Evaluating the Impacts of Pumping on Aquifer Depletion in Arid Regions Using MODFLOW, ANFIS and ANN
2020
Mohammed R. Almuhaylan | Abdul Razzaq Ghumman | Ibrahim Saleh Al-Salamah | Afaq Ahmad | Yousry M. Ghazaw | Husnain Haider | Md. Shafiquzzaman
In arid regions, the groundwater drawdown consistently increases, and even for a constant pumping rate, long-term predictions remain a challenge. The present research applies the modular three-dimensional finite-difference groundwater flow (MODFLOW) model to a unique aquifer facing challenges of undefined boundary conditions. Artificial neural networks (ANN) and adaptive neuro fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS) have also been investigated for predicting groundwater levels in the aquifer. A framework is developed for evaluating the impact of various scenarios of groundwater pumping on aquifer depletion. A new code in MATLAB was written for predictions of aquifer depletion using ANN/ANFIS. The geotechnical, meteorological, and hydrological data, including discharge and groundwater levels from 1980 to 2018 for wells in Qassim, were collected from the ministry concerned. The Nash&ndash:Sutcliffe efficiency and mean square error examined the performance of the models. The study found that the existing pumping rates can result in an alarming drawdown of 105 m in the next 50 years. Appropriate water conservation strategies for maintaining the existing pumping rate can reduce the impact on aquifer depletion by 33%.
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