Estimation of groundwater recharge of shallow aquifer on humid environment in Yaounde, Cameroon using hybrid water-fluctuation and hydrochemistry methods

Takounjou, Fouepe A and Ngoupayou, Ndam JR and Riotte, J and Takem, GE and Mafany, G and Marechal, JC and Ekodeck, GE (2011) Estimation of groundwater recharge of shallow aquifer on humid environment in Yaounde, Cameroon using hybrid water-fluctuation and hydrochemistry methods. In: Environmental Earth Sciences, 64 (1). pp. 107-118.

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Abstract

A study of environmental chloride and groundwater balance has been carried out in order to estimate their relative value for measuring average groundwater recharge under a humid climatic environment with a relatively shallow water table. The hybrid water fluctuation method allowed the split of the hydrologic year into two seasons of recharge (wet season) and no recharge (dry season) to appraise specific yield during the dry season and, second, to estimate recharge from the water table rise during the wet season. This well elaborated and suitable method has then been used as a standard to assess the effectiveness of the chloride method under forest humid climatic environment. Effective specific yield of 0.08 was obtained for the study area. It reflects an effective basin-wide process and is insensitive to local heterogeneities in the aquifer system. The hybrid water fluctuation method gives an average recharge value of 87.14 mm/year at the basin scale, which represents 5.7% of the annual rainfall. Recharge value estimated based on the chloride method varies between 16.24 and 236.95 mm/year with an average value of 108.45 mm/year. It represents 7% of the mean annual precipitation. The discrepancy observed between recharge value estimated by the hybrid water fluctuation and the chloride mass balance methods appears to be very important, which could imply the ineffectiveness of the chloride mass balance method for this present humid environment.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Environmental Earth Sciences
Publisher:	Springer
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Springer.
Keywords:	Recharge;Specific yield;Tropical forest;Water balance; Yaounde;GIS
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited:	05 Sep 2011 04:45
Last Modified:	15 Oct 2018 09:46
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/40400

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