GROUNDWATER CONTROL (Case study: Sphinx area)

Abstract

A GIS-based visualization technique has been developed in this chapter to explore the spatiotemporal variations of groundwater data. It should be noted that the exploration technique developed in this chaptercan be implemented to visualize and explore space-time data in other environmental fields. The problem deals with a variable that is measured over time at different points in space. The studied variable through this paper is the groundwater level collected by a number of piezometers. An animation sequence of interpolated groundwater surfaces can provide information on the groundwater movement. The application of the developed techniqueon the study area has successfully illustrated its functionality. The application of the developed technique showed that the study area is suffering raising groundwater table to an extent that may threaten the survival of the archaeological sites. The technique revealed a significant source of groundwater on the pyramids plateau which can be explained due the increasing urbanization there. The goal is to keep groundwater from reaching the archeological structures, which implies keeping the top of the capillary fringe below the elevation of the structures’ foundations. Because capillary rise is difficult to predict, moreover, some of the archeological structures may not have been fully discovered, the target groundwater table is set to be 12.5 m.A dewatering system had been conducted by Cairo University to face this problem. The application of