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Multidisciplinary Investigations of the Transboundary Dead Sea Basin and Its Water Resources

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Abstract

Israel, the Palestinian Authorities and Jordan exploit the transboundary water resources of the Dead Sea basin. Our aim was to add reliable numbers to the water budget of the lake, despite the complicated integrative work and data acquisition due to the tense political situation. We here outline four parts of the project that generally concern surface and groundwater influx to the Dead Sea: (i) direct and non-direct measurements and hydrological modelling to quantify surface runoff, (ii) chemical fingerprinting to characterize groundwater origin, flow, and evolution between recharge and discharge areas, (iii) thermal remote sensing approaches to precisely identify location and abundance of groundwater discharge and (iv) groundwater modelling to quantify discharge volumes. The major outcomes are: (i) total mean annual runoff volumes from side wadis (except the Jordan River ) entering the Dead Sea amounts to approximately 58−66 × 106 m3 a−1, (ii) area normalised recharge amounts differ on both sides being ~45 mm/a at the western side and ~32 mm/a at the eastern side, (iii) modelled groundwater discharge volumes from Upper Cretaceous aquifers from both sides are in order of magnitude of 177 × 106 m3 a−1.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the German Ministry of Education and Research, BMBF for granting the IWRM-Project “Sustainable Management of Water Resources (Quantity and Quality) in the Dead Sea Area (SUMAR )”; grant code 02WM0848. Toda raba to the Dead Sea Rescue team and Omar Cohen, Jake Ben Zaken from Ein Gedi for strong logistic support, Yaniv Munwes for field assistance, Daniel Ionescu and Christian Lott for diving, Isaac Gertman (IOLR), Yossi Guttman (Mekorot) and the Ein Feshkha NPA Rangers for their intense support. Furthermore Gabi Weinberger, Amir Givati and Udi Galili (IHS) for providing spring discharge data. We are also grateful to OFEK, Uwe Maraschek (BGR) and Gerhard Kemper (GGS-GmbH) for their help in planning and operating all flights. Particular thanks are addressed to Dr. Metzger and Mrs. Berggötz-Karich.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research UFZ, Halle, Germany

    Christian Siebert, Tino Rödiger, Stefan Geyer & Ulf Mallast

  2. Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel

    Johnathan B. Laronne & Noa Hillel

  3. Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

    Martin Sauter

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  1. Christian Siebert
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  2. Tino Rödiger
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  3. Stefan Geyer
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  4. Johnathan B. Laronne
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  7. Ulf Mallast
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Correspondence to Christian Siebert .

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  1. Helmholtz Centre Environmental Research, Magdeburg, Germany

    Dietrich Borchardt

  2. Center for Development Research - ZEF, Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Janos J. Bogardi

  3. Helmholtz Centre Environmental Research, Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany

    Ralf B. Ibisch

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Siebert, C. et al. (2016). Multidisciplinary Investigations of the Transboundary Dead Sea Basin and Its Water Resources. In: Borchardt, D., Bogardi, J., Ibisch, R. (eds) Integrated Water Resources Management: Concept, Research and Implementation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25071-7_5

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