On the Use of DC Resistivity Soundings for Characterizing the Hydrogeological Conditions in Semi-arid Region- the East of Nile Delta, Egypt

Due to the continuous increase in population, successive governments in Egypt have encouraged agricultural expansion and establishment of new communities in the desert fringes of the Nile Delta. The great challenge is to develop and assess the groundwater resources in such desert areas. The overall goal of this paper is to assess the hydrogeoligcal conditions at the Cairo-Bilbeis district area and its surrounding region, considered as semi-arid area in the southeastern part of Nile delta, Egypt. Forty-eight electrical soundings using Schlumberger array were carried out to configure the subsurface layer distributions. The sounding data were inverted and constrained by available geological information. Resistivity data were visualized as cross-sections and maps. The 1D inversion results emphasizes that the Quaternary deposits constitute the main groundwater aquifer in the northern part of the study area. In the southern parts, the aquifer represents by Tertiary sand. The established relationships between aquifer characteristics and electrical parameters have been used to estimate the hydraulic conductivity values of all the sounding locations including areas where no boreholes were non-existent. The present results can be utilized in predicting hydrogeological setting in future using groundwater modeling. In addition, the relationship between land reclamation and hydrogeological conditions can be anticipated.