. Consequently, future hydrological and environmental planning must take these concerns into consideration and weigh their impact upon water resources and environment, especially in those areas where continental fresh water is in contact with sea water. This study focuses on Israel’s Coastal aquifer, which is a significant component of Israel’s national water system, located along the eastern Mediterranean coast, where seawater intrusion into the aquifer due to many years of over-pumpage has been noted. There are still pristine areas not far from the coast, where fresh water can be found. Considering the long shoreline of this aquifer and the presence of fresh water in pristine areas, seawater rise can have a potentially significant adverse effect upon this aquifer and its environment. Based upon a simple geometric and hydological model and the assumption that the coastal aquifer can be subject to a rise of sea level due to global warming of between 10 and 50 cm over the coming 50 years, results highlight key parameters that can contibute to significant adverse changes, and include estimation of values and rates of potential fresh water loss from the aquifer’s permanent reserves for the two cases noted above. The recommendations include: high-resolution topographic mapping, improvement of monitoring of coastal aquifer wells to provide critical information for effective water resource management, and long-term land-use planning. This case study can be considered representative of many coastal aquifers throughout the world. Keywords: global warming, sea level rise, Coastal aquifer, seawater intrusion, over-pumpage, hydological model, Mediterranean coast, seawater monitoring.

Keywords

global warming, sea level rise, Coastal aquifer, seawater intrusion, over-pumpage, hydological model, Mediterranean coast, seawater monitoring.