Cambios en la calidad del agua subterránea debidos a la explotación intensiva en el acuífero carbonático de la Sierra de Humilladero (Málaga, España)
- Sergio Martos Rosillo 1
- Antonio González Ramón 1
- Javier Gustavo Heredia Díaz 1
- Antonio Pedrera Parias 1
- Miguel Rodríguez-Rodríguez 2
- 1 Instituto Geológico Minero de España, España
- 2 Universidad Pablo de Olavide, España
ISSN: 0213-683X
Year of publication: 2017
Issue Title: Comunicaciones presentadas en la LXII Sesión Científica / Guadalupe, 25 de Mayo de 2017
Issue: 62
Pages: 91-94
Type: Article
More publications in: Geogaceta
Abstract
The Sierra de Humilladero carbonate aquifer, located in the province of Málaga and next to Fuente de Piedra playa lake, is undergoing intensive exploitation of its groundwater since the eighties of the last century. This exploitation has resulted in an important decrease of the piezometric level, which has caused the interruption of the groundwater discharge to the playa lake and the current groundwater extraction of the aquifers and aquitards bordering the Humilladero aquifer. The inversion of the groundwater flow, generated by the intensive exploitation, has modified the hydrochemical characteristics of the groundwater to such an extent that, in the dry season of 2016, it ceased to be appropriate for the urban supply to the populations of Humilladero and Fuente de Piedra. The aquifer response to such exploitation has shown that the hydrochemical changes occur in a much abrupt way than the hydrodynamic ones. For this reason, specific groundwater management guidelines are proposed for this type of aquifer, highly vulnerable to groundwater exploitation due to its small size and the high hydraulic diffusivity of the materials that constitute it.