Megawatershed Exploration: A State-of-the-Art Technique Integrating Water Resources and Environmental Management Technologies

(Presented at the IDA World Congress on desalination and Water Sciences, AbuDhabi, UAE 1995) Robert A. Bisson, Charles Sheffield and Sabine Sisk I can foretell the way of celestial bodies, but can say nothing of the movement of a small drop of water. (Galileo)

ABSTRACT
Throughout history new technologies have extended man's abilities beyond the physical reach of the five senses and have led to dramatic changes in mankind's view of his world. For example, the telescope permitted scientists to observe outer space, and enabled Galileo to change forever the image that the established scientific community had of Earth's place in the dynamic of the solar system. The microscope led explorers like Pasteur and Koch to eradicate traditional beliefs about the origin of diseases. This century's "electronics revolution" and advent of the "space age" have opened another historical window of opportunity. For the past twenty-five years, Earth observation from satellites has enabled scientists to examine synoptic views of large regions of the planet's surface, providing insights into the dynamics of regional complex natural systems, including regional characteristics of the hydrologic cycle never before detected. At the same time, advances in geophysical instruments and interpretive methods have contributed unprecedented information about the subsurface of the Earth's crust. Equally important, the perfecting of computer-based geographic information systems has allowed explorationists to quickly and accurately combine and analyze many different types of data, leading to major discoveries about the locations of oil, gas, minerals and groundwater. A recent discovery, megawatersheds, evolved from these technological advances. The megawatershed paradigm is a conceptual breakthrough which has replaced the traditional, synthetic watershed model of topographically-constrained surface catchments with an accurate depiction of regional, tectonically controlled fractured bedrock basins. Megawatersheds in the natural environment are explored by an interdisciplinary team using a program comprised of space age techniques and technologies adapted from the oil, gas and minerals industries. This has led to the discovery of significant quantities of groundwater that traditional approaches ignored. An important benefit of a megawatersheds exploration program is the production of a comprehensive series of maps and digital (GIS) data sets, essential for effective water resources and environmental management, such as current land use, vegetation and other land cover, infrastructure, geology, soils and demography. With technology transfer and training, the resulting interactive GIS knowledge base provides governments, engineers and planners with the tools for integrated water resources management and the necessary baseline information for environmentally sustainable economic development planning . I. INTRODUCTION A Paradigm Shift : From "Watershed" to "Megawatershed" The traditional "watershed" model is a synthetic drainage basin reflecting convenience rather than reality. A typical example can be seen in the traditional 1970 USGS map (Fig.1a) of the hydrographic basin boundaries of the carbonate rock province pervading Nevada, Utah, California and Idaho. Drainage and water balance were assumed to be controlled entirely by local topography, identified through dated topographic maps and aerial photographs. Traditional watershed maps depict basins wherein hydrologic implications of underlying geologic structures on rainfall capture and drainage is largely ignored. Deep groundwater resources are considered fossil [1] and are excluded as active parts of the water balance, because they are deemed to be hydraulically isolated and noninteractive with watershed catchments

[2,3,4]. Many government officials, water scientists and engineers are now-a-days aware of the need to employ modern concepts and unconventional technologies in pursuit of their undiscovered, subterranean birthrights. Blank and Jackson, for example, writing about Jordan and Palestine for USAID, concluded in 1994 that "Water resources in the region are limited, and no new sources of fresh water are available unless new groundwater sources are discovered. Current technology limits this option." [5]. Data are traditionally obtained through the collection and analysis of rain and stream gauge measurements which provide sparse samples of the whole area, since gauges are usually located for reasons of observer convenience rather than maximum scientific usefulness. Most critical are the artificial constraints placed on areal extent of a traditional watershed, and the exclusion of underlying, hydraulically conductive fracture systems which often persist across and beneath topographic bounds [6]. As a result, many published reports on watershed water balances include erroneous calculations based on incorrect assumptions about size of catchment area, precipitation [7] and actual evaporation [8]. These