Problems and Solutions with Aquifer Storage Recovery in Lebanon
Date: March 17, 2022
ABSTRACT
Aquifer Storage Recovery (ASR) is a great water management tool of the Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) family, to overcome water shortage by storing water in the underground during times of plenty, and pumping it back in periods of water shortage or high demand. ASR is being applied all over the world at different scales, using different infiltration waters and aquifers with diverging geochemical reactivity and ambient groundwater quality. In Lebanon, however, ASR is still in the phase of troublesome pilot studies.
This webinar reviews the general advantages and problems of ASR application. Then it discusses the additional problems in Lebanon, e.g. those associated with karstified limestone and capital investment. Finally, it presents some simple tools to estimate the risk of failure, solutions to various problems, and options for Lebanon. The given insights and tools may help to select the best ASR sites or MAR technology, raise the recovery efficiency and prevent the system to fail. In countries, where ASR is in the first try-out phase like Lebanon, such failure should be prevented by all means, because it would have detrimental effects on future development of these indispensable systems.
SPEAKERS
Pieter J. Stuyfzand, Emeritus Professor in hydrogeochemistry and hydrogeology, Delft University of Technology and KWR Water Research Institute, the Netherlands.
Prof. Stuyfzand is an emeritus professor with a personal chair in (chemical) hydrogeology, first (2004-2015) at VU University Amsterdam, and since September 2015 at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). Before his official retirement in 2019, he was a principal scientist at KWR Water Research Institute linking scientific work at university to applied research at KWR. Prof. Stuyfzand is still connected to KWR and TUD but started his own private consultancy company ‘Stuyfzand Hydroconsult+’. He is also still involved in supervising various PhD and MSc students, and a reviewer of many local and international projects, and peer reviewed journals. He is the founder of the Stuyfzand Classification of water types, among many other methods and tools, and he is now finalizing two professional texts book (1) on managed aquifer recharge, and (2) on hydrogeochemical methods. In 2019, the IAH chapter in the Netherlands initiated the Pieter Stuyfzand Thesis Prize in honor of his contribution to the development of hydrogeology. The prize is awarded every year to one graduate student who has written a thesis on a groundwater-related subject.
Catalin Stefan, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany.
Dr. Stefan is the head of the Research Group INOWAS at TU Dresden (TUD), Germany. His research focuses on planning, assessment and optimization of managed aquifer recharge applications using physical models and computer-based simulations. Dr. Stefan works at TUD as Research Associate. Since 2019, he is Co-Chair of the Commission on Managing Aquifer Recharge of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) and since 2016 active member of Groundwater Solutions Initiative for Policy and Practice (GRIPP). He is the initiator and co-author of the Global MAR Portal, an inventory of over 1000 MAR case studies worldwide. Dr. Stefan has experience in coordinating and managing international networks and partnerships with regional focus on Central America, Central and Southeast Asia, and MENA region.
Link to recording (Password to open the recording: Pd7pbdx*)
