Identification of aquifer system in the whole Red River Delta, Vietnam

The Red River Delta is one of two biggest deltas in Vietnam. People living in the delta depend entirely on groundwater for their domestic water. However, the aquifer system in the whole Red River Delta remains poorly understood due to the lack of available data. Recently, we were nominated to construct a hydrogeological database. Using these valuable data contained in this database, this paper comprehensively analyzed the best number of 778 boreholes including well logs and their hydrogeological parameters obtained from pumping tests for the first time in order to identify the entire aquifer system and characterize hydrogeological conditions in the whole delta for potential groundwater resources. Great efforts have been made to establish and analyze hydrogeological maps, cross sections, and contour maps of main aquifers’ thickness and transmissivity. As for the results, we found that groundwater mainly exists in Quaternary unconsolidated sediments as porous water forming the topmost Holocene unconfined aquifer (HUA) and the shallow Pleistocene confined aquifer (PCA) sandwiching the Holocene-Pleistocene aquitard (HPA), while cleft and karst water exist in consolidated Neogene formations and Mesozoic rocks constituting the Neogene water bearing layer (NWL) and Mesozoic fractured zones (MFZ), respectively. PCA is almost entirely distributed over the delta. It serves as the highest groundwater potential and the most important aquifer for water supply. HUA is also widely distributed about 88% over the delta and has a high groundwater potential. NWL and MFZ, placed below PCA but exposed on the surface outside the delta, are minor sources for local domestic water supply only. These findings are indispensable for further groundwater analyses needed to ensure the sustainable groundwater development for the high-security water requirements in the delta, but have never been completed sufficiently before due to the unavailability of large-scale basic data sets.