reference works have historically been the only sources of water resources information for use by governments, engineers and planners, leading to inappropriate, sometimes disastrous water resources management practices [9]. The "Megawatershed" is a new paradigm which accurately describes natural water catchment and drainage as interrelated, three-dimensional surface and subsurface "zones", rather than traditional surficial, functionally two-dimensional areas. In other words, the Megawatershed paradigm contains within it the water balance equation of traditional watersheds but greatly extends the catchment, transmission and storage boundaries by recognizing the overriding influence of tectonically induced, large scale fracture permeability in defining the hydraulics and hydrology of a basin [9,10,11]. Burbey, et al of the USGS [6], clearly depict this in their revised map indicating regional groundwater flow through fracture and solution systems in a southwest USA carbonate rock province (Fig. 1b)., which contrasts sharply with the traditional watershed boundaries shown in Figure 1a. Improved understanding of groundwater environments gained from the megawatershed model recognizes substantial interaction of rainfall, surface water, shallow aquifers and fractured bedrock aquifers. A megawatershed is a hydraulic continuum, with surface and subsurface water drainage strongly controlled by fault and fracture zones in the bedrock, as illustrated by a conceptual perspective view of a typical "basin" in the Nevada carbonate rock province (Fig. 1c). Megawatershed systems exist worldwide - from the Pampa del Tamarugal Basin of Northern Chile [13], to the Nubian sandstone aquifers of Northern Africa [2,14,15], the rift-related fractured bedrock groundwater systems of the Levant [16,17] and the Carbonate Province of America's Great Basin[6]. Aquifers in these regions derive their characteristics from the interaction of climatic and hydrometeorological conditions with the regional geology. The megawatershed concept is of particular importance in arid regions. According to Anderson' s 1992 comments [16] on megawatersheds in the Levant, "the potential for supplies represented by such a large, natural water collection and transmission system could be at least as significant as the combined surface water resources of the region". The traditional perception of deep bedrock aquifers is that they only contain "fossil" waters and that, "like oil reserves, these aquifers are essentially non-renewable: pumping water from them depletes the supply in the same way that extractions from an oil well do."[3]. This conclusion is based on flawed models of highly complex hydrogeologic and hydrometeorological environments. Investigators around the world have observed that aquifer pumping tests and determination of age, temperatures and chemistries of water samples from deep bedrock aquifers are not always consistent with "fossil water" theories. Rather, many investigators have found deep bedrock aquifers to be heterogeneous in nature, reflecting strongly the influence of fracture permeability in the age and chemistry in the water, as well as response to withdrawals [12,13,14,17]. When porous bedrock basins are fractured by tectonic forces, younger waters will flow from active recharge zones through environments saturated with interstitial fossil waters. This was confirmed by Magaritz et al [13] through isotopic, chemical, temperature and geological evidence in the deserts of Northern Chile. FIGURES 1a, 1b and 1c (for copy E-Mail Robert Bisson) At the onset of the space-age, O. R. Angelillo, a professor of engineering at CalTech and a pioneer in the study of tectonics, regional rock mechanics and underground water flows, graphically described a stressfield induced and fractured-rock groundwater system in his regional analysis[18] of the Mojave basin. In the 1970s and 80s, results of exploration programs using space images and modern geologic mapping

methods, carried out in the USA and East Africa by Bisson et al [10,11,12], showed that the effects of tectonic controls on hydraulic conductivity are related to regional groundwater flows through fractured rock. A conceptual exploration model of the Megawatershed Phenomenon was first presented by Bisson and El-Baz in Trieste in 1989 [10]. II Megawatersheds Exploration Team Exploration of Megawatershed environments requires a thorough understanding of the genesis of present day geohydrological and hydrometeorological conditions. A four-dimensional environment, including millions of years of geotectonic history, regional open fracturing, changing climates, sea levels, bedrock geochemistry and fluvial processes must be examined. The challenges facing an exploration team seeking to develop water in these complex systems, and accurately describing the contemporary geometry of emplacement of groundwater flow systems, is extraordinary, but not without precedent. With space-age technologies, oil, gas and mineral exploration teams have succeeded in substantially increasing the known reserves of these precious commodities. In