Située au Nord-Ouest de la Tunisie centrale, le bassin de Foussana du gouvernorat de Kasserine constitue une zone de transition entre la région tellienne pluvieuse au Nord et la région saharienne au Sud. Il est bordé par une série de reliefs de formes et de directions variées. Dans cette région aride à semi-aride, l’eau souterraine représente la principale réserve et ressource de production d’eau. Du point de vue tectonique, le bassin de Foussana est caractérisé par la présence de multiples failles. Les failles de direction NW-SE, dont la plus importante est celle qui s’aligne parallèlement à l’Oued Hatab (Faille de Foussana). Les failles qui bordent le fossé du côté est et du côté Ouest se placent dans la famille directionnelle NW-SE. Les failles de direction NE-SW, dont la plus importante est celle qui borde Jebel Chambi du côté sud, montrent une activité décrochante senestre à composante normale. Les failles de direction EW constituent la troisième famille de fracture ayant contrôlé l’évolution de cette structure effondrée. Le bassin d’effondrement de Foussana formé par le jeu de failles de direction NW-SE constitue une fosse subsidente comblée de dépôts MioPlioQuaternaires à caractère continental et renferment plusieurs niveaux aquifères avec des intercommunications latérales entre les grés miocènes et les niveaux Plio-Quaternaires le long des failles de bordure et par drainance le long de l’axe de la fosse matérialisé par l’oued El Hatab. Le Quaternaire couvre toute la cuvette. Sa constitution varie selon les régions, en bordure, nous retrouvons les éboulis de pente formés de gros éléments de calcaire sub- arrondis, parfois bien cimentés par de l’argile rouge. Ces dépôts laissent la place au centre de la cuvette de l’Oued Hatab à des dépôts plus fins constitués de sol sableux ou argilo - sableux avec une certaine proportion de limon. Dans les régions de bordure, les dépôts du PlioQuaternaire très grossiers sont directement superposés aux grès miocènes. Les aquifères profond du Pliocène (PQ2) et superficiel du Quaternaires (PQ1) sont susceptibles de constituer un aquifère unique, puisque leurs résistivités sont presque semblables, leurs salinités sont voisines, et leurs piézométries sont confondues. Les grès Miocènes varient d’une région à l’autre selon qu’on est dans les zones de bordures ou dans des fosses. Ils sont libres au Nord et au Sud de la plaine séparés par les deux grands accidents tectoniques. Les grès en affleurement sont non seulement plus grossiers mais aussi plus homogènes, ce qui attribue aux aquifères libres une grande perméabilité, contrairement aux aquifères des grès en charge où les alternances fréquentes d’argiles et de marnes réduisent énormément ce paramètre. Cette homogénéité croit également en profondeur. Dans l’optique de caractériser le fonctionnement du système hydrogéologique multicouche et de calculer un bilan hydrologique pour le système aquifère, une méthodologie multi techniques couplant l’ hydrochimie, l’isotopie et l’hydrodynamisme a été déployée. L’analyse détaillée des données hydrochimiques recueillies a mis en évidence la grande variabilité du fond géochimique local, directement fonction de la stratigraphie. Cette complexité stratigraphique induit une vision hydrogéologique complexe de nombreux corps aquifères. L’évolution de la chimie des eaux révèle la prépondérance du phénomène de dissolution des minéraux évaporitiques et la précipitation de la calcite comme principal mécanisme de contrôle de l’hydrochimie devant les phénomènes d’échange de base et par la pollution anthropique induit par la présence des nitrates. En conséquence il n’a pas été possible de déduire de l’hydrochimie des eaux les preuves d’une recharge par drainance ascendante depuis l’aquifère du Miocene vers les aquifères superficiels, bien que la similarité des faciès hydrochimiques tend à consolider l’hypothèse d’une origine unique des eaux, sans toutefois permettre une identification des chemins d’écoulement. / The study area lies in the northern part of central Tunisia and extends over about 650 km2. It is located betweenthe rainy Tellian region in the North and the Saharan region in the South. The Foussana Basin is a typical closedinland basin surrounded by high mountains where the precipitation varies over space and time as a result oftopography and seasonality.The main outcrop that marks the watershed of Foussana basin is the quaternary alluvium, which is surrounded byCretaceous reef of deposits covering folds Mountains bounding. The Foussana basin is composed of two aquifers,the PlioQuaternary and the Miocene aquifers. The PlioQuaternary aquifer consists of clayey sand, coarse sand andsandstone deposits. This aquifer is composed of two permeable levels PlioQuaternary Aquifer (PQ1) and PlioceneAquifer (PQ2), which are separated by interbedded sandy marl. The Miocene aquifer consists of sandstone andcoarse sands. This aquifer constitutes an important water source in the study area because of its relativelysignificant thickness and its water quality. It‘s separated to the PlioQuaternary aquifer by a clay layer. The differentaquifers communicate through faults.The groundwater flows occurs from the borders to the center of the basin,i.e. from the surrounding hills to the depression area. The main source of aquifer recharge is infiltration of rainfalland dam water.Groundwater samples with low TDS values, which typically correspond to outcrops of the Miocene aquifer andsome samples of the first PlioQuaternary aquifer PQ1, are typically of SO4-Ca-HCO3-Na water type. In contrast,groundwater samples with high TDS values, most of which were collected in the PlioQuaternary aquifer (PQ1 andPQ2) and groundwater of the Confined Miocene, are