Groundwater flow simulation at the Grombalia phreatic aquifer (Cap Bon, Northeastern Tunisia)

During the last few decades, the Grombalia shallow, an unconfined aquifer, had been under stress by groundwater pumping due to the increasing population and development of agricultural activity. Recently, the aquifer has displayed an important decline in the water level of boreholes and wells, and considerable deterioration of groundwater quality due to saltwater intrusion. A groundwater numerical model for the Grombalia aquifer has been developed based on the Visual Modflow 3.1 code to simulate the groundwater changes under steady state regime and transient conditions. The results of the model show reasonable agreement between observed and estimated groundwater levels in the observation wells. Sebkaht Soliman wetland aquifer connection has been identified. This paper presents the effect of different groundwater management scenarios and pumping discharge on groundwater resources in the Grombalia aquifer (Cap-Bon peninsula, Tunisia).