Artificial Aquifer Research Articles

Development of heat and mass transfer modulus to Feflow code for calculation of brine loaded to permafrost ground

The article discusses the application of FreezeThaw75 module, developed by one of the authors to calculate heat and mass transfer taking into account water–ice and ice–water–water phase transitions. Numerical simulations are compared with the analytical solution and other software codes. The module was tested at one of the injection sites in Daldino-Alakitskii district of Yakutia. FreezeThaw75 module was developed in relation to Feflow v7.4–7.5 model environment. The module was tested on a model of brine injection into frozen rocks. The model simultaneously takes into account the movement of groundwater flow, heat and mass transfer and phase transitions. A feature of the calculations in the developed model is the consideration of large injected volumes of highly mineralized brines.It influences the degradation of permafrost and takes into account the cryohydrogeological conditions of the site. Brines are injected into permafrost rocks with a high absorption capacity especially in areas confined to zones of tectonic disturbances. The developed module can adjust the predicted potential of the operated injection sites. It can also act as an additional element of control over the injection process and the formation of an artificial aquifer in the permafrost rocks.

Water Sowing and Harvesting (WS&H) for Sustainable Management in Ecuador: A Review

Water Sowing and Harvesting (WS&H) is an ancestral knowledge widely used as a sustainable technique in water management. This study aims to analyse the importance, promotion, and cultural heritage of WS&H techniques through a literature review in Ecuador, considering applications of ancestral techniques by region (coastal, Andean and insular) with a strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats (SWOTs) analysis and a focus group for a strategy proposal of the water supply. The methodology of this study includes the following: (i) an analysis of the evolution of WS&H studies in Ecuador; (ii) a presentation of WS&H techniques and their applications; and (iii) the contribution of WS&H to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), complemented by a SWOTs analysis. The results show that, in Ecuador, WS&H is a method of Nature-based Solutions (NbSs) applied to the problems of water scarcity and is affordable, ecological, and has high efficiency, improving agricultural productivity and guaranteeing water supply for human consumption. The Manglaralto coastal aquifer, a case study in the coastal region of Ecuador, involves WS&H management and artificial aquifer recharge. WS&H structures became a reference for the sustainable development of rural communities that can be replicated nationally and internationally as a resilient alternative to water scarcity and a global climate emergency, contributing to the SDGs of UNESCO.

STUDY OF LONG-TERM WATER SUPPLY IN THE AREA OF MUNICIPALITY OF TEŠANJ, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

<p>This paper examines the issue of water supply in the municipality of Tešanj, which has been identified as crucial for many years due to the indispensable nature of water as a basic resource necessary for life. The available capacity of the Kraševo-Jelah-Tešanj central water supply system is 47 l/s. By calculating the daily water demand in the area, we determine a water deficit of 51.11 l/s, which needs to be addressed. The analysis and synthesis of data during the preparation of the study leads to the proposition of an artificial aquifer recharge system as a solution to the long-term water supply problem in the mentioned area.</p>

Artificial Rainfall Aquifer to Supply Clean Water Requirement During the Dry Season in Selengen Village, North Lombok Regency

Selengen Village is one of the villages in North Lombok Regency that always experiences drought and lack of clean water every year. The problem of clean water availability is caused by limited water sources on the surface. The frequency of rainwater in Selengen Village is very small and with very low intensity. In order to meet the need for clean water, the community has to pay additional costs to buy clean water or wait for a drop from the government. The Selengan Village community has limited information regarding simple methods that can be used to collect clean water sourced from rainwater. The method used to introduce rainwater capture as a source of clean water is to provide direct outreach to the Selengen Village community about rainwater storage in the form of ABSAH (Artificial Aquifer for Rainwater Savings). The ABSAH method can be done individually or in groups. The socialization was carried out at the Panggung Barat Hamlet office involving the community consisting of farmer groups, community leaders, youth organizations and housewives. The result of the socialization regarding the introduction of artificial rainwater aquifers is the high desire of the community to create rainwater storage, either independently/individually or in groups. In the process of making it, the community hopes to get assistance from the implementation team so that the calculation of the storage volume is in accordance with the volume of water used. Apart from that, the community also hopes to be given drawings of storage designs, installations for collecting water from the roofs of houses and designs of distribution networks to people's homes.

