Abstract
The climate change has an effect on groundwater aquifers in some parts of the world. Algeria is considered as a vulnerable country in the world regarding the availability of water resources. The water supply is the main challenge of the public institutions under these natural conditions and human activities. The goal of this work is to assess the impact of climate change on groundwater resources, especially in the coastal aquifers, case of Mitidja in northern Algeria. In this study area, rainfalls were decreased at about 20% from 1905 to 2011, with a significant irregularity in this period. The analysis of piezometric map shows a decrease of groundwater levels from 1974 to 2010 at more than 10 m in average. It shows also high salinity in the coastal sector due to seawater intrusion after the overexploitation of groundwater in the catchment fields. It shows a high value of electrical conductivity (average of 2200 µS/cm), and high concentration of chlorides (an average of 386 mg/l). The analysis of physicochemical parameters of groundwater shows also high concentrations of nitrate for the major part of the plain, they are moderately higher than the standard value (50 mg/l). It is due to the anthropogenic activities in Mitidja plain such as the agricultural origin, primarily linked to the intensification and abusive uses of fertilizers. We can also report urban pollution in this plain, which comes from the discharge sewerage networks without treatment.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
ANRH (2010) Document about combating seawater marine in the bay of Algiers. Mission report (in French)
Bernstein L, Bosch P, Canziani O, Chen Z, Christ R, Davidson O, Hare W, Huq S, Karoly D, Kattsov V, Kundzewicz ZW (2008) Climate change 2007: synthesis report: an assessment of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. IPCC
Bouderbala A (2015) Groundwater salinization in semi-arid zones: an example from Nador plain (Tipaza, Algeria). Environ Earth Sci 73(9):5479–5496
Bouderbala A (2017a) Assessment of water quality index for the groundwater in the upper Cheliff plain, Algeria. J Geol Soc India 90(3):347–356
Bouderbala A (2017b) Assessment of groundwater quality and its suitability for domestic and agricultural uses in Low-Isser plain, Boumedres. Algeria. Arab J Geosci 10:333
Bouderbala A (2018) Effects of climate variability on groundwater resources in coastal aquifers (case of Mitidja plain in the North Algeria). In: Calvache ML, Duque C, Pulido-Velazquez D (eds) Groundwater and global change in the Western Mediterranean area. Springer, Cham, pp 43–51
Chadha DK (1999) A proposed new diagram for geochemical classification of natural waters and interpretation of chemical data. Hydrogeol J 7(5):431–439
Chaterjee C, Raziuddin M (2002) Determination of water quality index (WQI) of a degraded river in Asanol Industrial area, Raniganj, Burdwan, West Bengal. Nat Environ Pollut Technol 1(2):181–189
Dallas HF, Rivers-Moore N (2014) Ecological consequences of global climate change for freshwater ecosystems in South Africa. S Afr J Sci 110(5–6):01–11
Djoudar HD (2014) Approche methodologique de la vulnerabilite de la ressource en eau souterraine en milieu fortement urbanise : exemple en Algerie des plaines littorales (Mitidja). Thèse de doctorat USTHB
Guttman NB (1998) Comparing the palmer drought index and the standardized precipitation index1. JAWRA J Am Water Resour Assoc 34(1):113–121
Karmegam U, Chidambaram S, Prasanna MV, Sasidhar P, Manikandan S, Johnsonbabu G, Dheivanayaki V, Paramaguru P, Manivannan R, Srinivasamoorthy K, Anandhan P (2011) A study on the mixing proportion in groundwater samples by using Piper diagram and Phreeqc model. Chin J Geochem 30(4):490
Khosravi R, Eslami H, Almodaresi SA, Heidari M, Fallahzadeh RA, Taghavi M, Khodadadi M, Peirovi R (2017) Use of geographic information system and water quality index to assess groundwater quality for drinking purpose in Birjand City, Iran. Desalin Water Treat 67:74–83
Khouli MR, Djabri L (2011) Impact of use of agricultural inputs on the quality of groundwater case of Mitidja plain (Algeria). Geogr Tech 11(2):35–44
McKee TB, Doesken NJ, Kleist J (1993) The relationship of drought frequency and duration to time scales. In: Proceedings of the 8th conference on applied climatology, Anaheim, California, vol 17, no 22. American Meteorological Society, Boston, MA, pp 179–183
Mohammed T, Al-Amin AQ (2018) Climate change and water resources in Algeria: vulnerability, impact and adaptation strategy. Econ Environ Stud 18(1):411–429
Pathak H, Pramanik P, Khanna M, Kumar A (2014) Climate change and water availability in Indian agriculture: impacts and adaptation. Indian J Agric Sci 84:671–679
Smit B, Skinner MW (2002) Adaptation options in agriculture to climate change: a typology. Mitig Adapt Strat Glob Change 7(1):85–114
Thilagavathi R, Chidambaram S, Prasanna MV, Thivya C, Singaraja C (2012) A study on groundwater geochemistry and water quality in layered aquifers system of Pondicherry region, southeast India. Appl Water Sci 2(4):253–269
WHO World Health Organization (2008) Guidelines for drinking water quality, 2nd edn. WHO, Geneva
WMO (2012) Standardized precipitation index user guide (Svoboda M, Hayes M, Wood D). (WMO-No. 1090), Geneva
Zamiche S, Hamaidi-Chergui F, Demiai A, Belaidi M (2018) Identification of factors controlling the quality of groundwater in mitidja plain using indexing method and statistical analysis. J Fundam Appl Sci 10(1):248–267
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This article is a part of the Topical Collection in Environmental Earth Sciences on “Impacts of Global Change on Groundwater in Western Mediterranean Countries” guest edited by Maria Luisa Calvache, Carlos Duque and David Pulido-Velazquez.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bouderbala, A. The impact of climate change on groundwater resources in coastal aquifers: case of the alluvial aquifer of Mitidja in Algeria. Environ Earth Sci 78, 698 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-019-8702-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-019-8702-5