Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 21.5
Sabkha salt flats located ten kilometers inland along the gulf coast of the
United Arab Emirates.
management plan that deals with water and salinity, not just water, through both
national and international accords. Specifically, these opportunities for controlling
salinity could include the following:
• Avoid routing salts from saline sinks to the marshes.
• Minimize saline groundwater recharge to streams located higher up in
the watershed.
•
Minimize industrial loading.
•
Reuse water in tolerant plant communities.
•
Provide needed routes of salt removal and export.
•
Use water efficiently to flush and leach salt.
•
Balance water resources and salt management.
•
Sequester and import salt where appropriate.
•
Monitor specific elements to avoid ecotoxicity.
One obvious major management option (Dickey and Madison 2004) is to elimi-
nate overdrainage where possible by
•
routing all peak flows to depressions and/or to the Gulf,
•
intercepting surface and subsurface flow to wetlands,
•
empoldering with drainage or evaporation, and
•
balancing legitimate and competing land and water use as applicable.
Adequate water quality can be achieved by getting salinity right in the protected
areas through recognizing site-specific opportunities and constraints for salt man-
agement such as defining the maximum tolerable salinity for each plant community,
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