Artificial Recharge and Storage of the River-Aquifer System for the Water Resilience of Cities in a Monsoon Climate - RARA

• Grant number: 24/04168-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: August 01, 2024
• End date: September 30, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Geology
• Principal Investigator: Ricardo César Aoki Hirata
• Grantee: Carolina Fernanda dos Santos
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências (IGC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/15434-0 - SACRE: integrated water solutions for resilient cities, AP.TEM

Abstract

Water crises expose the vulnerability of cities to water scarcity, with the lack of investment in water infrastructure and poor management driving this phenomenon. Furthermore, climate change intensifies droughts, increasing their socioeconomic impact, especially where there is little investment in infrastructure and a lack of water management and governance. Conventional solutions, such as the search for new water sources or the construction of dams, are standard practices, but they generate negative economic, social, and environmental impacts on society, in addition to persisting vulnerability to drought. Adequate management of aquifers is essential to guarantee water availability, both by promoting more water from artificial aquifer recharge (management aquifer recharge, MAR), and by good management that considers groundwater storage as a regulator of discharges into the river (base flow), when associated with good aquifer exploitation operation. In aquifer development plans, aquifer storage and operation are almost always neglected. The present project (RARA), part of the SACRE Thematic Project (Proc. 2020/15434-0), aims to develop these concepts and apply them to a micro-basin at the head of the Batalha river - the source of water for 25% of the city of Bauru (SP), where water scarcity is aggravated by human occupation, lack of investment in water infrastructure and water-territorial management. Thus, the RARA project includes constructing and evaluating an artificial aquifer recharge system, increased participation in aquifer storage, and selective well-pumping operation over time - under a conjunctive use regime - to regulate and improve the river base flow. All characterization data for the various components of the hydrogeological cycle will be obtained in the field using high-tech techniques. Recharge pilots will be built and monitored. In particular, the aquifer's response time to recharge will be evaluated, and the data will be integrated into the Rubem-MODFLOW numerical model to create optimized scenarios to improve water allocation between the various users, giving preference to municipal abstractions. Thus, it is a project that deepens the understanding of water components, some of which are often neglected in water management policies, even abroad. Thus, the central concept of the project is to increase the water availability of an anthropized basin through innovative management of engineering actions, management of water bodies, control of exploitation in river-aquifer conjunctive use, and improvements in territorial policies to that the use of the river is regularized and increased for public supply.