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Coastal Aquifers Management: Hydrological, Environmental, Economic and Social Challenges in the Context of Global Change

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A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water Resources Management, Policy and Governance".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 11793

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Francisco Javier Alcalá

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Guest Editor

Experimental Station of Arid Zones, Spanish National Research Council (EEZA-CSIC), 04120 Almería, Spain
Interests: water resource management; techniques and computational applications for modelling of groundwater dynamics at different spatiotemporal scales and climate conditions; applied geophysics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Javier Senent Aparicio

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Department of Civil Engineering, Catholic University of San Antonio, 30107 Murcia, Spain
Interests: water management; climate change; hydrological modelling; machine learning
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Prof. Dr. Pedro Martínez-Pagán

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Department of Civil and Mining Engineering, Technical University of Cartagena, 30203 Cartagena, Spain
Interests: applications of electrical, seismic, and electromagnetic techniques focused on near-surface characterization in environmental, mining, and hydrogeological research
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Dr. Jaime Martínez-Valderrama

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Guest Editor

Instituto Multidisciplinar para el Estudio del Medio “Ramón Margalef”, Universidad de Alicante, 03690 San Vicente del Raspeig, Spain
Interests: drylands; desertification; global change; groundwater-dependent agriculture; rangelands; system dynamics; hyper-arid lands; land-use change dynamics
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Groundwater is limited and its sustainable use is peremptory to preserve dependent ecosystems and human supplies. This resource is especially crucial in densely populated coastal areas with limited surface water sources. The excessive groundwater use to supply the increasing urban, tourism, industrial, and agriculture demands is adding stress to many coastal aquifers, and the number of cases with alarming signs of groundwater quantity and quality degradation are increasing.

In the current context of global climate change, complex interactions between global driving forces (rising sea levels, increasing storm frequency, evapotranspiration rates, and atmospheric salinity inputs) and human activities (inducing saltwater intrusion, mobilization of brines, chemical pollution, and loss of environmental values) threaten coastal aquifers. The consequence is groundwater salinity exceeding the standards of quality required for human health, crop production, industrial activity, and ecosystem survival. Saving measures and the production of non-conventional water sources to supplement the growing demand may be partial solutions, but the energy price growth is slowing many initiatives down. Thus, understanding these complex interactions is a challenge because the equilibrium between sustainable use, economic profit dictated by global markets, environmental protection, and social habits is subject to the fragile threshold imposed by the groundwater salinity.

This Special Issue is looking for original research exploring global driving forces and human activities determining the sustainability of coastal aquifers, including but not limited to:

Hydrological studies aimed at conceptualizing aquifer functioning and assessing the groundwater resource quantity and quality (e.g., geological, geophysical, hydraulic, chemical, and modelling surveys);
Environmental analyses aimed at assessing the factors threatening habitats (e.g., overexploitation, salinity increase, human occupation, pollution, land degradation);
Economic appraisals aimed at linking groundwater use and profit (e.g., water–energy–food nexus, water treatment investment, control of international markets, opportunity costs);
Social habits for water consumption and future adaptations (e.g., water restriction, water migrants, education, participation).

Innovative papers describing case studies of one or more of the above scientific fields, applying exploration and modelling techniques, describing a specific computational tool and/or comparing several of the existing ones, and introducing new algorithms and software platforms are welcome. Disruptive proposals presented from a holistic perspective that really take a step forward in the above scientific fields, as well as reviews describing the state-of-the-art in these fields and scopes are also welcome.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Francisco Javier Alcalá
Prof. Dr. Javier Senent Aparicio
Prof. Dr. Pedro Martínez-Pagán
Dr. Jaime Martínez-Valderrama
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

coastal aquifers
hydrogeological conceptualization
groundwater modelling
environmental risks
groundwater-based activities
food security
water gap and salinity
non-conventional water sources
adaptative social habits
global change

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Editorial

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3 pages, 190 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Coastal Aquifer Management: Hydrological, Environmental, Economic and Social Challenges in the Context of Global Change

by Francisco Javier Alcalá, Javier Senent-Aparicio and Pedro Martínez-Pagán

Water 2023, 15(20), 3561; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15203561 - 12 Oct 2023

Viewed by 563

Abstract

Groundwater is limited and its sustainable use is peremptory if we are to preserve dependent ecosystems and human supplies [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Coastal Aquifers Management: Hydrological, Environmental, Economic and Social Challenges in the Context of Global Change)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

