Assessment of soil characteristics for managed aquifer recharge using soil-column experiments

Abstract

Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) main purpose is to augment the water availability in aquifers during times of excess to help addressing water scarcity challenges. Besides, these systems can have the goal of improving the quality of the recharged water. One of the main existing challenges of MAR is to control the infiltration rates and avoid clogging due to physical, chemical and biological processes taking place during the transport of water through the unsaturated and saturated zone. Soil-column experiments are frequently used to get information on the soil behaviour under controlled conditions. In the framework of EU MARSOL project, several soil-column experiments were conducted at LNEC using a soil collected in SB Messines, one of the Algarve demo sites. This paper presents the first results concerning the soil flow rate variations under different conditions, aiming at verifying the soil suitability for infiltration media in basins. The soil capacity for sorption and biodegradation of the pollutants from a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) are also being tested, but the results are not yet available.