Machine learning for faster estimates of groundwater response to artificial aquifer recharge

Groundwater models are a valuable tool in optimising the decisions influencing groundwater flow. Spatially distributed models represent the groundwater level in the entire area from where essential information can be extracted, directly aiding in the decision-making process. However, these models are time-consuming, limiting the number of scenarios that can be considered. This study explores different machine learning (ML) models as faster alternatives to predict the increase in steady-state groundwater head due to artificial recharge in the unconfined aquifer while considering a wider spatial extent (832 columns x 1472 rows totalling 765 km2) than previous ML groundwater models. We trained three ML models (encoder-decoder, U-Net, and attention U-Net) with various hypothetical artificial recharge sites (100, 300, 500, and 1000 sites) in the Baakse Beek catchment (the Netherlands), using a detailed numerical groundwater model, AMIGO. The applied recharge rate along with geo-hydrological properties from the AMIGO baseline run were used as inputs to the ML models. The properties’ permutation importance indicated that all properties of the first aquifer were important to predicting the response and were included when training the ML models. All three ML models improved with additional training sites but showed limited benefits from more than 500 recharge sites. Of the three ML models, U-Net and Attention U-Net outperformed the encoder-decoder. These two models achieved Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) of more than 0.8 when trained with 300 or more recharge sites. U-Net trained on 1000 recharge sites had the highest overall NSE of 0.95. U-Net better captures input features with highly variable spatial characteristics, such as rivers and drains which influence the maximum height of the groundwater response. The model captured the influence of the input features on the response, reproducing the response patterns across the entire catchment. Finally, we showed that the trained ML models are faster than the numerical model, predicting within 0.24 s (97th percentile), making it ideal for optimising decisions.

Resilient agriculture: water management for climate change adaptation in Lower Saxony

Abstract Climate change has increased the intensity, frequency and duration of heatwaves and droughts in Europe turning water management into an even more complicated issue. Because water is a fundamental resource for agriculture, water management has to be addressed with climate change adaptation. While stakeholders in Lower Saxony are aware of adaptation measures they could implement to dampen the effects of climate change, evidence of the effectiveness of adaptation measures at a local scale is still missing. An analysis of adaptation measures using a new hydrological model was performed to test four adaptation measures suggested by stakeholders. Changing crops has the strongest effect followed by improving irrigation efficiency, humification and, finally, artificial aquifer recharge. If crops are changed, irrigation water demand and energy consumption could be reduced by up to 20.7%, costs could be reduced in 19.1%, the aquifer level could rise up to 284.85 mm and emissions could be reduced by 26.6% by the end of the century. Artificial recharge proved to be an inadequate method for the region as it does not impact the irrigation water demand, and an insufficient amount of water is available to have a substantial effect on the aquifer.

Élet az édesvízhiánnyal: vízkészlet-gazdálkodás Namíbiában

Namibia is an arid country in Southern Africa. It frequently experiences a state of freshwater deficit and must employ a range of measures to manage this scarce resource sustainably and equitably. The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform coordinates the water sector. A state-owned enterprise, NamWater, is the bulk water supplier and manages large water infrastructure. The country follows a policy of integrated water resource management and has devolved some of the decision-making on water issues to river basin level. Transboundary catchments are managed through legal agreements and multinational permanent commissions representing the basin states. Technologies such as dams in ephemeral rivers, intra- and inter-basin water transfer schemes, reclamation of wastewater to potable standards, artificial aquifer recharge, desalination, and conjunctive use of various water sources are employed to supply water to consumers. Water demand management, particularly education, information, restrictions and tariffs, curbs wasteful use of water.

Network dynamics for modelling artificial groundwater recharge by a cluster of infiltration basins

AbstractIn this paper we propose a simple approach for modelling the functioning of a cluster of interconnected infiltration basins: such a modelling is crucial for correctly managing artificial aquifer recharge. We model and dynamically quantify the flow from the bottom of each basin, towards the outer walls of the cluster, and between adjacent basins: as a result of this modelling, saturated hydraulic conductivity parameters are estimated. This goal is accomplished simply by using mass balance arguments and Darcy's law, considering only water levels data and the total water inflow daily bestowed to the trenches; by using a declipping technique, automated recorded data are suitably filtered; then, from these data, an efficient algorithm is implemented for determining which basin is instantaneously fed. This approach can be used for managing the efficiency and performance of such facilities over time, and it can be easily generalized. The model is tested over a real‐life site in Castellana Grotte (Southeastern Italy), where an infiltration basins cluster is used as final receptor of the effluents from a tertiary treatment wastewater plant.Novelty and International Appeal StatementWe propose a simple approach for modelling the functioning of a cluster of interconnected infiltration basins. By a dynamical systems approach, we model the flow from the bottom of each basin, towards outer walls of the cluster, and between adjacent basins: as a result, saturated hydraulic conductivity parameters are estimated.

