Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
5.5
3.4
Journals
Water
Special Issues
Urban Groundwater
share announcement

Urban Groundwater

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Urban Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2021) | Viewed by 11385

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Estanislao Pujades

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Computational Hydrosystems, UFZ—Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Permoserstr. 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany
Interests: urban groundwater; underground constructions; geothermal energy; groundwater modelling; geo-energies and groundwater; aquifer characterization; coupled hydro-mechanical–chemical processes
Dr. Anna Jurado

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for groundwater management, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany
Interests: aquifer recharge quantification; contaminants of emerging concern; groundwater quality; groundwater management; urban groundwater; river–groundwater interaction; managed aquifer recharge; numerical modeling; quantitative hydrogeology
Dr. Guillaume Attard

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Cerema, France
Interests: urban hydrogeology; geothermal energy; constructions; numerical modeling
Dr. Victor Vilarrasa

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, Spanish National Research Council (IDAEA-CSIC), Spain
Interests: hydrogeology; civil works–groundwater interaction; geothermal energy; numerical modeling; coupled processes; geomechanics; fractures and faults; induced seismicity; geologic carbon storage

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Urban groundwater plays a meaningful role to ensure the sustainable development of cities as a source of fresh water and renewable energy, and consequently, it must be preserved. There is a wide variety of human related activities that may impact on urban groundwater resources, such as:

  • The use of shallow aquifers for geothermal energy;
  • The interaction with underground constructions;
  • The leakage from sewers and the discharge of wastewaters (introduction of different kinds of pollutants and micropollutants);
  • The increase of urbanized areas and sealed surfaces;
  • The pumping of groundwater.

In this context, it is essential to identify and quantify aspects that may influence the quantity and quality of urban groundwater and investigate methods for minimizing their impacts (e.g., artificial groundwater recharge, improvement of the “natural” recharge in urban areas, reuse of pumped groundwater pumped from underground constructions, redesign of geothermal systems, etc). Similarly, it is important to integrate the possible impacts into the water management strategies for improving the use of urban water resources.

The interaction between urban groundwater and human activities is bidirectional and groundwater may also limit the development of cities, for example, complicating the development of new underground constructions. Therefore, research on how to handle the difficulties induced by the presence of groundwater is also needed.

To sum up, this Special Issue welcomes works focused on quantity and quality aspects of urban groundwaters and, in general, all studies concerning any aspect related with urban groundwater resources.

Dr. Estanislao Pujades
Dr. Anna Jurado
Dr. Guillaume Attard
Dr. Victor Vilarrasa
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • urban groundwater
  • underground constructions
  • geothermal energy in urban environments
  • emerging organic contaminants
  • urbanization and groundwater recharge
  • artificial recharge
  • saltwater intrusion in coastal urban areas
  • urban groundwater quality

