Alternate Solution to Lake Beseka Water Level Rise Containment
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2017-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Environmental change that has taken place over the last few decades is an essential task to understand the impacts that natural processes and anthropogenic factors have on hydrological settings and ecosystems. Environmental concern regarding the expansion of Lake Beseka has become a major issue. The expansion of Lake Beseka has caused an irreversible damage to the nearby Awash River which is a resource for the surrounding irrigation schemes and downstream water supply. This paper tried to predict the maximum possible Lake level so that it is contained in its territory to control the contamination of Awash River. A numerical groundwater model, TAGSAC, has been used for predicting this maximum possible Lake level rise. For the identification, a steady state groundwater model was first created and calibrated for the inventoried wells. The model is conceptualized by considering a constant head boundary condition for the Awash River in locations where the river is perennial. The calibration of the model was made by changing the recharge and hydrogeologic parameters of the basins. The goodness of fit indicators (GoFIs) showed that the measured and simulated heads of the model have a better match. The maximum Lake level rise was determined by raising the lake water level where the flow was reversed away from the Lake by assuming the Lake is contained in its territory. As the result of this study indicates the maximum Lake level where the flow completely reversed is 12m.
Description
Keywords
Lake Beseka, Environmental change, Maximum Lake level rise, Groundwater modeling, Containment of Lake Beseka, TAGSAC