Aquifer recharge by stormwater infiltration basins: Hydrological and vadose zone characteristics control the impacts of basins on groundwater chemistry and microbiology

Stormwater infiltration systems (SIS) are designed to collect and infiltrate urban stormwater runoff into the ground for flood risk mitigation and artificial aquifer recharge. Many studies have demonstrated that infiltration practices can impact groundwater chemistry and microbiology. However, quantitative assessments of the hydrogeological factors responsible of these changes remain scarce. Thus, the present study aimed to quantitatively test whether changes of groundwater chemistry and microbiology induced by SIS were linked to two factors associated with vadose zone properties (vadose zone thickness, water transit time from surface to groundwater) and one factor associated with groundwater recharge rate (assessed by groundwater table elevation during rain events). To evaluate changes in chemistry (NO3−, PO43− and dissolved organic carbon concentrations), groundwater samples were collected in wells located in SIS-impacted and non-SIS-impacted zones during experimental periods of 10 days. During the same periods, clay beads were incubated in the same wells to measure changes of groundwater microbial biofilms (microbial biomass, dehydrogenase and hydrolytic activities) induced by SIS. Results showed that changes in PO43− supplied to groundwater during stormwater infiltration was negatively correlated with vadose zone thickness. A short water transit time from surface to groundwater increased dissolved organic carbon concentrations in the aquifer which, in turn, increased biofilm biomasses in groundwater. The groundwater recharge rate during rain events (assessed by groundwater table elevation) diluted NO3− concentrations in the aquifer but also influenced the changes of biofilm activities induced by SIS. Groundwater recharge rate during rain events probably increased the fluxes of water and dissolved organic carbon in groundwater, stimulating the activity of microbial biofilms. Overall, the present study is the first to quantify conjointly several factors and processes (water transfer, dilution, solute fluxes) that could explain the impact of stormwater infiltration on chemistry and/or microbiology in groundwater.

Groundwater Management in an Uncommon and Artificial Aquifer Based on Kc Approach and MODIS ET Products for Irrigation Assessment in a Subtropical Island

Groundwater is a critical resource in remote and isolated islands where rainfall hardly provides a continuous and even water supply. In this paper, in a very rare and uncommonly found artificial aquifer on Miyako Island, far away from the main continent of Japan, with limited experimental results of evaluations of crop water requirement, MODIS ET together with crop ETc estimated from Kc coefficient from the nearest island were compared to determine the reliability of the MODIS ET and FAO-56-based ETc value. The testified Kc approach for sugarcane ET was used to assess the risk of irrigation water shortages using historical metrological data and to predict the future risk of irrigation agriculture under different scenarios of GCM models. It was shown that FAO-56-based ETc and MOD16A2 were both applicable for crop evapotranspiration on the island. Then, the response of groundwater storage to gross irrigation water requirement was analyzed to clarify the effect of irrigation on groundwater storage and the risk of groundwater depletion under current and future climatic conditions. Results showed that the construction of the dam efficiently secured the irrigation of sugarcane. Using historical climatic data (1951–2021), the influence of estimated irrigation water requirements on groundwater showed that in 296 out of 852 months, irrigation was heavily required. Over a 71 year period, there was absolutely no water for irrigation four times, or nearly once every 18 years. Under the future projected climate from four bias-corrected GCM models with two emission scenarios (2022–2100), the risk of groundwater depletion both in terms of frequency and duration will increase. Therefore, there is a need for either improvement of irrigation water management or additional construction of artificial aquifers on the island. The study proved the value of ET derived from remote sensing in areas lacking the support of experimental results. The methodology developed in the study can be potentially used to evaluate long-term irrigation demand and groundwater management over dry periods for engineering design or dam construction globally.

Cost-effective management measures for coastal aquifers affected by saltwater intrusion and climate change.

