Groundwater Artificial Recharge Solutions for Integrated Management of Watersheds and Aquifer Systems Under Extreme Drought Scenarios

Abstract

This chapter addresses groundwater artificial recharge solutions for integrated management of watersheds and aquifer systems under extreme drought scenarios. The conceptual idea of Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) is considered here as one of the science-based mitigation measures for climate variability and climate change in many parts of the world. Towards a sounder selection of the most appropriate method to build ASR facilities, several experiments have been carried out in the southern Portuguese region of the Algarve during the European Union-sponsored 6th Framework Programme for Research, Project GABARDINE on “Groundwater Artificial Recharge Based on Alternative Sources of Water: Advanced Integrated Technologies and Management”. The values obtained for infiltration rates available on the multiple experimental facilities depend not only on the hydraulic heads but also on the type of experiments and on the type of soils available regionally. The results gathered allowed the drawing of several original charts on infiltration rates that will be presented at the end of this chapter. The aim of all these experiments was to improve the knowledge on real case studies that involve application of different AR methodologies to assess the parameters needed to develop optimization models. The model may incorporate restrictions and parameters of the objective function values evaluated in the experiments described above. The results presented in this chapter allow the selection of the most appropriate AR techniques aimed at the maximization of groundwater quality improvement, while minimizing the cost. In parallel a new method, called GABA-IFI, aimed at preliminary identification of candidate areas for the installation of groundwater artificial recharge systems, was developed for the European Union-sponsored 6th Framework Programme for Research Coordinated Action ASEMWATERNet, a “Multi-Stakeholder Platform for ASEM S&T Cooperation on Sustainable Water Use” based on previous studies developed for five Portuguese Watershed Plans. This new method was applied both to Campina de Faro aquifer and to Querença-Silves aquifer in the Algarve. This chapter addresses the achievements of this project.