Arcadis and KWR develop investment decision tool for six fresh groundwater pilots worldwide
Consultancy firm Arcadis and KWR Watercycle research institute have launched the SALutions project to develop a decision support tool to make investment decisions for sustainable management of fresh groundwater resources in coastal areas.
The project is to gain experiences from six ongoing pilots worldwide, including USA, Mexico and the Netherlands.
Initiator of the project is Allied Waters foundation that aims to accelerate market uptake of sustainable subsurface water solutions.
Saltwater intrusion into coastal aquifers
Fresh water supply in coastal areas is a very complex issue, often leading to an interlinked mix of problems of which salt intrusion is the most prominent.
Arcadis and KWR developed a set of tools to manage these issues and want to start fully-commercial implementation at a worldwide scale.
One of the new technologies to prevent salt intrusion because of pumping up fresh groundwater near the coast (case A-left), is the Fresh Keeper (case B-right) that pumps up brackish water. The water is treated using reverse osmosis and the concentrate is injected into the ground, at great depth, where the groundwater also has a high level of salinity.
Tremendous pressure on fresh groundwater resources
Coastal areas are the most densely populated, productive and economically dominant regions in the world. But the associated heightened demand for water puts tremendous pressure on freshwater resources and coastal ecosystems.
This leads to problems like seasonal water shortages, overexploitation of groundwater resources, not only leads to saltwater intrusion, but also to land subsidence and disappearance of wetlands.
Sustainable groundwater management
Over the past six years, Dutch innovators, including KWR and Arcadis, have developed a set of practical tools and concepts for the control of fresh water resources in coastal areas.
These subsurface water solutions project is to enlarge and utilize fresh groundwater resources through advanced groundwater management, which goes far beyond the levels of control provided by standard water management techniques.
Full-scale implementation worldwide
Aversion to the perceived investment risks involved has been one of the key barriers to the full-scale implementation of these innovative groundwater management technologies by water supply companies, famers or industrial users of groundwater.
The SALutions project aims to accelerate the market uptake by introducing a decision support tool (DST) that guides the elaboration of strategies for the full-scale commercial implementation of the technologies worldwide.
The tool intents to break down the risk aversion barrier by evaluating different business models, thus supporting end-users in making investment decisions to implement these technologies.
Allied Waters will provide a solid framework to spread the concept in the global market.
The project will deliver strategies for the full-scale implementation at six locations, including Dinteloord (the Netherlands), Venice (Florida, USA) and Maneadero Valley (Mexico - on top photo).
The three other locations will be decided on during the course of the project.
About Allied Waters
AlliedWaters is a public-private partnership (PPP) dedicated to commercialising game-changing innovations in the water cycle that are “driving the circular economy”. To this end, it brings prominent scientific institutes together with ambitious business enterprises.
This news item was originally published on the website of Allied Waters.
Read also on this website
● EU approves Dutch-led research programme Subsol on protection of fresh water resources in coastal areas, 18 February 2015
● KWR's first operational Freshmaker stores fresh water in the ground, replacing salt water, 23 July 2013
● Projects: Fresh water buffering in coastal lowlands
● Projects: Go-Fresh: geohydrological opportunities fresh water supply
● Expertise: Water and food
● Expertise: Enabling delta life
More information
Allied Waters foundation
Nieuwegein, the Netherlands
+31 6 5374 5375
www.alliedwaters.com
Vice-director Bjorn Jensen of the Danish geological institute Geus explains the importance of subsurface water solutions. Geus and KWR were partners in the EU Subsol project to develop novel concepts to improve groundwater management. Watch the video.