17 pages, 4518 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Framework to Assess Natural Chloride Background in Coastal Aquifers Affected by Seawater Intrusion in Eastern Spain

by Juan Grima-Olmedo, Bruno Ballesteros-Navarro, David Pulido-Velazquez, Arianna Renau-Pruñonosa, Francisco Javier Alcalá, Carlos Llopis-Albert, Pablo Jiménez-Gavilán, Nikolay Milkov-Ivanov, Leticia Baena-Ruiz and Carlos Grima-Olmedo

Water 2023, 15(15), 2728; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15152728 - 28 Jul 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 938

Abstract

The protection of groundwater resources in coastal aquifers is an increasingly important issue worldwide. To establish threshold values and remediation objectives, it is essential to know the natural background concentrations of relevant ions in groundwater. The rationale is to define the Natural Background Level (NBL) of chemical species determined by atmospheric and lithological forces. In many coastal aquifers, this evaluation worsens since atmospheric and lithological salinity combines with many other anthropogenic sources of salinity, including exogenous salinity induced by seawater intrusion (SWI). This paper presents a combination of six well-known statistical techniques and a new methodology (i.e., SITE index) in eight GWBs affected by SWI in Eastern Spain. The chloride ion was the selected conservative chemical specie to assess the qualitative status due to the variable SWI affection. The Natural Chloride Background (NCB) obtained from these methodologies at the GWB scale was compared with regional NCB data calculated with the Atmospheric Chloride Mass Balance (CMB) method in Continental Spain. The CMB method provides atmospherically derived NCB data that are not influenced by SWI or anthropogenic activities or lithological forces. This external evaluation can be considered the atmospheric fraction of NCB, which serves as a regional criterion to validate the more detailed statistical methodologies applied at the GWB scale. As a result, a conceptualization of NCB is obtained by means of a range of values between 115 mg L⁻¹ and 261 mg L⁻¹ in the studied coastal GWBs affected by SWI in Eastern Spain. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Coastal Aquifers Management: Hydrological, Environmental, Economic and Social Challenges in the Context of Global Change)

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15 pages, 4580 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Calculation of the SPI, SPEI, and GRDI Indices for Historical Climatic Data from Doñana National Park: Forecasting Climatic Series (2030–2059) Using Two Climatic Scenarios RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 by IPCC

by María José Montes-Vega, Carolina Guardiola-Albert and Miguel Rodríguez-Rodríguez

Water 2023, 15(13), 2369; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15132369 - 27 Jun 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1701

Abstract

In this study, we utilized three different indices to assess drought conditions in the Doñana National Park (DNP) located in southern Spain. These indices included the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), which is based on precipitation statistics, the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), which incorporates both precipitation and air temperature data, and the Groundwater Recharge Drought Index (GRDI), a newly developed index specifically designed to evaluate groundwater drought. The analysis covered the time period from 1985 to 2015, and future projections were made for the years 2030–2060 under different climate scenarios (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5). Our findings revealed a significant decrease in total precipitation of approximately 13–14% compared to historical records (1985–2015). Moreover, severely to extremely wet periods exhibited a reduction ranging from 25% to 38%. A key contribution of this study is the application of the GRDI index, which allowed us to assess groundwater recharge rates. We observed a decline in the simulated mean recharge rates during the 21st century when compared to the historical period spanning from 1950 to 2009. This decline can be attributed to increased evapotranspiration. The results of this research provide valuable insights for the Spanish water resources administration. The observed reductions in precipitation and groundwater recharge rates emphasize the need for appropriate mitigation measures. The findings will aid the administration in formulating an integrated water resources management strategy in the Doñana National Park and its surrounding basin. By understanding the projected changes in drought conditions, the administration can make informed decisions to ensure sustainable water resource management in the region. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Coastal Aquifers Management: Hydrological, Environmental, Economic and Social Challenges in the Context of Global Change)

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16 pages, 5499 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Estimation of Global Water Quality in Four Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants over Time Based on Statistical Methods

by Abderrazak El Aatik, Juan Miguel Navarro, Ramón Martínez and Nuria Vela

Water 2023, 15(8), 1520; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15081520 - 13 Apr 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2056

