Publication Date:
2021-03-29
Description:
A qualitative and quantitative monitoring of groundwater discharge was
conducted based on an airborne thermal campaign undertaken along the north-western
coast of the Dead Sea in January 2011 to contribute to the relatively scarce information on
groundwater discharge to date in the region. The application of airborne thermal data
exploits thermal contrasts that exist between discharging groundwater and background sea
surface temperatures of the Dead Sea. Using these contrasts, 72 discharge sites were
identified from which only 42 were known from previous in situ measurements undertaken
at terrestrial springs by the Israel Hydrological Service. Six of these sites represent
submarine springs and at a further 24 locations groundwater appears to seep through the
sediment. Although the abundance of groundwater seepage sites suggests a significant, but
so far unknown groundwater source, the main contribution appears to originate from terrestrial springs. In an attempt to provide a quantitative approach for terrestrial springs, a
linear bootstrap regression model between in situ spring discharge and respective thermal
discharge plumes (r2 = 0.87 p 〈 0.001) is developed and presented here. While the results
appear promising and could potentially be applied to derive discharge values at unmonitored
sites, several influence factors need to be clarified before a robust and reliable model to
efficiently derive a complete quantitative picture of groundwater discharge can be proposed.
Keywords:
thermal discharge plume; groundwater discharge;
;
551
Language:
English
Type:
article
,
publishedVersion
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