contrast to 30 years ago, when many experts were warning that the Earth's supply of crucial minerals was nearly exhausted [19], Simon [20] and Hodges [21] demonstrated that this was not the case. Megwatersheds exploration teams must include experts in several fields. In addition they should be multidisciplinary to be able to interact with other specialists on the team and be comfortable with "complexity" theory of natural systems [22] and holistic approaches to natural resources investigations. Team members must be practiced users of remote-sensing interpretive techniques, geological and geophysical mapping methods, GIS technologies and groundwater drilling methods. The language which must be common to everyone on the team is geography, because "reading" the image outputs of remote-sensing and correlating geographic datasets is an interactive, and cooperative effort. Team members must include professionals with skills and experience in structural geology, hydrogeology, geochemistry, geophysics, mathematics, meteorology, climatology, geobotany, cartography, phototechnology and water-well drilling and logging. There is no replacement for experience in the effective use of these integrating technologies in megawatersheds exploration. Inexperience and lack of understanding of megawatersheds can have costly or disastrous consequences, ranging from failure to find the water, to low-yield wells due to inappropriate drilling and well development and dangerous cave-ins and washouts when unexpected conditions are encountered. III Megawatershed Exploration Program The exploration program identifies specific high-yield groundwater zones before production drilling begins, unlike the traditional, inefficient and costly method of blind or grid-drilling. A megawatersheds exploration program for an area of 50,000 km2 can be completed in 12 to 15 months with empiricallyderived investigative and interpretive techniques, using specialized remote sensing, field geologic and geophysical mapping technologies. Test wells are precisely sited and are designed and constructed and tested to fit the hydrogeological environment of each site. Megawatershed program outputs are provided to governments along with GIS technology and training, and to planners for effective regional water resources and environmental management. a) Megawatersheds Delineation Data Compilation and Database Preparation: - Megawatershed exploration involves surface and subsurface properties of the Earth. Image data from orbital and airborne collection systems are obtained and placed in a common geographic reference form. Available historical data on climatic, lithologic, stratigraphic, tectonic, geomorphological, surface and subsurface hydrology, geophysics, soils, vegetative cover, and man-made structures are collected and evaluated, with resulting screened data placed into the common digital format compatible with a computer-based geographic information system (GIS) . Analytical Procedures: - Iterative analyses of several datasets are performed using GIS, such as map outputs of rainfall distribution, infiltration, regional structural, and correlations with geophysical data, tectonic stress field and rock mechanics models, and geochemical and geomorphological evaluations. To construct a map of regional, water-conductive fracture systems within the project area, the team first measures key fracture and bedrock properties, followed by matrix analyses of weighted criteria. Weighting factors, geochemical data and historical climatological and hydrological information are developed to calculate relative fracture

permeabilities and create a map of favorable zones for groundwater occurrence throughout the megawatersheds. Mapping and Field Investigations: - Remote-sensing based reconnaissance-level Geologic and geophysical investigations are followed by on-ground reconnaissance and high-resolution mapping using map-accurate photo products from satellite image analyses and GPS. The team's structural geologists employ a wide variety of brittle petrofabric, structural, geologic, geochemical and geomorphological mapping techniques to identify, map and rank favorable groundwater environments. Field mapping verifies predicted groundwater quality variations from satellite multispectral image analyses on a GIS, and published maps and reports of physical and geochemical characteristics of lithologies and mineralogical assemblages. Bedrock recharge and storage capacities is obtained through analysis of bedrock weathering patterns, rock competence and topography. Geobotanical, lithologic, soil, sediment and soil moisture variation associated with groundwater occurrence are verified during the field mapping process. Collateral topographic, geologic and geotectonic information is prepared in uniform digital format for subsequent uses. b) Assessment of Water Supply - Data from today's weather satellites offer a powerful and more accurate alternative to sparse rain gauges. Satellite rainfall observations can be made twice a day anywhere in the world with dense grid spacing using polar orbiting satellite