Groundwater Availability and Conjunctive Use Assessment in the Eastern Nile Groundwater Monitoring Design

Groundwater monitoring of both levels and quality will depend on where the resource is currently being abstracted or where potential exists to develop its use for various purposes. A typical groundwater monitoring program will involve monthly analysis of both level and quality at key locations. The common practice is that; groundwater monitoring should have certain predefined objectives.
The general objective of the monitoring program is to supply data for characterization of the regional groundwater systems, identification of trends in time and prediction of the regional impacts.
The design of a cost effective and purposeful monitoring network largely depends on the stages of groundwater (aquifer) assessment and development, the importance of the aquifer, the threats on the aquifers, as well as the natural resilience and fragility of the aquifers. Figure 1 shows some general recommendation as to what type of monitoring is required depending on the degree of groundwater development. Design of groundwater monitoring network also depends on financial and institutional capacity to sustainably run monitoring network.