Project website

Decision Support for Management of Aquifer Recharge with Alternative Water Resources

The main output of the project, the MARCLAIMED Integrated Decision Support Tool (IDST), will provide solutions to address existing and emerging threats related to water scarcity and to support decision-making and water policies. adaptation to climate change. This tool will be a web platform, relying on EGM’s Stellio data core, to retrieve data from different sources and formats coming from the different demonstration sites and to standardize them. This data is intended to be used in the main module of the IDST: the scenario orchestrator, which should make it possible to generate different scenarios from the collected data and different configurable parameters (adding an infiltration point , climate change, authorized withdrawal quantity, etc.) in order to qualify and quantify the impact of an aquifer recharge process under different conditions. EGM plays a leading role in the co-creation of this tool, leading the work of defining and developing the functionalities and interfaces of this platform.

The MARCLAIMED project, led by Cetaqua, responds to the urgent need to support public authorities in the integration of alternative water resources, such as recycled water, at the scale of a watershed and to ensure the viability and the economic sustainability of the infrastructure associated with their use. It also aims to improve public perception, acceptance and confidence in the use of these water resources. Europe is facing the most serious drought of the century. In this context, MARCLAIMED is deploying the IDST on three demonstration sites in Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands. Different modules aimed at improving operational efficiency, economic sustainability and social perception of managed aquifer recharge will be integrated into MARCLAIMED’s integrated decision support tool (IDST).

Furthermore, MARCLAIMED will focus on social acceptance, involving European Union policy makers through a community of practice. MARCLAIMED will define guidelines and provide recommendations within the European regulatory framework for the managed recharge of aquifers with the implementation of alternative water resources. Sara Espinosa, Advanced Aquifer Management Program Manager in Resource Planning and Management at Cetaqua, shared her excitement for the launch of a project “that could be the driving force behind a paradigm shift in water management strategies. We are proud to share this adventure with them and to contribute to the definition of new strategies to deal with the impacts of climate change.