Groundwater salinity is a global problem and is considered a major environmental issue in water resources. Salinity is currently growing at a rate of 10% per year. Studies have established that water salinity causes massive vulnerabilities in the environment, destroys the ecosystem, degrades soil productivity, creates challenging health problems among residents, and at the same time, high salinity drinking water sources can also indirectly result in serious socio-economic problems such as poverty, illiteracy, and malnutrition. Groundwater salinisation can have various origins such as mobilization of geogenic salinity, saline water intrusion, and land water logging and through irrigation water.
This Research Topic is proposed to address the issues of aquifer salinization, its origin, impact, mechanisms, controlling factors and possible remedial measures and management solutions. Saline aquifer zones can expand to a larger area over time and the saline water in the deeper zones may rise and reach closer to the ground surface due to several factors related to the regional geomorphology and human intervention, such as excessive groundwater withdrawal for irrigation from the upper freshwater zones. Other factors affecting increasing salinity of shallow aquifers include the natural higher salt content of the soil horizons, combined with high evapotranspiration and low annual rainfall (for aquifer recharge), excessive use of chemical fertilizers, and poor drainage conditions.
The goal of this Research Topic is to undertake a comprehensive work on analysis of hydrological and hydrogeological features together with hydro-geochemistry for evaluating the causes of aquifer salinity including its aggravation and effect on agro-economy, drinking water supply, and livelihoods also considering case studies on pilot basis. A few case histories illustrating some resilience building measures towards arresting the aggravation of salinity and increase of managed aquifer recharge together with impact assessment on overall groundwater resources are also proposed to undertake. Development of feasible models to predict changes in groundwater salinity as a result of aquifer recharge and extraction is also focus of this Research Topic.
Groundwater salinity is a global problem and is considered a major environmental issue in water resources. Salinity is currently growing at a rate of 10% per year. Studies have established that water salinity causes massive vulnerabilities in the environment, destroys the ecosystem, degrades soil productivity, creates challenging health problems among residents, and at the same time, high salinity drinking water sources can also indirectly result in serious socio-economic problems such as poverty, illiteracy, and malnutrition. Groundwater salinisation can have various origins such as mobilization of geogenic salinity, saline water intrusion, and land water logging and through irrigation water.
This Research Topic is proposed to address the issues of aquifer salinization, its origin, impact, mechanisms, controlling factors and possible remedial measures and management solutions. Saline aquifer zones can expand to a larger area over time and the saline water in the deeper zones may rise and reach closer to the ground surface due to several factors related to the regional geomorphology and human intervention, such as excessive groundwater withdrawal for irrigation from the upper freshwater zones. Other factors affecting increasing salinity of shallow aquifers include the natural higher salt content of the soil horizons, combined with high evapotranspiration and low annual rainfall (for aquifer recharge), excessive use of chemical fertilizers, and poor drainage conditions.
The goal of this Research Topic is to undertake a comprehensive work on analysis of hydrological and hydrogeological features together with hydro-geochemistry for evaluating the causes of aquifer salinity including its aggravation and effect on agro-economy, drinking water supply, and livelihoods also considering case studies on pilot basis. A few case histories illustrating some resilience building measures towards arresting the aggravation of salinity and increase of managed aquifer recharge together with impact assessment on overall groundwater resources are also proposed to undertake. Development of feasible models to predict changes in groundwater salinity as a result of aquifer recharge and extraction is also focus of this Research Topic.