Temporal dependence of potentiometric levels and groundwater salinity in alluvial aquifer upon rainfall and evapotranspiration

ABSTRACT Rainfall uncertainty and high evapotranspiration rates in the semiarid regions not only play an important impact on surface water scarcity, but interfere on shallow groundwater quantity and quality. The aim of this study was to apply geostatistical methodology to analyze the time dependence of potentiometric levels and groundwater salinity in an intensively monitored alluvial aquifer upon agroclimatological variables, and thus investigate possible monthly and annual correlations. Statistically stable piezometers were considered for the temporal analysis, representing the mean behavior of the whole aquifer. It has been verified that stable piezometers for groundwater levels exhibited temporal dependence of 7 months, similar to the temporal scale of variation for monthly precipitation and potential evapotranspiration, which is consistent to the resulting crossed-semivariogram. Meanwhile, stable piezometers for electrical conductivity showed high uncertainty on temporal dependence scale, which ranged from 3 to 8 months. Thus, rainfall and evapotranspiration alone did not properly explain the temporal dynamics of groundwater salinity. The produced maps successfully identified the long term time pattern of groundwater variation, constituting an important support for water resources evaluation.