Evaluation of Groundwater Resources in Lower Cretaceous Aquifer System in Sinai

The Sinai Peninsula has an area of 61000 km<Superscript>2</Superscript> and its populationis about 325000. It is located in an arid area. Extensivedevelopment in the socio-economic, industrial and agriculturalis in process. Although Lower Cretaceous aquifer is the mostprospective aquifer in Sinai, it is not yet precisely evaluated.Spatially distributed areas of good groundwater quality suitablefor various types of development are not identified.The current article presents a comprehensive assessment of thehydrogeological information and hydrological data. Accordingly,three aquifer zones have been identified. Groundwater reserve wasestimated and groundwater balance has been developed. Developmentpotential was evaluated. Development criteria were proposed and applied.Suitable areas for domestic and irrigation purposes weredelineated. Results indicated that the aquifer contains 308 billion m<Superscript>3</Superscript> ofgroundwater of which a considerable volume is of good quality. Bylowering the present water level some 200 meters, the aquiferyielded 3643 million m<Superscript>3</Superscript>, which is sufficient to supply thepresent rate of withdrawal for 445 years. The results are considered to be usefulfor preparing groundwater master plans in Sinai. Under the properwater management, Sinai could be self sufficient in satisfying itsdomestic water demand. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2001