Assessment and feasibility of the potential artificial groundwater recharge in semi-arid crystalline rocks context, Biteira district, Sudan

In Sudan, up to date, artificial recharge with surface water has been rarely investigated in papers. This paper proposed a method to identify and evaluate a potential site for artificial recharge of groundwater in the Biteira district. The targeted area lies in the southern part of Sudan and is underlain by basement rocks. The population's growth, alongside climate change which caused desertification, has augmented water resources' stress over recent years. Moreover, an alternative water resource of groundwater is essential due to limited aquifers. The research integrates the geology, geomorphology, hydrometeorology, and soil texture of the area coupled with infiltration tests data to overcome this problem. In addition, an analysis of the Landsat image to obtain lineaments and geological structures has been done. The results show the average infiltration rate is 2.35 m3/m2, and groundwater flow is estimated to be WWN direction. The study area is suitable for groundwater recharge in case of the construction of a check dam as infrastructure that can pave, favour promoting the artificial recharge. The surface storage capacity achieved at the site for recharge purposes is 20.73 × 106 m3.