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

30 pages, 4953 KiB  
Article
Natural and Anthropogenic Geochemical Tracers to Investigate Residence Times and Groundwater–Surface-Water Interactions in an Urban Alluvial Aquifer
by Connor P. Newman, Suzanne S. Paschke and Gabrielle Keith
Water 2021, 13(6), 871; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13060871 - 23 Mar 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3821
Abstract
A multi-component geochemical dataset was collected from groundwater and surface-water bodies associated with the urban Fountain Creek alluvial aquifer, Colorado, USA, to facilitate analysis of recharge sources, geochemical interactions, and groundwater-residence times. Results indicate that groundwater can be separated into three distinct geochemical [...] Read more.
A multi-component geochemical dataset was collected from groundwater and surface-water bodies associated with the urban Fountain Creek alluvial aquifer, Colorado, USA, to facilitate analysis of recharge sources, geochemical interactions, and groundwater-residence times. Results indicate that groundwater can be separated into three distinct geochemical zones based on location within the flow system and proximity to surface water, and these zones can be used to infer sources of recharge and groundwater movement through the aquifer. Rare-earth-element concentrations and detections of wastewater-indicator compounds indicate the presence of effluent from wastewater-treatment plants in both groundwater and surface water. Effluent presence in groundwater indicates that streams in the area lose to groundwater in some seasons and are a source of focused groundwater recharge. Distributions of pharmaceuticals and wastewater-indicator compounds also inform an understanding of groundwater–surface-water interactions. Noble-gas isotopes corroborate rare-earth-element data in indicating geochemical evolution within the aquifer from recharge area to discharge area and qualitatively indicate variable groundwater-residence times and mixing with pre-modern groundwater. Quantitative groundwater-residence times calculated from 3H/3He, SF6, and lumped-parameter modeling generally are less than 20 years, but the presence of mixing with older groundwater of an unknown age is also indicated at selected locations. Future investigations would benefit by including groundwater-age tracers suited to quantification of mixing for both young (years to decades) and old (centuries and millennia) groundwater. This multi-faceted analysis facilitated development of a conceptual model for the investigated groundwater-flow system and illustrates the application of an encompassing suite of analytes in exploring hydrologic and geochemical interactions in complex systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Groundwater)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 4720 KiB  
Article
Urban Groundwater Contamination by Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs
by Anna Jurado, Enric Vázquez-Suñé and Estanislao Pujades
Water 2021, 13(5), 720; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13050720 - 6 Mar 2021
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 3439
Abstract
Pharmaceuticals, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and their metabolites, have become a major concern due to their increasing consumption and their widespread occurrence in the environment. In this paper, we investigate the occurrence of NSAIDs and their metabolites in an urban aquifer, [...] Read more.
Pharmaceuticals, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and their metabolites, have become a major concern due to their increasing consumption and their widespread occurrence in the environment. In this paper, we investigate the occurrence of NSAIDs and their metabolites in an urban aquifer, which may serve as a potential resource for drinking water, and propose a methodology to assess the removal of these substances in the river–groundwater interface. Then, risk quotients (RQs) are computed, in order to determine the risk posed by the single NSAIDs and their mixture to human health. To this end, six NSAIDs and two metabolites were collected from an urban aquifer located in the metropolitan area of Barcelona (NE, Spain), in which the major pollution source is a contaminated river. All of the target NSAIDs were detected in groundwater samples, where the concentrations in the aquifer were higher than those found in the river water (except for ibuprofen). Diclofenac, ketoprofen, propyphenazone and salicylic acid were detected at high mean concentrations (ranging from 91.8 ng/L to 225.2 ng/L) in the aquifer. In contrast, phenazone and mefenamic acid were found at low mean concentrations (i.e., lower than 25 ng/L) in the aquifer. According to the proposed approach, the mixing of river water recharge into the aquifer seemed to some extent to promote the removal of the NSAIDs under the sub-oxic to denitrifying conditions found in the groundwater. The NSAIDs that presented higher mean removal values were 4OH diclofenac (0.8), ibuprofen (0.78), salicylic acid (0.35) and diclofenac (0.28), which are likely to be naturally attenuated under the aforementioned redox conditions. Concerning human health risk assessment, the NSAIDs detected in groundwater and their mixture do not pose any risk for all age intervals considered, as the associated RQs were all less than 0.05. Nevertheless, this value must be taken with caution, as many pharmaceuticals might occur simultaneously in the groundwater. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Groundwater)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

11 pages, 3619 KiB  
Article
Can Borehole Heat Exchangers Trigger Cross-Contamination between Aquifers?
by Alessandro Casasso, Natalia Ferrantello, Simone Pescarmona, Carlo Bianco and Rajandrea Sethi
Water 2020, 12(4), 1174; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12041174 - 20 Apr 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2899
Abstract
Borehole heat exchangers (BHEs) commonly reach depths of several tens of meters and cross different aquifers. Concerns have been raised about the possibility of boreholes to act as preferential pathways for contaminant transport among aquifers (cross-contamination). This article employs numerical modelling of contaminant [...] Read more.
Borehole heat exchangers (BHEs) commonly reach depths of several tens of meters and cross different aquifers. Concerns have been raised about the possibility of boreholes to act as preferential pathways for contaminant transport among aquifers (cross-contamination). This article employs numerical modelling of contaminant transport in the subsurface to address these concerns. A common hydrogeological setup is simulated, composed of three layers: A shallow contaminated and a deep uncontaminated aquifer separated by an aquitard, all crossed by a permeable borehole. The hydraulic conductivity of the borehole and, to a lesser extent, the vertical hydraulic gradient between the aquifers are the key factors of cross-contamination. Results of the numerical simulations highlight that, despite the severe conditions hypothesized in our modelling study, the cross-contamination due to the borehole is negligible when filled with a slightly permeable material such as a geothermal grout properly mixed and injected. A good agreement was found with analytical formulas used for estimating the flow rate leaking through the borehole and for studying the propagation of leaked contaminant into the deep aquifer. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Groundwater)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop