Preliminary results of a 3-D groundwater flow model in an arid region of NE Algeria using PMWin: the Inféro-flux phreatic aquifer (Biskra)

Claudio Arras (a-b), Mohamedou Baba Sy (c), Cristina Buttau (b), Alberto Carletti (a-b), Gabriela Mihaela Afrasinei (a) & Giorgio Ghiglieri (a-b)
(a) Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences, University of Cagliari, Via Trentino 51 – 09127 Cagliari, Italy (ghiglieri@unica.it) E-mail: cla.arras1@studenti.unica.it (b) Desertification Research Center-NRD, University of Sassari, Viale Italia 39 – 07100 Sassari, Italy (nrd@uniss.it) (c) IT Officer, Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS), Boulevard du Leader Yasser Arafat, Carthage, Tunis BP 31, Tunisie (laminebabasy@gmail.com

Inféro-flux phreatic aquifer (Biskra, NE Algeria) is overexploited for irrigation and drinking water purposes since the fifties. The effect is a quali-quantitative deterioration of the groundwater resources mostly due to an insufficient natural recharge. WADIS-MAR Project aims to the realization of a Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) in the Biskra area in order to contribute to re-pressuring the piezometric level of the Inféro-flux. Groundwater flow models can contribute to the understanding of the groundwater behaviour related to the impact of existing and future activities on groundwater resources including the realization of an MAR system. In this work, the preliminary results for a groundwater flow model developed for the Inféro-flux aquifer are presented. They include the model construction and the results of the steady state calibration based on the piezometric head measured in 1966.

Algeria, Arid region, Calibration, Groundwater model, MODFLOW.