Impact of Dams on Groundwater Static Water Level Changes: a Case Study Kralkızı and Dicle Dam Watershed

Abstract

Dams are expected to raise the groundwater, especially the ones surrounding of lake. However, it should be investigated the influences of dams on the groundwater through lower basin. In this study, the effects of Kralkızı and Dicle dams on groundwater were investigated in the sub of the Dam’s basin. The reason behind the selection of Dicle and Kralkizi dams is that, apart from hydroelectric production, they provide agricultural irrigation and potable water in catchment basins. Agricultural irrigation is provided by water wells and groundwater springs in upper Diyarbakir plain where these dams are built in. The wells logs opened the years between 1996 and 2011 have been examined inside the dam’s basin. The drilling data were ranked with the aid of Microsoft Excel software, and the coordinates have been arranged accordingly. These data were run on the ARC Info 10.2.1 GIS software and the data have been modeled using Arc Info Spatial Analyze extension. Static water level maps relevant to the years 1996-2011 have been obtained through all these processes. Therefore, changes in the groundwater levels with respect to the years have been detected with these maps.