images. Available rain gauge data is then useful to "underpin" and validate the deductions from the satellite image data. A proven satellite data rainfall calculation technology (CropCast/EarthMet weather modeling system) was developed over the past 20 years at Earth Satellite Corporation and is used by the authors' megawatershed exploration team. EarthMet can operate on a 24 kilometer grid, can provide rainfall estimates every six hours and generates maps for input into megawatersheds water balance analyses. It can run on fully automated mode.. c) Water Redistribution - Water is returned to the atmosphere through local evaporation, surface run-off losses beyond the megawatershed boundary, and recharge to deep aquifers which also discharge outside the watershed. The evaporation rate is a function of local temperature, humidity, wind speed, and solar radiation. The solar radiation budget and temperature are derived from satellite data, and provide wind speed and humidity calculations from satellite data or ground observations. Soil moisture is determined by maintenance and updates of the soil moisture budget. In the technique recommended for megawatershed evaluation, remote-sensing analyses first indicate areas of soils, bedrock outcrop and thin gravel cover. Fractured bedrock areas without soils are often direct percolation zones for precipitation and dominate the landscape in arid regions. In areas where soils are present, the soil moisture budget divides the soil into four depth zones to estimate moisture holding capacity: Precipitation from rainfall, snow and dew saturates the top zone and then enters each layer until all have been saturated. Surface run-off is calculated from the precipitation data, together with the wetness of the uppermost soil zone. The surface slope in each grid cell determines the amount and direction of run-off. The calculation of water flow within and between the storage media is not a simple matter. Constrained by traditional watershed models, hydrologists underestimate the extent and quantity of deep percolation and overall ground water recharge. The traditional estimates of groundwater recharge, expressed as a percentage of total precipitation in arid regions, typically range from 3% to 7 % [4,23]. This results in the erroneous conclusion that deep groundwater, even when accidentally found in abundance, is nonrenewable "fossil" water and that withdrawals would constitute "mining" the water supply [1,3,4]. Regional groundwater systems which have evolved over millions of years of tectonic activity and chemical rock dissolution can extend over thousands of square kilometers and persist to depths of 3 kilometers or more, especially in brittle, highly soluble and/or porous lithologies, such as in North Africa, the Levant or America's Great Basin [6]. The amount of water precipitating in these immense capture zones, combined with the storage (flux) capacity of bedrock fractures and pores, represents a renewable treasure trove can significantly increase current sustainable water sources for many regions [14,17]. In this age of new geologic realities and available technologies , it is now possible and economical to obtain accurate water balances in remote areas. IV. Exploration Technologies The megawatershed exploration program should not be confused with a study. It is a comprehensive program extending from initial megawatershed delineation through locating the predicted water during

test drilling and production well completion. At its heart is the methodical application of several principal techniques and technologies during exploration, testing and development. They include orbital and aerial remote sensing, new analytical models for water supply and redistribution, new geophysical instrumentation and interpretive concepts, and appropriate use of modern drilling tools. Space Remote Sensing - Earth resources satellites have provided images of the Earth since the early 1970's under uniform conditions of scale, solar illumination, and instrumentation. The first earth resources spacecraft, ERTS-1 was launched in 1972 and provided images capable of discerning surface features of 80 meters in diameter. Following the steady improvements in performance, today's SPOT spacecraft can provide black and white images of features as small as ten meters across. The main power of satellite images, however, lies not in the degree of detail they observe, but in the wide scale synoptic nature of the view they provide of the Earth's surface and the multi-spectral nature of the image data. Terrain seen piecemeal or in fragments in ground observation or in aircraft can be assessed as a whole from space. This integrates observations over tens or hundreds of kilometers in a single view. Data derived from space images have another important advantage. Their exact location can be determined. The data is digital and can be readily used within the context of a Geographic Information System (GIS), in which it is referenced to specific latitude and longitude. Space image data can also be digitally mosaiced to cover very large ground areas without