Securing freshwater for drinking water, industry and agriculture requires innovative thinking in the management of water resources, including resources underground. The applicability of aquifer storage and recovery (ASR), managed aquifer recharge (MAR) and other subsurface water solutions has increased dramatically over the last few years thanks to innovations in pre-treatment, water well design, and groundwater modelling and management – all verified in recent pilots and full-scale applications.

Practical experiences with advanced water resources management by Watershare members and associated partners have been collated in the Watershare SWS Knowledge Base: an online, flexible and adaptable platform to search for and share information. The platform was originally developed as part of the European Horizon 2020 project SUBSOL (2015 - 2018) by Watershare partner NTUA, and has been adopted by Watershare.

How does it work?

The SWS Knowledge Base is an online platform to search for and share information about innovative, practical concepts for advanced freshwater management: subsurface water solutions. It consists of three parts: a Knowledge Base, a Toolkit, and a Marketplace, all provided through a unified web-based environment.

The Knowledge Base provides information on what methods are available regarding technical solutions for groundwater management in areas with brackish or saline aquifers, what has already been applied and tested under different contexts, including regulatory frameworks, and what were the main lessons learned.

The Toolkit consists of a series of online and open tools that provide an answer to how appropriate solutions for sustainable groundwater resources management in coastal areas can be selected, designed and implemented. The SubSol Data Monitoring System as well as the SWS Location Identification Tool are included in the Toolkit among other tools.

The Marketplace is the environment in which the interested parties can find information regarding successful implementations, design of products and implementation of innovative solutions, aiming at dissemination and promotion for potential adoption and replication in similar environments, in order to solve all or part of their problem.

Acknowledgements

The SUBSOL project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 642228

The SWS Knowledge Base has been developed within the SUBSOL project and has been adopted by Watershare.