Assessment of Managed Aquifer Recharge through Modeling - A Review

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articleContributedpeer-review

Abstract

Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) is the purposeful recharge of an aquifer for later recovery or environmental benefits and represents a valuable method for sustainable water resources management. Models can be helpful tools for the assessment of MAR systems. This review encompasses a survey and an analysis of case studies which apply flow and transport models to evaluate MAR. The observed modeling objectives include the planning or optimization of MAR schemes as well as the identification and quantification of geochemical processes during injection, storage and recovery. The water recovery efficiency and the impact of the injected water on the ambient groundwater are further objectives investigated in the reviewed studies. These objectives are mainly solved by using groundwater flow models. Unsaturated flow models, solute transport models, reactive geochemical models as well as water balance models are also frequently applied and often coupled. As each planning step to setup a new MAR facility requires cost and time investment, modeling is used to minimize hazard risks and assess possible constraints of the system such as low recovery efficiency, clogging and geochemical processes.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number579
JournalWater
Volume8
Issue number12
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2016
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85010282174
ORCID /0000-0003-4517-8091/work/142236813

Keywords

Keywords

  • managed aquifer recharge, modeling, groundwater management, unsaturated zone, ASR, ARTIFICIAL RECHARGE, RECOVERY ASR, REACTIVE TRANSPORT, WATER-QUALITY, WASTE-WATER, FRESH-WATER, GROUNDWATER RECHARGE, COASTAL AQUIFER, MULTICOMPONENT TRANSPORT, UNCERTAINTY ANALYSIS