the geometric distortion inherent in physical mosaics of space and photo images. Hence, they are used as basemaps for delineating megawatersheds Geographic Information Systems (GIS) - Observations from space provide an abundance of data invaluable to megawatershed analysis. The integrative tool which binds these diverse data sets to a common whole, and permits systematic analysis of them, is the Geographic Information System (GIS) (Fig. 2). At its simplest, a geographic information system can be thought of as a series of maps and map overlays, defined at a common scale, and with a precise geographic location assigned to each data point. Government and university researchers [24,25,26] now widely perform GIS evaluations of basin characteristics. In megawatershed exploration programs, all possible data types are placed within the context of a geographic information system. In addition to the obvious geological and morphological variables defining the natural environment, an exploration program should also include demographic variables (population, location and mobility), transportation variables (regional access), soil types, agricultural usage patterns, water demand points (for example, power stations, minerals extraction facilities), political and tax boundaries, and any other geographic information which may impact the way in which discovered water is used, or implies that water development in a particular area has special priority. C) Geophysical Applications and Instrumentation - In search of "non-invasive" ways to map the Earth's subsurface, Earth scientists have for centuries invented, experimented with, improved and broadened the use of a wide assortment of geophysical devices; from simple electrical resistivity sensors to gravity meters, seismometers and electromagnetic sensors. While the complex and highly variable physical and chemical nature of underground structures continue to challenge the most sophisticated individual geophysical instruments, exploration scientists have discovered that accurate information is more readily gained by using iterative methods of data acquisition/analysis and field survey techniques, which use several geophysical devices in ordered sequence to interpret results with experimentally developed computer algorithms. Megawatershed program explorers also analyze numerous geophysical data sets from ongoing water projects, as well as oil, gas and mineral exploration in the same regions. Geophysical programs are carried out in three stages, each of which is iterative and continually refines the "filling in" of the megawatershed reference model, beginning with reconnaissancelevel airborne data evaluation and continuing with on-ground regional and then local, high resolution surveys. Using GIS technology, the analyzed geophysical data are correlated with other data sets from the exploration program, such as geological, geochemical, hydrological and borehole log information. High-resolution geophysical surveys employ specially modified instruments for complex geohydrologic environments, often including multi-geophone reflection and refraction seismic systems, time and frequency-domain electromagnetic (EM), complex resistivity, induced polarization, active and passive very low frequency (VLF) electromagnetic, radiometric, multi-spectral scanners, microgravity, audio magnetotelluric, ground-penetrating radar (GPR), induction conductivity, self potential and downhole techniques including Gamma and Gamma-Gamma logs, Neutron logs, long and normal specific potential (SP) and electrical logs, borehole video, caliper and acoustic logging, EM induction and borehole radar logs. FIGURE 2, PLUS CAPTION (for copy E-Mail Robert Bisson)

d) Test and Production Well Technologies - There are two principal reasons why drilling into high-yield water production zones in fractured bedrock environments represent a significant challenge to water developers using traditional air-hammer technologies. First, fracture systems are often not horizontal but incline at steep angles, causing drill bits at intersecting fractures to slide along fracture planes, crooked boreholes and damaged drilling equipment. Second, very high fracture permeabilities, especially when combined with groundwater occurrence at depths greater than 100 meters or in large solution voids, require a lot of highly compressed air, and/or alternative techniques, not achievable with standard rigs. This commonly results in disrupting the drilling process or in inappropriate use of fracture-filling materials, including clay slurries, and can substantially lower the specific capacity of wells and cause major inaccuracies in test pumping and borehole logging data. Therefore, test and production wells drilled in bedrock aquifers require specialized drilling techniques and customized equipment, such as Odex dual rotary spin-drive, reverse circulation, flame jetting or dual tube. Well construction methods are adapted to fit the environment and may include open hole, hybrid alluvial/bedrock, isolation packer, dual seal, telescoping and non-telescoping wirewrap/louvered