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MANAGED AQUIFER RECHARGE (MAR) AR AS A TOOL TO MITIGATE AQUIFER OVEREXPLOITATION: INSIGHTS FROM LOS ARENALES AQUIFER (SPAIN)

Irrigation agriculture in Los Arenales aquifer has resulted in staggering groundwater level declines in the last quarter of the XX century. The objective of this study is to assess the contribution of MAR to reverse such a problematic situation. To this end, we compare two neighbouring and analogous groundwater bodies within this aquifer, namely Los Arenales (LA) and Medina del Campo (MC). The primary difference between them is the presence of three large-scale MAR sites in LA. We employ the Mann-Kendall test and Theil-Sen estimator for slope analysis and an empirical approach to assess field significance. Additionally, we compute the average groundwater levels and explore agricultural and climatological information to complement the statistical analysis. The slope analysis reflects a dramatic drop in groundwater levels in LA and MC during 1985-2001 (~100% of trends are negative) with slope strengths in the order of -1.5 m/year. The subsequent analysis periods (2002-2011 and 2012-2020) show a substantial improvement of groundwater availability in LA (~75% of the trends are positive) and marginally in MC (~25% of the trends are positive). No field significance was detected in the area. The analysis of average groundwater levels against climatological and agricultural information depicts the socioeconomic similarities between both groundwater bodies and the pronounced recovery in LA (~10% higher than the lowest average level) when compared to MC (~4%). This study demonstrates that MAR very likely accounts for the difference in groundwater storage recovery between LA and MC and the suitability of this technique to counteract aquifer overexploitation.

Details

Author
Jose David Henao Casas1,2, Enrique Fernández Escalante1, Francisco Ayuga2
Institutionen
1Tragsa, Department of Integrated Water Resources Management, Madrid, Spain; 2Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), School of Agricultural, Food and Biosystems Engineering, Madrid, Spain
Veranstaltung
GeoKarlsruhe 2021
Datum
2021
DOI
10.48380/dggv-11ce-ee87
Geolocation
Spain