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http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s12665-016-5701-7&domain=pdf
Web End = Environ Earth Sci (2016) 75:930 DOI 10.1007/s12665-016-5701-7
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s12665-016-5701-7&domain=pdf
Web End = THEMATIC ISSUE
Experimental recharge by small-diameter wells: the Pirna, Saxony, case study
Falk Handel1,2 Martin Binder1 Michael Dietze1 Rudolf Liedl1
Peter Dietrich2,3
Received: 30 October 2015 / Accepted: 2 May 2016 / Published online: 21 May 2016 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016
Abstract Managed aquifer recharge has been used for various regions worldwide to improve water quantity and quality. Furthermore, contaminated site treatment often requires injection of water together with specic additives to support natural attenuation processes. Handel et al. (in J Hydrol 517:5463, 2014. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.05.003
Web End =10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.05. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.05.003
Web End =003 ) introduced a new recharge approach, applying cost-efcient small-diameter wells. Numerical studies were applied, among others, to investigate the effect of subsur-face structures on injection process. Besides this, a comparison with an inltration basin was made. To close the gap between the theoretical work and the practical use of this technique for medium-term injection of clean waters and to provide an experimental validation of the small-diameter well recharge, two injection tests using a small-diameter well (100 inner diameter) were performed at the test site Pirna, Saxony, Germany. In a rst short-term test, stepwise increasing injection rates were applied and showed only a slight increase in well water levels. In a
second test (using the same well), groundwater was injec
ted continuously for 14 days. The constant injection rate of0.75 l/s resulted in a recharged water volume of 900 m3, showing the high-performance potential of such wells for clean water inltration.
Keywords Articial recharge Small-diameter wells
Field test Injection
Introduction
Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) has been used in a wide spectrum of water management issues. On one side, it has been applied to increase fresh water quantity, i.e. the amount of available and usable water (see review of Bouwer 2002). In particular in arid and semi-arid regions, such quantitative measures have been used increasingly (e.g. Al-Assad and Abdulla 2009). Often, in such areas, the natural groundwater recharge is not capable to overcome the escalating extractions which result, among others, from increasing population and intensied agricultural use (Asano and Cotruvo 2004). Eventually, this leads to declining groundwater levels and, in coastal regions, also to saltwater intrusions (Werner et al. 2013)....