screen and casing perforation. Well and Aquifer Testing - A megawatershed's groundwater flow dynamics are anisotropic in nature, and non-linear techniques must be employed in the design of pumping tests and analyses of results, including variable rate/constant head or constant and variable rate/variable drawdown, dye tracing, ion logging, natural isotope, fluid replacement logging, vertical and horizontal flow metering. Data is evaluated with state-of-the-art hydrogeologic models modified for site-specific conditions. Production Well Efficiency Optimization Procedures - Wells drilled through water-producing fracture zones invariably introduce some broken rock, cuttings and other detritus into the fractures, which interfere with laminar flow of water into the well bore and fall into the well, thereby causing problems with pump installation and maintenance. To avoid the chronic problems of traditional bedrock wells, one must use innovative procedures during production well completion, such as surgeblock techniques with multiple airlift, pump, acidification and defloculation, sonic cleaning and high and low pressure water jetting. In addition to alleviating costly well and pump repairs, these techniques typically increase well yields by 20 to 400 per cent. Some historical examples of costs and benefits of megawatershedd exploration are presented below, contrasting results of traditional approaches in the same areas: Geologists and hydrologists have intensively studied the northeastern USA for over 200 years, and several hundred thousand bedrock wells have been drilled with yields averaging less than 28m3 per day [27]. In sharp contrast, megawatersheds exploration programs undertaken by the author's team in the same areas achieved well yields averaging over 500m3 per day and ranging upwards to more than 1,000m3 to more than 3,000m3 per day. During several years of severe drought conditions in the 1970s, Seabrook, NH, a growing coastal resort community, drilled 150 wells with yields less than 10m3 per day and high salt and arsenic content, in an attempt to find fresh groundwater in the marine-clay covered phyllites and quartzites of the area. Desperate for a new fresh water source, the town was ready to build a $12 millionplus dam to meet its 4,000/5,000m3 per day average water needs. Instead, the author's megawatersheds exploration team discovered an extensive bedrock watershed in shallow-dipping fracture sets overlain by saltwater-filled clays, but recharged from remote areas along the fracture zones covered by clean, permeable gravels. The production wells were within 3 km of the sea, yet water met all EPA standards. The team designed an efficient production well drilling, development and completion program to isolate the productive aquifers from natural and human contaminates. Pumps were carefully placed in wells to avoid problems from overpumping, seawater intrusion, cascading water, borehole cuttings and sand. Four wells have produced approximately 5,000m3 per day for over 12 years at a capital cost of less than $1 million. Salem, New Hampshire , a rapidly growing community of 28,000 had been facing a chronic water shortage for several years. Drought and loss of reservoir reserves had caused the situation to become critical.. Prior groundwater investigations to locate new water sources in the town's non-porous metamorphic bedrock had failed, but the first of several 150m to 200m production wells drilled by the megawatersheds team produced more than 3,000m3 of water per day. This is one hundred times greater than the best expected yields using conventional techniques [27]. Drilling specialists from the oil industry collaborated to adapt and develop oil industry techniques to allow drilling in the difficult bedrock environment without destroying the long-term specific capacity of production wells. Several bedrock wells averted a crisis for the town by producing over 6,500m3 per day of potable

water, and saved the town millions of dollars in capital costs by delivering water under long-term contract for less than $0.15 per m3. The semi-arid Santa Barbara area of central California had severe droughts in the mid-1980s, and municipal water reservoirs were evaporating faster than the very low rainfall could replenish. Water drillers were desperately seeking new sources in the notoriously low-yielding sedimentary rocks of the region. More than 50% of these bedrock boreholes were dry, and yields from bedrock well were less than 20 m3 per day. The megawatersheds exploration team carried out a turnkeywater-delivery contract [28] and drilled through the silt-lined reservoir into the underlying bedrock aquifer, creating "hybrid wells" yielding more than 1,000m3 per day during the worst part of the local drought at a cost to the municipality of less than $0.50 per m3. In Somalia, During the 1980s, the combined effects of drought, revolution and war with Ethiopia ravaged the arid and hyperarid northwest region of the country. