Water balance components for sustainability assessment of groundwater dependent agriculture: example of the Mendae Plain (Tigray, Ethiopia)

Mendae Plain at Abraha Atsbaha (Tigray Region, northern Ethiopia) is an agricultural area, which has been very drought-prone in the past. In the last decade, agricultural development has boosted because of the intensive use of large diameter wells that tap the phreatic aquifer. Pumped water is used for irrigation during the long dry season (October to May). Since 15 years, water harvesting measures have been implemented, mainly in the form of infiltration ponds and trenches that enhance local infiltration of rainfall runoff from hillslopes. To investigate the sustainability of the groundwater exploitation and the efficiency of the measures, the different recharge and discharge components of the water balance of data-scarce Mendae Plain have been identified and quantified, using different methods. Diffuse aquifer recharge is calculated from a soil moisture balance, based on meteorological data, and with the chloride mass balance method, based on groundwater analyses. Diffuse recharge is much higher on cultivated land plots than on non-cultivated bare soils. Rainfall infiltration in ponds and trenches is estimated based on the inflow catchment derived from the topography. Groundwater flow to a nearby river is obtained by balancing inflow and outflow by the other components over an 11 year period. The balance components are integrated into a lumped parameter model that was run for the period from 2000 to 2010. The results show that infiltration in ponds and trenches contributes between 30 and nearly 50% of total aquifer recharge, with the highest values in dry years. Changes in aquifer storage over time are an indicator for the evolution of groundwater levels in the aquifer and confirm the occurrence of two dry periods in 2002–2005 and 2008–2009. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.