A numerical groundwater model of the Nubian
Aquifer System was established to prove the influence of
rising seawater levels on the groundwater salinity in
northern Egypt over the last 140,000years. In addition,
the impact of a groundwater recharge scenario for these
140,000years, involving climatic change, on the saltwater/
freshwater interface was investigated. Saltwater intrusion
induced by rising water levels of the Mediterranean Sea
led to salinisation from the Mediterranean Sea to the
Qattara depression. This modeling approach was supported
by a density-driven model setup and calculation.
The modelled saltwater/freshwater interfaces partially
fitted the observed ones, especially in the southern half
of the Qattara depression. In other parts of the northern
Nubian Aquifer System, the ingression of salt water was
modelled adequately, but in the west, small regions of the
measured interface were not. The development in the
Qattara depression (Egypt) and Sirte basin (Libya) were
investigated in more detail. The different behaviour in
the Sirte basin may be due to high evapotranspiration
rates in some former periods, salt solutions from the pre-
Quaternary layers or saltwater infiltration from sabkhalike
recent salt-bearing sediments.