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis were encamped in waterless sites, dying of thirst or ill from malnutrition and disease, with no capacity for personal hygiene or food production. Thirty years of previous groundwater exploration in the Northwest had found insufficient groundwater to meet even half the municipal water demands, never mind camps or new cities. At the same time, in the more humid southern part of Somalia, tens of millions of dollars were lost by US firms drilling dry holes in a search for new water. USAID funded a megawatersheds exploration program covering the 36,000+ km2 region, and the exploration team identified several hundred favorable groundwater zones on maps, coded to indicate five different levels of water development potential. Before the worsening civil war forced a halt to testing and development, six 15cm dia. test wells had been drilled, using antiquated rigs in these remote areas under warlike conditions. Although the rigs could not achieve 200m target depths, over 7,000 m3 per day of potable water was developed in just 6 test wells. Results of megawatersheds evaluation indicated that future development of 12 of the more favorable bedrock aquifers could generate 30+million m3 of new fresh water per year, at a delivered cost of less than $0.15 per m3. This would be sufficient water to support domestic, urban and food production for over 250,000 people [29] at a per capita cost of less than $20 per year. Sudan's Red Sea Province is an arid coastal region composed of non-porous basement complex rocks with shallow deposits of alluvium along wadis and in coastal deltas. The economic potential of this region hinges entirely on the availability of fresh and brackish water. Without more water, the region's minerals cannot be mined, and agricultural production in the Tokar Delta and Khor Baraka and economic development at Port Sudan cannot take place. With new water sources, the economic potential of the region is favorable [30]. There is no reliable surface water, and most fresh water is derived from shallow alluvial aquifers with only 45,000 to 75,000m3 per day development potential at the high cost of $183 million [31]. In 1988, AID signed an agreement with the authors' megawatersheds team to explore deep-bedrock groundwater. The team identified eleven highly favorable geographic areas for megawatershed development with water potential of 150,000m3 per day [32]. Before US Congressional imposition of the Brook Amendment stopped funding of USAID projects in Sudan in 1990, three of the eleven development areas had been chosen for a pilot project to supply coastal communities with 20,000 m3 per day for less than $10 million. VI. Conclusions and Implications for the Future Water resources managers have endeavored for many decades to resolve uncertainties associated with the interaction and continuity of surface and groundwater, as conventionally defined within the "watershed" and "aquifer" systems. While surface water frequently extends visibly across international boundaries, groundwater resource dynamics and geography remains a mystery and impedes sound management practices and political water conflict resolution., both of which require technically defensible facts. Large portions of the total groundwater resources of the world remain unknown and have either been totally disregarded or are considered - when saline, brackish or thermal - as ideal sites for deep well injection of waste. The megawatershed concept provides a new, practical perspective of regional groundwater and permits assessment and classification with respect to quantity, quality and sustainability. Implicit in the program is an informed estimation of renewable, fresh, hydrothermal, brackish and saline groundwater reserves for integrated development by many countries with chronic water scarcities. Megawatershed exploration results would be highly beneficial for preparation of feasibility and design studies of new desalination plants, as a thorough knowledge of untapped, renewable brackish groundwater resources could greatly reduce the cost of fresh water production Regions of the world that today are limited in development potential because of shortages of usable water and limited financial resources, will be transformed by the widespread use of the Megawatershed

Paradigm and exploration techniques and technologies described in this paper. New, sustainable water supplies are achievable in quantities that a previous generation of hydrologists found unimaginable. New water distributions systems will be followed by "ripple-effect" private sector business opportunities in infrastructure, housing, agriculture, manufacturing and mining. Business and demographics in arid regions will decentralize, as desert populations will no longer be constrained by the vagaries of ancient surface water courses; as new coastal and inland communities prosper around seaports, mines and farms; and overcrowded urban centers follow new employment opportunities elsewhere. