Evaluation and assessment of water budget in the eastern aquifer basin of the West Bank, Palestine

Abstract

The study is mainly intended to assess and evaluate the water budget in the eastern basin at 1 km resolution, through a comprehensive model of the eastern aquifer by estimating the evapotranspiration (evaporation and transpiration), surface runoff and groundwater recharge in the targeted aquifer for the period (1950–2000). A spatial modelling approach and geographical information systems (ArcGIS) specialist was used to evaluate and estimate the water budget for the 50 years period (1950–2000). Hydro-meteorological data for the 50 years period were used to drive precipitation, reference evapotranspiration, evapotranspiration, runoff spatial grids, and ground water recharge along with an summed minor losses were integrated by GIS spatial interpolation. The results of this study show that the average annual ground water recharge for the 50 years period in the study area is almost 200 millions of cubic metres (MCM) per year. A variation was found in the recharge values from the eastern slopes till the central highlands in the West Bank, this variation is due to the variation in temperature and precipitation in the targeted area.