Contribution of the GIS (Geographic Information System) in the Management of Foggara

The water resources in Adrar are important because that aquifer is part of the North Western Sahara Aquifer System shared between Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia. The static level is between 6 m to 30 m. That aquifer is exploited by boreholes, wells and the foggaras. Foggara is an ingenious and traditional technique of groundwater exploitation in an, arid area.

707 foggaras irrigate 11,353.04 hectares (28,042 acres) of palm groves, and perpetuates the greenery in the desert. We have inventoried 1829 foggaras through Adrar, Whose 707, perennials foggaras. Until today we have positioned 149,250 foggara wells, and 1690 combs by GPS. For each perennial foggara we measured the well depth and the water level every 250 m by a depth indicator tool, measured the foggara flow rates by a mini current meter, and we have sampled 680 samples to know the foggara’s water quality. The project’s goal is the establishment of the depth map of foggara wells. In the second time we established a piezometric map. The association of the depth map of foggara wells with the piézometric map allows us to extract the first information about the foggaras’ state.

In GIS we can extract the depth for all foggara wells from the depth map. We can also extract the water level for all the foggara wells from the piezometric map. In GIS you can visualize all kinds of foggaras: the perennials foggaras, foggaras dried, foggara dried and banked up, and foggara dried with stagnant water in an underground tunnel. We have established the foggara’s water quality map. The Algerian state continues to rehabilitate that traditional irrigation system and to put all the necessary means to safeguard it, because the foggara in Algeria continues to irrigate our palm groves, and perpetuates the greenery in the desert.