Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Spatial mapping of irrigation groundwater quality of the High Mekerra watershed (Northern Algeria)

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Arabian Journal of Geosciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The spatial assessment of water quality for irrigation is of great importance for agricultural issues. Assessing the suitability of groundwater for irrigation is carried out for the first time in the High Mekerra watershed. Groundwater samples were collected during the wet season (March 2013) and the dry season (July 2013) and analyzed for determining the physicochemical properties. The indices used in the quality assessment were the sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), residual sodium carbonate (RSC), sodium percentage (%Na+), permeability index (PI), magnesium hazard (MH), Kelly’s ratio (KR), and irrigation water quality index (IWQI), incorporating the spatial variation using the GIS-based multi-criteria system. Result showed that most of groundwater samples have low sodium hazard and high to very high salinity hazard and could be used for irrigation on almost all types of soil with little risk of exchangeable sodium. The GIS-based multi-criteria system highlighted the spatial variation of groundwater quality for irrigation in the study area. This spatial distribution indicated that groundwater is generally of moderate quality and that the Ras el Ma aquifer quality is better than for Mouley Slissen aquifer.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Al-Amry AB (2008) Hydrogeochemistry and groundwater quality assessment in an arid region: a case study from Al Salameh area, Shabwah, Yemen. Paper presented at Third International Conference on Water Resources and Arid Environments, Riyadh

  • Ali MH (2011) Practices of irrigation & on-farm water management: volume 2. Springer, New York, p 571

  • ANAT (1990) Analyse de la situation et des potentialités de la wilaya. Plan d’aménagement de la wilaya de Sidi-Bel-Abbès. Rapport d’orientation, Agence Nationale d’Aménagement du Territoire, Alger, 200 p

  • Auclair D, Biehler J (1967) Etudes géologiques des hautes plaines oranaises entre Tlemcen et Saïda. Publ Serv Géol Algérie Ann Ser 34:3–45

    Google Scholar 

  • Aurenhammer F (1991) Voronoi diagrams—a survey of a fundamental geometric data structure. ACM Comput Surv 23(3):345–405

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ayers RS, Westcott DW (1985) Water quality for agriculture, FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 29, Rev. 1, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome

    Google Scholar 

  • Ayers RS, Westcott DW (1999) The water quality in agriculture, 2nd Campina Grande: UFPB, Studies FAO Irrigation and Drainage 29

  • Badraoui M, Soudi B, Farhat A (1998) Variation de la qualité des sols : Une base pour évaluer la durabilité de la mise en valeur agricole sous irrigation par pivot au Maroc. Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, Rabat, pp 227–234

    Google Scholar 

  • Ben Alaya M, Saidi S, Zemni T, Zargouni F (2014) Suitability assessment of deep groundwater for drinking and irrigation use in the Djeffara aquifers (Northern Gabes, south-eastern Tunisia). Environ Earth Sci 71:3387–3421

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bernardo S (1995) Manual de irrigacao, 4th edition, Vicosa: UFV, 488 p

  • Dehaan RL, Taylor GR (2002) Field-derived spectra of salinized soils and vegetation as indicators of irrigation-induced soil salinization. Int J Remote Sensing 80:406–417

    Google Scholar 

  • Doneen LD (1964) Notes on water quality in agriculture. Water Science and Engineering, University of California, Davis

  • DSA (2014) Annual report data of Sidi Bel Abbes region. Agricultural Services Direction

  • Durand JH (1973) Utilisation des eaux salines pour l’irrigation. Bull Tech Info 276:39–58

    Google Scholar 

  • Eaton FM (1950) Significance of carbonate in irrigation waters. Soil Sci 69:123–133

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emdad MR, Raine SR, Smith RJ, Fardad H (2004) Effect of water quality on soil structure and infiltration under furrow irrigation. Irrig Sci 23:55–60

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ghassemi F, Jakeman AJ, Nix HA (1995) Salinisation of land and water resources: human causes, extent, management and case studies. Center for Resource and Environmental Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra 125 p

    Google Scholar 

  • Gnanachandrasamy G, Ramkumar T, Venkatramanan S, Vasudevan S, Chung SY, Bagyaraj M (2015) Accessing groundwater quality in lower part of Nagapattinam district, Southern India: using hydrogeochemistry and GIS interpolation techniques. Appl Water Sci 5:39–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gupta RK, Abrol IP (1990) Salt-affected soil: their reclamation and management for crop production. In: Lal R, Stewart BA (eds) Advances in soil science. Volume 11 soil degradation. Springer-Verlag, New York 288 p

    Google Scholar 

  • Hadji F, Guasmi I, Djabri L (2013) Suitability of surface water from Mouillah Wadi of Algeria for irrigation purposes. In Developments in soil salinity assessment and reclamation 723–735 DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-5684-7_47

  • Holanda JS, Amorim JA (1997) Management and control salinity and irrigated agriculture water In: Congresso Brasileiro de Engenharia setting. Campina Grande 26:137–169

  • Jalal A, Al T, Kamel K, Al Z (2012) Suitability assessment of groundwater for irrigation and drinking purpose in the northern region of Jordan. J Environ Sci Tech 5:274–290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson LE (2009) Geographic information systems in water resources engineering. CRC Press, 340 p

  • Kelly WP (1940) Permissible composition and concentration of irrigation waters. Proc Amer Soc Civ Engin 66:607–613

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar KR, Singh K, Singh B, Aulakh SS (2014) Mapping groundwater quality for irrigation in Punjab, North-West India, using geographical information system. Environ Earth Sci 71:147–161

