Artificial groundwater recharge. Review of the current knowledge of the technique

Abstract

Nowadays, intensive exploitation of aquifers is seen as one of the main environmental issues worldwide together with other phenomena such as climate change, changes in land use, the disappearance of species, and so on. To that respect, the artificial groundwater recharge almost stands as the only solution in order to reduce directly the effects of aquifer exploitation. To be exact, the recharge of aquifers is the technique used to introduce water into the ground in order to meet water deficits in aquifers. This study deals with the hydraulics and hydrogeological aspects related to the technique by performing an exhaustive analysis of the existing literature published in the last decades about the definition of the technique itself, the available water sources to develop it, the long list of objectives that this technique shows, the phases of the hydrodynamic mechanism, the different technology developed recently in order to introduce it (surface and underground systems) and the most important issues related to it (clogging, emerging contaminants…). This way, this study aims to improve the knowledge acquired on artificial groundwater recharge in order for this technique to be taken into consideration as a valid option when reducing intensive exploitation of aquifers, especially in arid and semi-arid areas.