IAEA TECDOC 1723 IAEA TECDOC SERIES TECDOC No. 1723 Using Isotopes for Design and Monitoring of Artificial Recharge Systems @ USING ISOTOPES FOR DESIGN AND MONITORING OF ARTIFICIAL RECHARGE SYSTEMS The following States are Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency: AFGHANISTAN GUATEMALA PANAMA ALBANIA HAITI PAPUA NEW GUINEA ALGERIA HOLY SEE PARAGUAY ANGOLA HONDURAS PERU ARGENTINA HUNGARY PHILIPPINES ARMENIA ICELAND POLAND AUSTRALIA INDIA PORTUGAL AUSTRIA INDONESIA AZERBAIJAN IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF QATAR BAHRAIN IRAQ REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA BANGLADESH IRELAND ROMANIA BELARUS ISRAEL RUSSIAN FEDERATION BELGIUM ITALY RWANDA BELIZE JAMAICA SAUDI ARABIA BENIN JAPAN SENEGAL BOLIVIA JORDAN SERBIA BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA KAZAKHSTAN SEYCHELLES BOTSWANA KENYA SIERRA LEONE BRAZIL KOREA, REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA KUWAIT SINGAPORE BURKINA FASO KYRGYZSTAN SLOVAKIA BURUNDI lao people’s democraTIC SLOVENIA CAMBODIA REPUBLIC SOUTH AFRICA CAMEROON LATVIA SPAIN CANADA LEBANON SRI LANKA CENTRAL AFRICAN LESOTHO SUDAN REPUBLIC LIBERIA SWAZILAND CHAD LIBYA SWEDEN CHILE LIECHTENSTEIN SWITZERLAND CHINA LITHUANIA COLOMBIA LUXEMBOURG SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC CONGO MADAGASCAR TAJIKISTAN COSTA RICA MALAWI THAILAND cÔte d’iVoire MALAYSIA THE FORMER YUGOSLAV CROATIA MALI REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA CUBA MALTA TOGO CYPRUS MARSHALL ISLANDS TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO CZECH REPUBLIC MAURITANIA TUNISIA DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC MAURITIUS TURKEY OF THE CONGO MEXICO UGANDA DENMARK MONACO DOMINICA MONGOLIA UKRAINE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC MONTENEGRO UNITED ARAB EMIRATES ECUADOR MOROCCO UNITED KINGDOM OF EGYPT MOZAMBIQUE GREAT BRITAIN AND EL SALVADOR MYANMAR NORTHERN IRELAND ERITREA NAMIBIA UNITED REPUBLIC ESTONIA NEPAL OF TANZANIA ETHIOPIA NETHERLANDS UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NEW ZEALAND FIJI URUGUAY FINLAND NICARAGUA UZBEKISTAN FRANCE NIGER GABON NIGERIA VENEZUELA GEORGIA NORWAY VIETNAM GERMANY OMAN YEMEN GHANA PAKISTAN ZAMBIA GREECE PALAU ZIMBABWE The agency’s Statute was approved on 23 October 1956 by the Conference on the Statute of the IAEA held at United Nations Headquarters, New York; it entered into force on 29 July 1957. The Headquarters of the Agency are situated in Vienna. Its principal objective is “to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world’’. IAEA-TECDOC-1723 USING ISOTOPES FOR DESIGN AND MONITORING OF ARTIFICIAL RECHARGE SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY VIENNA, 2013 COPYRIGHT NOTICE All IAEA scientific and technical publications are protected by the terms of the Universal Copyright Convention as adopted in 1952 (Berne) and as revised in 1972 (Paris). The copyright has since been extended by the World Intellectual Property Organization (Geneva) to include electronic and virtual intellectual property. Permission to use whole or parts of texts contained in IAEA publications in printed or electronic form must be obtained and is usually subject to royalty agreements. Proposals for non-commercial reproductions and translations are welcomed and considered on a case-by-case basis. Enquiries should be addressed to the IAEA Publishing Section at: Marketing and Sales Unit, Publishing Section International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna International Centre PO Box 100 1400 Vienna, Austria fax: +43 1 2600 29302 tel.: +43 1 2600 22417 email: [email protected] http://www.iaea.org/books For further information on this publication, please contact: Isotope Hydrology Section International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna International Centre PO Box 100 1400 Vienna, Austria Email: [email protected] © IAEA, 2013 Printed by the IAEA in Austria November 2013 IAEA Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Using isotopes for design and monitoring of artificial recharge systems. – Vienna : International Atomic Energy Agency, 2013. p. ; 30 cm. – (IAEA-TECDOC series, ISSN 1011-4289 ; no. 1723) ISBN 978-92-0-163613-3 Includes bibliographical references. 1. Water-supply – Management. 2. Stable isotopes. 3. Radioisotopes in hydrology. 4. Artificial groundwater recharge. 