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lattuada R, Raper J (1996) Applications of 3d delaunay triangulation algorithms in geometric modeling. In Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. Workshorp. Integrating GIS and Environment Modeling. Nat. Ctr. for Geographic Information and Analysis

  • Lee DT, Schachter BJ (1980) Two algorithms for constructing a Delaunay triangulation. Int J Comput Inform Sci 9(3):219–242

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd JW, Heathcoat JA (1985) Natural inorganic hydrochemistry in relation to groundwater: an introduction. Oxford University Press, New York 296 p

    Google Scholar 

  • Meireles A, Andrade EM, Chaves L, Frischkorn H, Crisostomo LA (2010) A new proposal of the classification of irrigation water. Rev Ciênc Agron 41(3):349–357

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Narasimha A, Sudarshan V (2013) Hydrogeochemistry of groundwater in Basara area, Adilabad district, Andhra Pradesh, India. J Appl Geochem 15:224–237

    Google Scholar 

  • Paliwal KV (1967) Effect of gypsum application on the quality of irrigation waters. Madras Agric J 59:646–647

    Google Scholar 

  • Person J (1978) Irrigation et drainage en Tunisie problème posé par la salinité des sols et des eaux. Bulletin du BRGM, 2ème série, section III, no. 2 143–151

  • Pinder GF (2002) Groundwater modeling using geographical information systems. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 247p

  • Pisinaras V, Tsihrintzis VA, Petalas C, Ouzounis K (2009) Soil salinization in the agricultural lands of Rhodope District, northeastern Greece. Environ Monit Assess 166(1):79–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards LA (1954) Diagnosis and improvement of saline and alkali soils, US Department of Agriculture Handbook, Vol. 60, Washington DC160 p

  • Rogers ME (2001) The effect of saline irrigation on lucerne production: shoot and root growth, ion relations and flowering incidence in six cultivars grown in northern Vitoria, Australia. Irrigation Sci 20:55–64

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Romanelli A, Lima ML, Londono OMQ, Martinez DE, Massone HE (2012) A Gis-Based Assessment of Groundwater Suitability for Irrigation. Purposes in Flat Areas of the Wet Pampa Plain, Argentina. Environmental Management 50 : 490-503

  • Rouabhia A, Djabri L (2010) L’irrigation et le risque de pollution saline. Exemple des eaux souterraines de l’aquifère miocène de la plaine d’El Ma El Abiod. Larhyss Journal no. 08:55–67

    Google Scholar 

  • Sambridge M, Braun J, McQueen H (1995a) Computational methods for natural neighbor interpolation in two and three dimensions. In Computational techniques and applications: CTAC95

  • Sambridge M, Braun J, McQueen H (1995b) Geophysical parametrization and interpolation of irregular data using natural neighbours. Geophys J Int 122:837–857

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schiavo MA, Havser S, Gusimano G, Gatto L (2006) Geochemical characterization of groundwater and sub-marine discharge in southeastern Sicily. Cont Shelf Res 26(7):826–834

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shamsi UM (2005) GIS applications for water, wastewater, and stormwater systems. Taylor & Francis, 453p

  • Sibson R (1980) A vector identity for the Dirichlet tessellation. Math Proc Camb Philos Soc 87:151–155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sibson R (1981) A brief description of natural neighbour interpolation. In: Barnett V (ed) Interpreting Multivariate data. Wiley, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Simsek C, Gunduz O (2007) IWQ index: a GIS-integrated technique to assess irrigation water quality. Environ Monit Assess 128:227–300

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Subramani T, Elango L, Dhamodarasamy SR (2005) Groundwater quality and its suitability for drinking and agricultural use in Chithar River Basin, Tamilnadu, India. Environ Geol 47:1099–1110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • SubraRao N (2006) Seasonal variation of groundwater quality in a part of Guntar district, Andhra Pradesh, India. Environ Geol 49:413–429

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Szabolcs I, Darab C (1964) The influence of irrigation water of high sodium carbonate content of soils. Math Proc Camb Philos Soc II:803–812

    Google Scholar 

  • Tedeshi A, Menenti M (2002) Indicators of the seasonal cycle of total dissolved and adsorbed salts under irrigation. Wat Resour Manage 16:89–103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Todd DK (1980) Groundwater hydrology. Wiley and Sons, 2nded

  • Van Der Lelij A, Poolman G (1989) EM-38 applications in irrigated areas of southern New South Wales, resource-monitoring workshop. Proceedings and abstracts, Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute for Irrigation and Salinity Research, Tatura, Victoria, Vol. 1, 13 p.

  • Watson DF (1992) Contouring: a guide to the analysis and display of spatial data. Pergamon, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilcox LV (1955) Classification and use of irrigation water, Washington: US Department of Agriculture. Circular 969 19 p

  • Yazdanpanah N (2016) Spatiotemporal mapping of groundwater quality for irrigation using geostatistical analysis combined with a linear regression method. Model Earth Syst Environ 2:18

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Djillali Liabes, P.O. Box 89, Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria

    Bachir Hallouche

  2. Department of Earth and Universe Sciences, University of Tlemcen, P.O. Box 119, Tlemcen, Algeria

    Fatiha Hadji & Abbas Marok

  3. Laboratory of Georesources and Environment, University of Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah, P.O. Box 2202, 30000, Fez, Morocco

    Lahcen Benaabidate

Authors
  1. Bachir Hallouche
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Fatiha Hadji
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Abbas Marok
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Lahcen Benaabidate
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Abbas Marok.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hallouche, B., Hadji, F., Marok, A. et al. Spatial mapping of irrigation groundwater quality of the High Mekerra watershed (Northern Algeria). Arab J Geosci 10, 233 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-017-3019-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-017-3019-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation