U2.08 Bradshaw 2016 ReNUWIt Annual Meeting Poster

Across arid and semi-arid regions like the western United States, groundwater reliability is at risk due to overdraft, reduced natural recharge due to urbanization, and changing precipitation patterns due to climate change. One strategy for augmenting groundwater supplies is managed aquifer recharge (MAR), in which water—often captured stormwater—is injected underground or is percolated through spreading basins. However, these projects are often planned ad hoc, without due consideration of how cost-effectiveness and recharged volumes can be enhanced using other innovative water sources, such as recycled water, to augment groundwater recharge. Growing water insecurity has increased interest in MAR with recycled water, but the lack of design and operational guidance for such systems is an impediment to adoption.

The primary goal of this research is to close this knowledge gap by developing systems-level decision-support tools that can be used to evaluate tradeoffs and strategies for connecting recycled water facilities to spreading basins. Once developed, these tools will be applied to a case study of Los Angeles to investigate how these systemized can be optimized.