Aquifer Depletion in the Arlit Mining Area (Tim Mersoï Basin, North Niger)
1
Laboratoire de Génie Civil, Géosciences et Sciences Géographiques (UMRI 68), Institut National Polytechnique Houphouët-Boigny (INPH-B), Yamoussoukro BP 1093, Côte d’Ivoire
2
Laboratoire des Eaux Souterraines et Géo-Ressources, Département de Géologie, Faculté des Sciences, Université Abdou Moumouni (UAM), BP 10 662, Niamey 8000, Niger
3
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Hydrological Sciences Laboratory, Code 617, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
4
Universities Space Research Association, Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research Studies and Investigations, Columbia, MD 20771, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: David Widory, Andrew Chiasson and Samuel Appelbaum
Water 2021, 13(12), 1685; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13121685
Received: 18 May 2021
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Revised: 9 June 2021
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Accepted: 13 June 2021
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Published: 18 June 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human Impact on Water Resources)
Located in northwestern Niger, the Tim Mersoï Basin (TMB) is an important mining region in the scale of West Africa. Groundwater is considered the main source of fresh water in the basin, especially for mining activities. It, therefore, appears essential to monitor their responses to these activities. However, no study has been carried out in the Tim Mersoï Basin. This study aims to evaluate the groundwater storage changes (GWSC) of the TMB and to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution of the Tarat aquifer under the effect of mining activities in the Arlit region. For this purpose, Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE), Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS), and in-situ data were used. The results show a variation of the GWS from 2002 to 2019 of about −0.1310 cm/year on the scale of the basin and −0.0109 cm/year in the Arlit mining area. The GWSC at the basin scale and the one at the Arlit region scale were shown to be linked with an RMSE between the two datasets of 0.79. This shows the potential of GRACE for contextualizing studies in small areas. The study also highlighted that the groundwater flow direction was highly modified; the drawdown of the Tarat water table was more than 50 m in the areas heavily impacted by mining activities, with an increasing intensity from the northwest to the southeast of Arlit.
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Keywords:
aquifer depletion; Tim Mersoï Basin; mining; GRACE; GLDAS
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MDPI and ACS Style
Dobi, F.B.; Kouakou, E.K.; Nazoumou, Y.; Abdou Boko, B.; Edimo, S.N.; Maina, F.Z.; Konaté, M. Aquifer Depletion in the Arlit Mining Area (Tim Mersoï Basin, North Niger). Water 2021, 13, 1685. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13121685
AMA Style
Dobi FB, Kouakou EK, Nazoumou Y, Abdou Boko B, Edimo SN, Maina FZ, Konaté M. Aquifer Depletion in the Arlit Mining Area (Tim Mersoï Basin, North Niger). Water. 2021; 13(12):1685. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13121685
Chicago/Turabian StyleDobi, Farida Boubé, Eugène Koffi Kouakou, Yahaya Nazoumou, Boubacar Abdou Boko, Sophie Ngomune Edimo, Fadji Zaouna Maina, and Moussa Konaté. 2021. "Aquifer Depletion in the Arlit Mining Area (Tim Mersoï Basin, North Niger)" Water 13, no. 12: 1685. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13121685
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