typically of SO4-Ca-Na-Mg water type. The main sources ofthe water mineralization in the Foussana basin are the water-rock interaction processes i.e. dissolution ofevaporates and cation-exchange process.The isotopic signatures permit to classify the studied groundwaters into different groups. The PlioQuaternaryaquifer groundwater was classified into two groups. These are the non-evaporated groundwater, which ischaracterized by depleted δ18O and δ2H contents highlighting the importance of modern recharge at higher altitude,and the mixing process with the deep aquifer of the Miocene. The evaporated groundwater that exhibits enrichedstable isotope contents, these enriched values could be related to the evaporation process, which occurs possiblyin the upper part of the unsaturated zone of the PlioQuaternary aquifer (depression area).The Miocene aquifersgroundwaters are classified into two groups. The first group is characterized by relatively depleted isotope contentscorresponding to outcropping Miocene in the border indicating the altitude effect. The second group isdistinguished by relatively depleted contents of stable isotopes corresponding to the confined Miocene reflectinga palaeoclimatic origin. Tritium data permit to identify recent groundwaters originating from a mixture ofcontemporaneous and post-nuclear recharge; and ancient groundwaters deriving from pre-nuclear recharge.Radiocarbon activities decrease from 80 pmc in the recharge area to less than 3 pmc in the confined aquiferproviding ages from present day to 30 000 years BP.In conclusion, a conceptual model has been produced to describe the functioning of the aquifers. The modelling isused as a tool to synthesise the data and the functioning hypothesis. It gives a visualization mean and can put inevidence the aspects, which should be deepened in next works.

In this master's thesis, a numerical model of groundwater flow in a contaminated area of Hradec Králové was created. After that, a circulation well was introduced. Two circulation well variants, which differ in the amount of pumped water, were examined. All simulations were performed with the aid of a finite element solver Feflow 5.2. The values of hydraulic head resulting from the mathematical model are in a good agreement with those obtained from the field measurement. The groundwater flow present in the area of interest exhibits south to southwest direction. After introducing the circulation well, I focused on the influence of the amount of pumped water on the groundwater flow. The outcome of this observation was that during the higher volume pumping, the circulation cell is larger and therefore has a higher influence on the groundwater flow. I evaluated that it is more efficient to pump a higher amount of water in the investigated area.

Variable groundwater quality in complex aquifer-aquitard systems presents a challenge for sustainable groundwater development. In the Lower Murrumbidgee alluvial fan of the Murray-Darling Basin in semi arid inland Australia, shallow groundwater is saline (12000 &micro S/cm) and locally contaminated by nitrate. Deep fresh aquifers (150 &micro S/cm), developed as an irrigation water supply, were thought to be protected from downwards leakage by laterally extensive aquitards. However, hydrochemical sampling, augmented by historic data, revealed that aquifer salinisation (400 to 4000 &micro S/cm) had occurred at some sites to 50 m depth since the mid 1980s. Aquitard windows, landscape depositional features at a scale of 10s to 100s of metres which are rarely detected by conventional investigations, were proposed as conduits for rapid downwards leakage in stressed systems. Intensive research was conducted at the Tubbo site where downhole geophysical logging and minimally disturbed cores were used to describe a saline clayey silt to 15m depth, an indurated clayey sand and 2 deep deposits of hard clayey silt. Fracturing was inferred by the scale dependency of aquitard permeability (Kv 10E-11 to 10E-6 m/s). Lithological variation near the surface was delineated by electrical imaging which revealed a 40m wide aquitard window beneath a veneer of smectite clay. Intensive monitoring of groundwater pressures in six piezometers (23-96 m depth) near the Tubbo irrigation bore and two other peizometers upgradient, indicated that the indurated clayey sand formed an effective hydraulic barrier but the deep silty deposits were spatially discontinuous. Groundwater samples were collected before, three times during, and after the 1998-99 irrigation season. A large, but delayed TDS increase occurred in the shallow aquifer and small pulses of saline water were sustained in the middle aquifer but shortlived in the deep aquifer. Hydrochemical and isotopic data dC-13, dH-2, dO-18, C-14 and H-3) showed the middle aquifer mixing with the deep aquifer, though retaining the signature of a palaeowater. Hydrochemical changes were accounted for with PHREEQC inverse mass balance models for the shallow aquifer. Mixing of aquifer water with 20-70% saline porewater from the upper aquitard occurred, together with ion exchange and NaCl dissolution. Based on an axisymmetric radial FEFLOW model, 5-30% of the volume pumped was accounted for by vertical leakage from the middle aquifer. Leakage from the shallow aquifer was small but significant, as it allowed high salinity water to migrate. Permeability and compressible storage measurements (Ss 10E-5 to 10E-4 /m) were used to constrain model calibration, and to show that direct mixing occurred mainly via aquitard windows at depth, and between the shallow and middle aquifers via leaky boreholes. Fracture flow and aquifer-aquitard interaction by diffusion were of secondary importance.