Mapping Groundwater Levels in Erbil Basin

Abstract

In the Erbil Basin, which is located in Kurdistan Region at northern part of Iraq, several production wells have been selected for monthly monitoring of groundwater levels. The continuous depletion of groundwater levels has been recorded due to uncontrolled exploitation from both legal and illegal wells that poses a major problem in selected Basin, which is classified as arid and semi-arid regions. Accurate prediction of groundwater depth and elevation maps is crucial for the development of effective groundwater management strategies in the aquifer system of the area. Depth to groundwater measures for each of the 55 wells that distributed across the North, Central, and South sub-basins of Erbil, also mapped and compared with wells data that are recorded periodically by the Directorate of Erbil Groundwater. The methodology of this study is involved mapping groundwater tables for the measured wells in (2022) with surveying wells coordinates as field observations, and compare with data of groundwater tables in (2004) that archived by groundwater directorate. This study employs high-accuracy surveying techniques for the selected wells and utilizes geographic information systems (GIS) as a successful tool for mapping groundwater levels using both Kriging and IDW interpolation methods. The results are indicated successfully that groundwater tables have sudden drawdown during these (18) years, the main reasons behind that is drilling numerous wells without planning and lack of management of the wells system in the study area. Meanwhile, Erbil basin required better planning and management of groundwater resources. The study concludes that there is lack in groundwater management need to keep the sustainability of this vital resources, and observing monthly groundwater levels need to be connected with high accuracy sensor inside observation wells not manually measuring groundwater levels by damaged sounders. Unfortunately, there is no observation wells inside Erbil basin, the recorded data are within production wells that cannot represent as actual levels of the groundwater. The main objective of this study is to present the actual problems in the study area by create the maps of the groundwater table for the selected basin and to be used as a basic plan in developing strategies for effective management and planning of Erbil groundwater resources. And also employed to protect aquifer storage and prevent depletion of groundwater resources.