5. Aquifer storage recovery. I. International Atomic Energy Agency. II. Series. IAEAL 13-00853 FOREWORD Over the past years, the IAEA has provided support to a number of Member States engaged in the implementation of hydrological projects dealing with the design and monitoring of artificial recharge ( A R ) systems, primarily situated in arid and semiarid regions. AR is defined as any engineered system designed to introduce water to, and store water in, underlying aquifers. Aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) is a specific type of AR used with the purpose of increasing groundwater resources. Different water management strategies have been tested under various geographical, hydrological and climatic regimes. However, the success of such schemes cannot easily be predicted, since many variables need to be taken into account in the early stages of every AR project. As often occurs in the case of the assessment and management of groundwater and aquifers, information on hydrological behaviour and response to human-made actions is difficult to obtain and often very costly, especially if only conventional hydrological methods are used. Classical methods in AR and ASR are meant to provide information on changes in the volume and quality of the artificially introduced water to ensure its sustainability. Although the use of isotopes and geochemical tracers to plan and monitor AR and ASR has been limited, there is a growing number of publications reporting the successful application of tracers in the different phases of AR and ASR schemes. This publication discusses several theoretical aspects important to the understanding, planning and monitoring of AR and ASR schemes and presents a selected number of examples illustrating the usefulness of isotopes and other tracers. One section presents the list of available isotope tracers, indicating the type of information that can be obtained from each. The case studies presented in this publication illustrate the use of these tools in the different stages of AR and ASR schemes. The publication is expected to be of interest to hydrologists and water managers in areas where intensive exploitation of available water resources leads to shortages of water and where AR is being considered or is being implemented. The IAEA officers responsible for this publication were B. Newman and L. Araguás-Araguás of the Division of Physical and Chemical Sciences. EDITORIAL NOTE This publication has been prepared from the original material as submitted by the authors. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the IAEA, the governments of the nominating Member States or the nominating organizations. This publication has not been edited by the editorial staff of the IAEA. It does not address questions of responsibility, legal or otherwise, for acts or omissions on the part of any person. The use of particular designations of countries or territories does not imply any judgement by the publisher, the IAEA, as to the legal status of such countries or territories, of their authorities and institutions or of the delimitation of their boundaries. The mention of names of specific companies or products (whether or not indicated as registered) does not imply any intention to infringe proprietary rights, nor should it be construed as an endorsement or recommendation on the part of the IAEA. The authors are responsible for having obtained the necessary permission for the IAEA to reproduce, translate or use material from sources already protected by copyrights. The IAEA has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third party Internet web sites referred to in this book and does not guarantee that any content on such web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................1 1.1. Background .............................................................................................................1 1.2. Objectives................................................................................................................2 1.3. Scope of the report ..................................................................................................2 1.4. Structure ..................................................................................................................2 2. BASIC ISOTOPE SYSTEMATICS .................................................................................3 2.1. Stable isotope notations and expressions ................................................................3 2.2. Systematics of oxygen and hydrogen stable isotopes in hydrology ........................3 2.3. Systematics of tritium in hydrology ........................................................................5 2.4. 3H–3He quantitative groundwater dating ................................................................6 2.5. Noble gas recharge temperature and excess air (ΔNe) ...........................................7 2.6. Carbon in natural waters .........................................................................................8 2.7. Isotope sampling and analysis.................................................................................9 3. PLANNING ARTIFICIAL RECHARGE AND AQUIFER STORAGE AND RECOVERY SYSTEMS ................................................................................................13 3.1. Introduction ...........................................................................................................13