Β2.3 Exploitation, Management and Protection of Groundwater

The course investigates: the qualitative degradation (including modeling of hydrologic processes) of groundwater; the optimum management of groundwater aquifers; and the available technologies for the remediation of hydrogeological systems. More specifically, the course involves the following sections:

1. Groundwater quality: hydrochemical and geochemical processes, hydrochemical data interpretation (hydrochemical diagrams, introduction to PHREEQC)
2. Aquifer treatment and remediation technologies: Biological treatment technologies (bioaugmentation, bioventing, biosparging, bioslurping, phytoremediation, permeable reactive barriers), chemical treatment technologies (chemical precipitation, ion exchange, permeable reactive barriers), physical treatment technologies (pump and treat, air sparging)
3. Aquifer vulnerability and ecosystem services: statistical methods, modeling methods, rating methods, multi-criteria analysis (DRASTIC and GALDIT index)
4. Management of coastal aquifers: seawater intrusion (groundwater hydrology and hydraulics, hydrogeochemical processes-ion exchange), prevention methods and technologies.
5. Nitrate contamination: nitrogen cycle in hydrogeological systems, nitrogen compounds and isotopes, nitrification/denitrification processes in the saturated and unsaturated zone, European Directives (91/676/EEC, 2000/60/EC, 2006/118/EC), management of nitrate contaminated aquifers.
6. Managed Aquifer Recharge using waters of impaired quality: hydrogeochemical processes in the unsaturated zone, Soil Aquifer Treatment -SAT- systems, International environmental law for water re-use.
7. Modeling of groundwater flow and contaminant transport: finite difference method for modeling of groundwater flow and mass & heat transport
8. Computational Exercise with hydroinformatic tools: Development of hydrogeological database using SQLite and SpatiaLite, contaminant transport modeling in the unsaturated and saturated zone (MODFLOW-2005, MODFLOW-UZF, MT3DMS), modeling of variable density groundwater flow (MODFLOW-2005, SEAWAT).