Managing Aquifer Recharge – A showcase for Resilience and Sustainability

The Unesco has recently published the long awaited book “Managing Aquifer Recharge – A showcase for Resilience and Sustainability”.

Edited by Prof. Yan Zheng, Dr. Andrew Ross, Dr. Karen Villholth and Dr. Peter Dillon, the open access book features “28 real-life examples of Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) from around the world, where, at village to state level, people have collaborated to improve quantity and quality of water supplies and buffer them against drought and emergencies. The diverse cases inspire an improved understanding of groundwater systems and showcase their capability to store additional water to meet critical human needs for water and food, and to purify water relying on passive treatment.

The case studies give irrefutable evidence that water resources can be sustained, groundwater storage increased, environmental flows in streams enhanced, and seawater intrusion prevented, while passively “treating” water to improve its quality with natural processes. These MAR schemes, often in operation over many years, have demonstrated a level of success that has gained public support. The lessons learned deserve to be shared widely, given the prevalence of the problems solved.

MAR has been proven to produce a wealth of benefits from integrated management of a wide range of conventional and un-conventional water resources, paving the way for global adoption to achieve sustainable development goals for water.

This world tour of MAR sites features numerous cases using treated effluent for recharge and reuse, amongst which WRE member Aquaduin‘s well-known site in Koksjide- Belgium for drinking water supply, but also Aquifer storage and recovery of treated wastewater from a sugar factory for irrigation (Dinteloord, The Netherlands), Perth Groundwater Replenishment Scheme using Recycled Water, Australia; Sustainable coastal MAR-SAT system in Agon-Coutainville (Normandy), France, Stormwater and wastewater reuse by MAR at Atlantis South Africa to enhance resilience to drought…

The book can be accessed here.

Happy reading!