Sustainable management of natural water resources and food security in the face of changing climate conditions is critical to the livelihood of coastal communities. Increasing inundation and saltwater intrusion (SWI) will likely adversely affect agricultural production and the associated beach access for tourism. This study uses an integrated surface-ground water model to introduce a new approach for retardation of SWI that consists of placing aquifer fill materials along the existing shoreline using Coastal Land Reclamation (CLR). The modeling results suggest that the artificial aquifer materials could be designed to decrease SWI by increasing the infiltration area of coastal precipitation, collecting runoffs from the catchment area, and applying treated wastewater or desalinated brackish water-using coastal wave energy to reduce water treatment costs. The SEAWAT model was applied to verify that it correctly addressed Henry's problem and then applied to the Biscayne aquifer, Florida, USA. In this study, to better inform Coastal Aquifer Management (CAM), we developed four modeling scenarios, namely, Physical Surface Barriers (PSB), including the artificial aquifer widths, permeability, and side slopes and recharge. In the base case scenario without artificial aquifer placement, results show that seawater levels would increase aquifer salinity and displace large amounts of presently available fresh groundwater. More specifically, for the Biscayne aquifer, approximately 0.50% of available fresh groundwater will be lost (that is, 41,192 m3) per km of the width of the aquifer considering the increasing seawater level. Furthermore, the results suggest that placing the PSB aquifer with a smaller permeability of <100 m per day at a width of approximately 615 m increases the available fresh groundwater by approximately 45.20 and 43.90% per km of shoreline, respectively. Similarly, decreasing the slope on the aquifer-ocean side and increasing the aquifer recharge will increase freshwater availability by about 43.90 and 44.50% per km of the aquifer. Finally, placing an aquifer fill along the shallow shoreline increases net revenues to the coastal community through increased agricultural production and possibly tourism that offset fill placement and water treatment costs. This study is useful for integrated management of coastal zones by delaying aquifer salinity, protecting fresh groundwater bodies, increasing agricultural lands, supporting surface water supplies by harvesting rainfall and flash flooding, and desalinating saline water using wave energy. Also, the feasibility of freshwater storage and costs for CAM is achieved in this study.

Artificial aquifer recharge: systematic mapping study

Abstract Groundwater is one of the most important natural resources on the planet Earth. Nevertheless, many aquifers are overexploited especially in arid and semi-arid regions where groundwater is the only source of water supply as surface water resources are limited and insufficient to meet all water needs. The preservation of this resource is paramount to ensure its sustainability, hence the invention of the practice of artificial aquifer recharge (AAR), also known as managed aquifer recharge. It is a practice invented to supplement the replenishment of the aquifer with human-controlled methods to prevent groundwater levels from becoming too low due to over-abstraction. The objective of this paper is to structure the existing AAR literature, highlight the most recent stage and aspects that have been covered, and identify the open issues, knowledge gaps, aspects that require improvement, and the research trends in that field. To this end, a systematic mapping study has been conducted on the literature published about AAR from 2013 until 2015 to categorize and summarize the existing publications concerning the research in that field. Application of the systematic mapping study method resulted in 204 publications which are the relevant papers synthesized following exclusion and inclusion criteria and served to answer 7 research questions defined at the beginning of the study. The obtained results will serve as a basis for future research and will allow the development of a better understanding and a broad overview of this field to direct and guide future AAR projects.

Sand dams for sustainable water management: Challenges and future opportunities

Sand dams are impermeable water harvesting structures built to collect and store water within the volume of sediments transported by ephemeral rivers. The artificial sandy aquifer created by the sand dam reduces evaporation losses relative to surface water storage in traditional dams. Recent years have seen a renaissance of studies on sand dams as an effective water scarcity adaptation strategy for drylands. However, many aspects of their functioning and effectiveness are still unclear. Literature reviews have pointed to a range of research gaps that need further scientific attention, such as river corridors and network dynamics, watershed-scale impacts, and interaction with social dynamics. However, the scattered and partially incomplete information across the different reviews would benefit from an integrated framework for directing future research efforts. This paper is a collaborative effort of different research groups active on sand dams and stems from the need to channel future research efforts on this topic in a thorough and coherent way. We synthesize the pivotal research gaps of a) unclear definition of “functioning” sand dams, b) lack of methodologies for watershed-scale analysis, c) neglect of social aspects in sand dam research, and d) underreported impacts of sand dams. We then propose framing future research to better target the synthesized gaps, including using the social-ecological systems framework to better capture the interconnected social and biophysical research gaps on sand dams, fully utilizing the potential of remote sensing in large-scale studies and collecting sand dam cases across the world to create an extensive database to advance evidence-based research on sand dams.