Abstract

Wastewater from urban and industrial sources can be treated and reused for crop irrigation, which can certainly help to protect aquifers from overexploitation and potential environmental risks of groundwater pollution. In fact, water reuse can also have negative effects on the environment, such as increased salinity, pollution phenomena or soil degradation, among others. Consequently, reuse of wastewater requires rigorous treatment and a very detailed analysis of different parameters, in compliance with established quality limitation standards. Therefore, this study was carried out to develop a prediction of temporal changes in water quality by introducing a wastewater quality index (WWQI) for four regional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Murcia, Southeast Spain, where a significant number of physicochemical and biological parameters are obtained in time series over the period 2019–2021. For this purpose, multivariate statistical analyses have been adopted to predict the performance of WWQI. By robust PCA of the sixteen physicochemical variables of the raw and treated wastewater, five main principal components (PCs) were extracted, which explain between 21.39% and 36.79% of the data variability. From the loadings of the PCs, the relationships between the original parameters are analyzed. The accuracy of the developed models in terms of fit to the training dataset ranged from 74.3% to 97.9%, with p-values < 0.05. The techniques incorporated in this study provided a comprehensive evaluation framework for monitoring wastewater treatment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Coastal Aquifers Management: Hydrological, Environmental, Economic and Social Challenges in the Context of Global Change)

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22 pages, 5437 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

A Python Application for Visualizing the 3D Stratigraphic Architecture of the Onshore Llobregat River Delta in NE Spain

by Manuel Bullejos, David Cabezas, Manuel Martín-Martín and Francisco Javier Alcalá

Water 2022, 14(12), 1882; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14121882 - 11 Jun 2022

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3042

Abstract

This paper introduces a Python application for visualizing the 3D stratigraphic architecture of porous sedimentary media. The application uses the parameter granulometry deduced from borehole lithological records to create interactive 3D HTML models of essential stratigraphic elements. On the basis of the high density of boreholes and the subsequent geological knowledge gained during the last six decades, the Quaternary onshore Llobregat River Delta (LRD) in northeastern Spain was selected to show the application. The public granulometry dataset produced by the Water Authority of Catalonia from 433 boreholes in this strategic coastal groundwater body was clustered into the clay–silt, coarse sand, and gravel classes. Three interactive 3D HTML models were created. The first shows the location of the boreholes granulometry. The second includes the main gravel and coarse sand sedimentary bodies (lithosomes) associated with the identified three stratigraphic intervals, called lower (>50 m b.s.l.) in the distal LRD sector, middle (20–50 m b.s.l.) in the central LRD, and upper (<20 m b.s.l.) spread over the entire LRD. The third deals with the basement (Pliocene and older rocks) top surface, which shows an overall steeped shape deepening toward the marine platform and local horsts, probably due to faulting. The modeled stratigraphic elements match well with the sedimentary structures reported in recent scientific publications. This proves the good performance of this incipient Python application for visualizing the 3D stratigraphic architecture, which is a crucial stage for groundwater management and governance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Coastal Aquifers Management: Hydrological, Environmental, Economic and Social Challenges in the Context of Global Change)

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18 pages, 4457 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Delimiting Pig Slurry Affected Subsurface Areas by Combining Geophysical and Geochemical Techniques

by Ximena Capa-Camacho, Pedro Martínez-Pagán, Marcos A. Martínez-Segura, María Gabarrón and Ángel Faz

Water 2022, 14(12), 1872; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14121872 - 10 Jun 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2447

Abstract

In Spain, livestock farming is a significant activity area that generates substantial revenues and essential jobs. However, the actual impact that this intensive activity might have on the environment is not entirely understood. Moreover, coastal aquifers are subjected to a significant environmental pressure due to nearby growing population, intensive agriculture, and livestock farming. In this work, three representative pig slurry ponds, under semiarid conditions, were studied using different techniques to evaluate the subsurface conditions in terms of pH, electrical conductivity, salts, and nitrate content. The electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) technique was employed in this study, which provides electrical resistivity values from the subsurface materials and fluids. These electrical resistivity values were compared to data obtained from geochemical analyses to derive their relationships and establish the pig slurry-affected subsurface area. Thus, ERT-based lower electrical resistivity values were associated with higher salts concentrations and nitrate content. ERT values indicated a near-surface affected by slurry infiltration that coincided with the increase of geochemical values obtained from sample analyses. Additionally, Spearman’s correlation was used to evaluate the correlation between electrical resistivity data and the physical-chemical properties of soil. The most important pollutant accumulation mainly occurs in the two-meter depth. Therefore, the risk of slurry ponds affecting deep aquifers is limited in the studied area. Finally, this study proves a complete, affordable, and scalable methodology application to livestock residue storage facilities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Coastal Aquifers Management: Hydrological, Environmental, Economic and Social Challenges in the Context of Global Change)

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