Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The study addressed the groundwater assessment and sustainable management of the coastal
alluvial aquifers in Namib Desert, the Omaruru River Delta Aquifer (Omdel Aquifer) was used as
a case study. Sustainable utilization of groundwater in parts of hyper-arid Sub-Saharan Africa,
like the Namib Desert, is always a challenge due to lack of resources and data. Understanding of
hydrogeological characteristics of the Omaruru Delta Aquifer System is a pre-requisite for the
management of groundwater supply in the Central Namib area (Namib Desert). For the Omdel
Aquifer in the Omaruru catchment, Namibia, issues to investigate include the lack of information
on the geology and hydrogeological setting, the hydraulic properties and geometry of the aquifer
at the inflow and outflow sections, groundwater recharge conditions upstream of the aquifer, and
the impact of artificial recharge. Omdel Aquifer occurs in a desert environment with less than 20
mm of rainfall per annum, it’s regarded to receive no direct groundwater recharge from rainfall,
only from occasional (inconsistent) flooding of the Omaruru River, due to periodic thunderstorms
in the upstream catchment. Since the Omdel Aquifer does not receive direct recharge from
rainfall, an artificial recharge scheme was implemented to augment the water supply. One of the
objectives of the study is to integrate artificial recharge with hydrogeological understanding of the
Omdel Aquifer to establish a conceptual framework for assessment of groundwater recharge and
discharge, water chemistry and balanced water supply.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uwc/oai:etd.uwc.ac.za:11394/7875 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Matengu, Brian Munihango |
| Contributors | Xu, Yongxin |
| Publisher | University of the Western Cape |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | University of the Western Cape |
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