Study of Condensate Absorption Capacity in Exposed Soil when Water Recedes at the Bottom of Hoh Xil Lake, Qinghai

In order to investigate the characteristics of the condensate absorption capacity in an exposed sandy bottom when water recedes, the characteristics of condensate variation, condensate formation time, condensate volume, and its absorption capacity were investigated in July 2021, using a micro-osmometer. The research area was the artificial water-retention layer and bare ground of the exposed sandy bottom, formed under the influence of the warming-wetting trend that occurs when water recedes in the salt-lake area of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, as well as two conditions: underpass and under sealed. According to the results, the time of condensation generation during the observation period in the salt-lake area of Hoh Xil begins at about 0:00 and ends at about 10:00 The artificial water-retention layer had little influence on the condensation generation time, and the trend of the condensation rate is the same. The unidirectional condensation of water in near-surface air is significantly better under artificial water-retention layer conditions than under bare ground conditions, with condensation occurring three times more frequently than under bare ground conditions. The amount of water condensation in the lower part of the soil under artificial aquifer conditions is 2.588 times greater than that in the near-ground air, while the amount of water condensation in the lower part of the soil under bare ground conditions is 1.783 times greater than that in the near-ground air. The total amount of bi-directional condensation under artificial water-retention layer conditions is slightly less than that in bare ground conditions, while the total amount of unidirectional condensation under artificial water-retention layer conditions is significantly higher, indicating that the artificial water-retention layer contributes to the absorption of water from near-surface air. Due to the presence of permafrost in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region, the zero-flux surface transport of evanescent heat in the salt-lake area of Hoh Xil lies approximately within 30 cm from the surface to the ground. The analogous humidity coefficient characterizes the condensate absorption capacity coefficient as the storage capacity of condensate in the surface layer of the soil in a certain area, providing strong evidence that the condensate absorption capacity is higher under the artificial water-retention layer conditions than in bare ground, regardless of whether the condensation is bi-directional or unidirectional. The results of this study can provide a theoretical basis for condensate absorption capacity and vegetation restoration in the bare ecologically degraded areas of the lake bottom.

Application of a mathematical model to an artificial aquifer under different recharge/discharge conditions using 222Rn as a tracer

Radon (222Rn), a radioactive gas of natural origin, was listed by the World Health Organization in 2009 as the second largest cause of lung cancer (3–14%) after tobacco. Global awareness of the importance of controlling its concentration in water led to the implementation of the European Directive 2013/51/Euratom, which establishes permitted levels in drinking water. This study applies a mathematical model to determine 222Rn concentration in water supplying an artificial aquifer over the full range of recharge/discharge conditions (volumes and times, and therefore flows). This was done by creating an artificial aquifer on a laboratory scale, which reproduces the recharges and discharges experienced by real aquifers through rainwater or groundwater. The equipment used in this study was an RTM 2100 with a specific system for continuous monitoring of 222Rn in water, a high-purity Ge detector for gamma spectrometry, and a portable liquid scintillation counter (LSC) called Triathler for specific measurements of 222Rn in water. The aim of this paper is to show the application of the mathematical model under different recharge/discharge conditions applied to the artificial aquifer. The concentration of 222Rn in water determined by the model can also be used as a tracer to find the origin and volume of water that reaches a real aquifer.

UTILIZATION OF MADE AQUIFERS TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF CLEAN WATER TO DRINKING WATER

The need for clean water quality has increased every year, especially in big cities in Indonesia. This is triggered by the high population growth which causes the need for clean water to be urgently needed. Lack of water catchment areas and green land exacerbates the amount of clean water. In addition, the cause of the decline in clean water quality is also influenced by the many negative activities carried out by humans, one of which is the activity of disposing of garbage in the river, reservoir / setu and drainage areas. The use of chemicals, namely Poly Aluminum Cholrid (PACPOWDER) in the processing of river water or river water requires high operational costs, which results in high costs for people who subscribe to PDAM. The filtering pattern of water can be done by referring to the soil layer in the form of an aquifer, so that the water that is not good can be filtered in the presence of an aquifer and can purify the water into drinking water. The use of artificial aquifers that have currently been carried out by the Ministry of Public Works is through rain, where through the filtration of rainwater containing acidic levels it can be neutralized through artificial aquifers into clean water and can be applied to areas of high drought levels.

