Managed Aquifer Recharge for Water Resilience

Abstract

Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) is part of the palette of solutions to water shortage, water security, water quality decline, falling water tables, and endangered groundwater-dependent ecosystems. It can be the most economic, most benign, most resilient, and most socially acceptable solution, but frequently has not been implemented due to lack of awareness, inadequate knowledge of aquifers, immature perception of risk, and incomplete policies for integrated water management, including linking MAR with demand management. MAR can achieve much towards solving the myriad local water problems that have collectively been termed “the global water crisis”. This special issue strives to elucidate the effectiveness, benefits, constraints, limitations, and applicability of MAR, together with its scientific advances, to a wide variety of situations that have global relevance. This special issue was initiated by the International Association of Hydrogeologists Commission on Managing Aquifer Recharge to capture and extend from selected papers at the 10th International Symposium on Managed Aquifer Recharge (ISMAR10) held in Madrid, Spain, 20–24 May 2019.