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A paper of this scope is the work of many people. Several deserve special recognition, for without their contributions this publication would have taken much longer and looked much different. Our thanks for their many technical and editorial contributions go to Dr. Roland B. Hoag, Jr. and Joseph Ingari of HydroSource Associates, Dr. John Everett and Ronald Staskowski of EarthSatellite Corporation, and Dr. Hasan Qashu of the Center for Applied Environmental Technology at George Washington University. REFERENCES 1. Postel, S., Water and Agriculture. Water in Crisis. P.H Gleick Editor, 1993, Oxford University Press, Oxford: p.56-62. 2. Wright, E., Benfield, A.C. Edmund, W.M. & Kitching, R.., Hydrogeology of the Kufra and Sirte Basins, Eastern Libya. Q.J. Eng. Geol. 1982 . London,Vol.15 . 3. Postel, S., Last Oasis:Facing Water Scarcity.W.W. Norton & Company 1992. 4. Agnew, C and Anderson, E., Water Resources in The Arid Realm. 1992, London, Routledge Press. 5. Blank, H and Jackson , G., AID's Strategy for Water Resource Management in the Middle East. Desalination, 1994. p233-242. 6. Burbey, T J and Prudic, D.E., Conceptual Evaluation of Regional Ground-Water Flow in the Carbonate-Rock Province of the Great Basin, Nevada, Utah, and Adjacent States. Regional Aquifer System Analysis. U.S.G.S Professional Paper 1409-D, 1991. 7. Groisman, P Y and Legates, D.R., A U.S. Climate Study. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Feb. 1994 8. Morton, F I., Operational Estimates of Aerial Evapotranspiration and their Significance to the Science and Practice of Hydrology. Journal of Hydrology 1983. 9. Pearce, F., Britain's Other Dam Scandal. New Scientist, 26 Feb. 1994 10. Bisson, R A and El-Baz, F., The Megawatersheds Exploration Model. Proceedings of International Conference on Desert Environments. Trieste, 1989.. 11. Bisson, R A and El-Baz, F., The Megawatersheds Exploration Model. In: Proceedings of the 23rd ERIM International Symposium on Remote-Sensing, 1990. 12. Bisson, R A,, Space-Age Exploration and Treatment of Renewable Regional Sources of Groundwater in "Megawatersheds" . Desalination, 1994. 99. 13. Magaritz, Aravena, M Pena, R. H. Suzuki, O. and Grilli, A. , Source of Ground Water in the Deserts of Northern Chile: Evidence of Deep Circulation of Ground Water from the Andes. Ground Water, , 1990.v.28, no.4. 14. Alam, M., Water Resources of the Middle East and North Africa, With Particular Reference to Deep Artesian Ground Water Resources of the Area. Water International, 1989. 15. Ahmad, M ., A Model to Develop Ground Water Resources in Egypt. Proceedings of The International Symposium on Water Resources in the Middle East: Policy and Institutional Aspects. 1993 U. of Illinois. 16. Anderson, E., Water Conflict in the Middle East - A New Initiative. Jane's Intelligence Review, 5 May 1992.vol 4. 17. Bisson, R A., Unsolicited Proposal to U.S. Dept. of State to Map Levant Megawatersheds, in a Cooperative International Team Effort in Support of the Peace Initiative. 1991. 18. Angillilo, O.R., Replenishing Source of Waters Flowing Through Rock Fissure Aquifers. Unpublished Manuscript, as presented to State of California. 1959. 19. Ehrlich, P., The Population Bomb. 1968. 20. Tierny, Betting the Planet. The New York Times Magazine, Dec. 2, 1990. 21. Hodges, C A., The Washington Post, p2, June 5,1995

22. Waldrop, M.M., Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Chaos. Simon & Schuster. 1992. 23. El-Naqa, A., Hydrological and Hydrogeological Characteristics of Wadi el Mujib Catchment Area, Jordan. Environmental Geology 1993. 22: p.257-271. 24. Jeton, A.E. and Smith, J.L., Development of Watershed Models for Two Sierra Nevada Basins Using a GIS, Proc., Symposium on GIS and Water Resources, J.M. Harlin and K J. Lanfear editors. AWRA, 1993. 25. Luker, S., Samson, S.A. and Schroeder, W.W., Development of a GIS Based Hydrologic Model for Predicting Direct Runoff Volumes. Proc., Symposium on Geographic Information Systems and Water Resources, J.M. Harlin and K. J. Lanfear editors., American Water Resources Association, 1993. 26. Eash, D.A., A Geographic Information System Procedure to Quantify Physical Basin Characteristics. Proc., Symposium on Geographic Information Systems and Water Resources, J.M. Harlin and K. J. Lanfear editors. American Water Resources Association, 1993. 27. Clark, T., A Stake in the Ground, Yankee, May 1983. p.63,. 28. Bisson, R.A. and Hofman, P.D., No-Risk, Turnkey Water Supply Contracts, Journal of the New Hampshire Water Works Association, Feb. 1982. 29. Shuval, H., Proposals for Cooperation in the Management of the Transboundary Water Resources Shared by Israel and Her Neighbors, Presented at the Conference, Water as an Element of Cooperation and Development in the Middle East, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey, 1993. 30. Hassabo & Company/Delloitte, Haskins and Sells, Economic Development Feasibility Report to USAID Sudan, 1989. 31. Baker, G., Sudan Pipeline Hangs on Debt Talks, World Water, p53 Jan/Feb 1989. 32. Bisson, R.A., Hoag Jr R.B., Ingari J. and DeMars, R.M., New Water and Economic Prosperity in the Red Sea Province, Sudan. Technical Feasibility Report and Test and Production Well Plan. BCI Geonetics, Inc. and USAID. April, 1990.