Identifying potential sites for artificial groundwater recharge using GIS and AHP techniques: A case study of Erbil basin, Iraq

Excessive extraction, uncontrolled withdrawal of groundwater, and unregulated practices have caused severe depletion of groundwater resources in the Erbil basin, Iraq. This situation has had a number of negative consequences on human settlement, agricultural activities, clean water supply, and the environment. Runoff harvesting and artificial groundwater recharge play a significant role in the sustainable management of water resources, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. This study aims to: (1) delineate groundwater recharge zones using multiple thematic layers that control the groundwater recharge process, and (2) identify prospective sites and structures to perform artificial groundwater recharge. In order to generate a potential map for groundwater recharge zones, seven thematic layers are considered in this study, namely, topographic position index, geomorphology, lithology, land cover, slope, drainage-length density, and lineament-length density. After that, the analytic hierarchy process was applied to weight, rank, and reclassify these seven thematic layers. All maps are then integrated within the ArcGIS environment for delineating groundwater recharge zones. Accordingly, the resulting map categorizes the study area into five zones: extremely high, high, moderate, low, and extremely low potential for groundwater recharge. As expected, areas along the Greater Zab river show the highest possibility for groundwater recharge. Likewise, rugged eastern hills demonstrate an encouraging capacity for artificial aquifer recharge, whereas the least effective area is represented by built-up land. Based on the generated map, two dams are proposed as promising artificial recharge structures for harvesting runoff water east of Erbil city. Lastly, the resulting map of the potential groundwater recharge zones is verified using static water level data, where the coefficient of determination (R2) achieved a satisfactory result (0.73). These findings provide crucial evidence for implementing a sustainable management plan of surface and groundwater resources. The applied method is eventually valid for regions where appropriate and adequate field data availability is a serious issue.

Challenges for groundwater-irrigated agriculture and management opportunities in Punjab province of Pakistan

Pakistan has one of the world’s largest contiguous irrigation canal networks which was initiated by the British during the early nineteenth century, and its continuous expansion significantly altered the hydrological balance of the Indus River Basin (IRB) in Pakistan. During the pre-irrigation era, the water table in the IRB was very deep which rose up with the introduction of canal network. Seepage from the earthen canals caused the dual menace of waterlogging and salinity and different Salinity Control and Reclamation Projects (SCARPs) were implemented. With the growing food and fiber requirements, use of groundwater increased over the time. Currently, in Punjab province groundwater is contributing about 45-50% towards irrigation through 1.2 million tube-wells, putting the aquifer under stress. As water table deepens, the cost of extraction increases. Besides its use for irrigation, groundwater is used for drinking, industrial and commercial requirements. In many areas, the unplanned and over-pumping has caused intrusion of saline water into fresh groundwater areas. This paper describes the historical development and current challenges for sustainable use and management of groundwater. Some initiatives by the Government are described, with available opportunities. A new research project that considers the potential of artificial aquifer recharge as part of the management has also been discussed.

Comparison among variation models of the hydraulic conductivity with the effective porosity in confined aquifer

This paper presents the experimental investigation results from the modalities of variation of the hydraulic conductivity scaling law for a confined aquifer, varying the porous medium that constitutes it. In four subsequent stages, different confined aquifers were built up, each with a different typological configuration of a porous medium. For each of the aquifers considered, various hydraulic conductivity (K) measurements were performed by slug tests. The effective porosity (ne ) was set as a scale parameter, therefore the scaling laws K = K(ne), already determined and reported in previous studies, were taken into consideration for each of the four artificial aquifers considered. The same variation law of K vs ne was also determined by means of some of the well-known empirical and semi-empirical relationships. The latter are based on the particle size distribution and are suitable for application to the porous media considered here, which can be classified as coarse sand. The comparison between the different scaling laws mentioned above allowed us to discuss, through graphical analysis, the reliability of the models considered here. This will facilitate researchers and practitioners working in the field, in the methodological choice of the most appropriate model that should be used for this type of porous media.

Geoecological and economic assessment of the municipal solid waste management system in the Kaluga region

The removal of solid household waste to landfills is the most commonly used method of solid waste disposal and an important source of environmental pollution. Physical, chemical and biochemical processes occur in the body of a solid waste dump, which overlap each other and form an artificial aquifer and biogas. This article provides a brief overview of the environmental problems associated with the practice of garbage disposal and the negative impact of the landfill on the environment. The data on the features of the functioning of the solid waste landfill in Kaluga, on the dynamics of waste generation and changes in their morphological composition are presented. The issues related to the economic problems of waste disposal are considered.