Feasibility of groundwater recharge dam projects in arid environments

•A methodology for feasibility and prioritization of recharge dams is developed.•Eighty-one proposed dam sites in were studied as a case study.•High priority dams have high capital cost, high yields and high reliability.•Low cost of water productivity and high recharge potential affected priorities....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of hydrology (Amsterdam) Vol. 512; pp. 16 - 26
Main Author:	Jaafar, H.H.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Kidlington Elsevier B.V 06-05-2014 Elsevier
Subjects:	Areal geology Areal geology. Maps Arid regions Artificial recharge Dams Earth sciences Earth, ocean, space Exact sciences and technology Feasibility Geologic maps, cartography GIS Hydrology Hydrology. Hydrogeology Water management Water resources GIS Feasibility Dams Water management Artificial recharge Arid regions cost projects atmospheric precipitation Decision making reliability runoff reservoirs investment arid environment ground-water recharge geographic information systems case studies dams artificial recharge irrigation new methods water resource management soils land cover
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Summary:	•A methodology for feasibility and prioritization of recharge dams is developed.•Eighty-one proposed dam sites in were studied as a case study.•High priority dams have high capital cost, high yields and high reliability.•Low cost of water productivity and high recharge potential affected priorities.•Feasible dams are a low percentage of the studied dams. A new method for determining feasibility and prioritizing investments for agricultural and domestic recharge dams in arid regions is developed and presented. The method is based on identifying the factors affecting the decision making process and evaluating these factors, followed by determining the indices in a GIS-aided environment. Evaluated parameters include results from field surveys and site visits, land cover and soils data, precipitation data, runoff data and modeling, number of beneficiaries, domestic irrigation demand, reservoir objectives, demography, reservoirs yield and reliability, dam structures, construction costs, and operation and maintenance costs. Results of a case study on more than eighty proposed dams indicate that assessment of reliability, annualized cost/demand satisfied and yield is crucial prior to investment decision making in arid areas. Irrigation demand is the major influencing parameter on yield and reliability of recharge dams, even when only 3months of the demand were included. Reliability of the proposed reservoirs as related to their standardized size and net inflow was found to increase with increasing yield. High priority dams were less than 4% of the total, and less priority dams amounted to 23%, with the remaining found to be not feasible. The results of this methodology and its application has proved effective in guiding stakeholders for defining most favorable sites for preliminary and detailed design studies and commissioning.
ISSN:	0022-1694 1879-2707
DOI:	10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.02.054