Demonstrating Managed Aquifer Recharge as a Solution to Water Scarcity and Drought
MARSOL - An EU FP7 Project
An Environment 2013 Cooperation Project funded by the European Commission
How can the increasingly scarce resource called water be exploited and used intelligently? The joint project MARSOL is aiming to demonstrate that Managed Aquifer Recharge techniques are able to secure 'excess' water and store it in the soil. The EU is funding the MARSOL project with 5.2 million Euros over 3 years under the WATER-INNO-DEMO scheme.
It is estimated that due to climatic changes only about 50 percent of today's amount of water will be available in the Mediterranean region by 2100 – while the population continues to grow. The lack of water will result in drought and crop losses.
The project consortium will demonstrate that Managed Aquifer Recharge is a viable approach to address the predicted water shortages over the long term. The basic idea is simple: Collect water when there is too much of it and store it for dry times in aquifers. This subsurface storage works even under deserts. Managed Aquifer Recharge can also be utilised to combat sea water intrusion in coastal areas and to give pre-treated waste water a final clean-up.
MARSOL deals with some of the overriding questions concerning the method such as risks, water quality, and technical feasibility, but also the challenges of EU administrative law in the implementation. For this purpose, the project is examining – at eight field sites in Greece, Portugal, Spain, Malta, Italy and Israel – the different specific ways water of varying origins and qualities (such as desalinated sea water, river water, and treated wastewater) can be stored in the ground with different techniques.
The MARSOL consortium consists of 21 partners from six EU countries (Germany, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, and Spain) and one associated country (Israel). The partner institutions cover a wide range of institution types including universities, research institutes, governmental bodies, local authorities, industry, and small/medium enterprises (SMEs). The overall project coordination is done by Darmstadt Technical University, Germany.
MARSOL
Demonstrating Managed
Aquifer Recharge as a
Solution to Water Scarcity
and Drought
An EU FP7 Project
Coordination & Contact:
Prof. Dr. Christoph Schüth
Darmstadt Technical University
Institute of Applied Geosciences
Schnittspahnstr. 9
64287 Darmstadt
Germany
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The MARSOL project receives funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration under grant agreement no 619120. This project website reflects only the authors' views and the European Union is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. |