Groundwater Artificial recharge Based on Alternative sources of wateR: aDvanced INtegrated technologies and managEment

General information

Aquifers are the main source of water in most semi-arid zones of the Mediterranean region. As a result of over-exploitation hydrologic deficits of varying acuity prevail in these areas. Seawater intrusion and pollution have been identified as the primary factors for quality degradation. Further deterioration can be expected, based on trends in the precipitation regime attributed to climate change. The objective of the European Research Project GABARDINE is to identify alternative sources of water and to investigate the environmental, social and economic feasibility of their utilization. Alternative water sources to be artificially recharged comprise:  surface water runoff, treated effluent or brackish water bodies, which could be utilized after desalination. The project addresses all issues related to the problem: climate change and expected precipitation rates, aquifer recharge and water budgets, identification of potential alternative water sources and technologies for their utilization, aquifer vulnerability, impact of the unsaturated underground, development of tools for water resources management and decision support.

Objectives

• Explore the viability of supplementing existing water resources in semi-arid areas with alternatives sources of water

•  Investigate aquifers as the primal facility for the seasonal and long-term storage of these alternatives water sources.

•  Evaluate and quantify the potential impact of degrading factors, such as climate change, changes in the quality of water, salt water etc on the global quality and usability of the resource.

Methodology

• Evaluation of aquifer water budgets as a basis for the determination of hydrologic deficits;

• Mapping of areas according to groundwater quality and vulnerability to contamination factors;

• Delineation and characterization of replenishment areas to groundwater aquifers, using state-of-the-art remote sensing, aerial and satellite imaging, incorporating them into a GIS system and for the identification of propitious areas for artificial replenishment

Theoretical approach

• Development of sophisticated and efficient tools for the simulation of groundwater flow and solute transport in complex hydrogeological settings of regional - catchment scale, that has often been limited so far to the simulation of flow processes.

• Development of procedures for the determination of the field scale, upscaling, of groundwater flow and transport parameters in the context of multi-component reactive transport of species to be injected in the aquifer, with the artificial recharge.

• Development of fast computational models for the simulation of groundwater flow and multi-component reactive transport in heterogeneous and anisotropic aquifers, implementing approaches and algorithms for the upscaling of flow and transport parameters from local scale to field scale.

Field tests

Four test sites have been selected, each representing a different aspect of the problem:

•  The Lower valley of the Llobregat river in Spain, where the objective is to mitigate the aquifer from seawater intrusion by means of artificial recharge of effluent and or runoff water.

•  The Algarve Aquifer in Portugal, where the objective is achieving groundwater quality improvement by injecting runoff-water;

•  The Coastal aquifer shared by Israel and Palestine (Gaza). In Israel most of the recharge technologies are implemented but the quality and mixing aspects need to be investigated and quantified.  The Coastal aquifer of Gaza suffers from huge hydrologic deficits and is probably the most affected site, suffering from the most acute problems.

•  A small part of the aquifer of Thessaloniki watershed basin (Greece) and especially in Sindos industrial area, in which the artificial recharge method is selected for control of the groundwater quality , mainly deteriorated from a high TDS content, due to the presence of salts in the subsurface layers.

Partners in GABARDINE

Universität Göttingen, Geowissenschaftliches Zentrum, Angewandte Geologie, Goldschmidtstr. 3, 37077 Göttingen

GERMANY

Prof. Dr. Martin Sauter, Dr.-Ing. Bernd Rusteberg

Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Geotechnical Engineering and Geosciences, C/ Jordi Girona, 1-3 Building D-2, Barcelona 08034

SPAIN

Prof. Dr. Sánchez-Vila, Xavier,

Laboratorio Nacional de Engenharia Civil - Avenida do Brasil, 101, P-1700-066 Lisboa

PORTUGAL

Dr. Lobo-Ferreira, João

Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Environmental and Water Resources Engineering Dept. Civil/Eng., Technion City, 32000 Haifa

ISRAEL

Prof. Dr. Bear, Jacob,

University of Liege, Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology, GeomaC Department, Building B52/3, 4000 Sart Tilman,

BELGIUM

Dr. Brouyère, Serge,

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University Campus, 54006 Thessaloniki    ,

GREECE

Prof. Dr. Maheras, Panagiotis

GEOSERVICE Ltd, 35, LYKAIOU ST, 114 76 Athens,

GREECE

Mr. Dimitriadis, Klisthenis, Geophysicist (M.Sc.)

Mr. Styllas Michael, Geologist , email: mstyllas@gmail.com

 Thessaloniki Water Supply and Sewerage Co S.A.

127, Egnatia Str., 546 45 Thessaloniki,

GREECE

Dr. Soupilas, Thanasis

University of Nottingham, University Park, School of Mechanical Engineering, Thermo-fluid Research Group, NG 7 2RD Nottingham,

UNITED KINGDOM

Prof. Dr. Power, Henry

Palestinian Hydrology Group, Water Research Unit, P.O. Box 565, Al-Ma´ahed Street 4, Ramallah, Palestinian Authority

ISRAEL

Dr. Tamimi, Abdel Rahman

Palestinian Water Authority, Nablus Road, Ramallah, Palestinian Authority

ISRAEL

Mr. Awad, Omar

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Ltd. , P.O. Box 6770, 31067 Haifa,

ISRAEL

Dr. Bensabat, Jacob

Israel Water Commission, P.O.Box 36118, 20365 Tel-Aviv,

ISRAEL

Dr. Yaroslavich, David

Tel: +972-2-6442500, Fax: +972-2-6442529, e-mail: AvichayH20@water.gov.il

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