Visiting Student Conducts Groundwater Study in Qatar By Shafik Jiwani, Head of GIS Section and Taj Pirani, Survey Project Supervisor, both in the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture's Drainage Division   This past summer, Faizal Hasham, a recent Civil Engineering graduate from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, spent 2 months in Qatar learning about various aspects of GIS technology. Soon after his arrival, Faizal was given a tour of The Centre for GIS (CGIS) and introduced to GIS Coordinators from various agencies. He then visited the Civil Engineering Department's Drainage Division where he was given an extensive orientation of its GIS Section's activities. Faizal, who intends to pursue a Masters degree in Environmental Engineering, showed an inclination towards learning about Qatar's foul sewer and storm water systems and their affects on the environment. He was therefore based at Drainage Division for the rest of his GIS orientation where he conducted a study on Qatar's groundwater. Faizal spent his first week at Drainage Division making on-site visits where he was shown drainage features associated with 3 networks: foul sewer, surface/groundwater, and treated sewage effluent (TSE). He was also shown how data was being collected for these features and spent some time with the survey teams to get first-hand experience of the different methods and procedures used. Faizal also had the opportunity to visit both the Doha South and Doha West Sewage Treatment Works where he was given tours of the facilities. Back in the office, he was taken through the data entry and quality control processes to learn the various checks that were done before the data is made public. GIS applications that have been developed by staff at the section were demonstrated to show him how engineers were conducting their day-to-day activities with the help of GIS. For the next few weeks, Faizal spent time learning ArcView and also started looking at some borehole data that had been acquired from the Department of Agriculture & Water Research. From this data, he was able to conduct a study on levels and quality of groundwater in Qatar. Before he started his study, Faizal met with Dr. Latifa Noaimi, a civil engineer at Drainage Division, who has written a thesis on Qatar's groundwater. The groundwater in the Dammam aquifer, which Faizal studied, is attributed to recharge from irrigation and rain and typifies Qatar's high level groundwater environment. Since the Midra shale is an impermeable layer, the groundwater level rises in the Dammam aquifer. These high levels may have a significant effect on many engineering applications such as the installation of drainage systems and the construction of roads and buildings. High groundwater levels can lead to the inconvenience and increased cost of pumping water out of construction sites and also lead to the more serious problem of faulty and unstable structures. Faizal's study of groundwater centered around the city of Doha where a surface/ground water network exists. This system has perforated pipes in it to collect groundwater which is then eventually discharged to the sea through the main pipes. In this way, groundwater levels are maintained in areas where the network exists. To monitor groundwater levels throughout the city, 70 boreholes have been constructed, data for which Faizal had access to. The positions of the boreholes were acquired by Drainage Division while the water level data was provided by the Department of Agriculture and Water Research. Faizal put all this data in a form that will allow the addition of future data when it is made available. This was done using ArcView. To analyze the data, contour maps were created to demonstrate visually groundwater levels within the study area. Another aspect studied was the quality of the groundwater being discharged into the sea. Faizal acquired data for this study from the Doha South Sewage Treatment Works laboratory. The laboratory samples groundwater from six locations along the surface/ground water network every week. Faizal had data from samples taken between 1991 and 1993 and from 1994 to 1996. He put this data into a spreadsheet and analyzed it by creating charts which graph various groundwater quality parameters with respect to time and distance along the surface/ground water route. The parameters in the data set included pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, total alkalinity and content of nitrogen/nitrate, sulfate, calcium and magnesium. This kind of analysis will be helpful in assessing contamination levels in the groundwater and will also assist in determining whether the water discharged into the sea is suitable for agriculture and recreational use. On completion of his study, Faizal thanked Dr. Latifa for her invaluable support and made several recommendations to authorities who are associated with groundwater issues in Qatar. In particular, he suggested that tests for heavy metals be conducted since they pose a great risk to groundwater resources and that there be consistency in data collection to make sure that analyses can be done more accurately. "Since groundwater levels in Qatar are a potential threat to civil engineering works, I recommend that data collection, analyses and studies of groundwater be given the utmost importance so as to avoid any mishaps or disasters in the future," concluded Faizal's report. CONTENTS NEXT