A feasibility screen, funded by the European Union through a COST Action research mission, for using offshore freshened groundwater as a new coastal water source. TDS built a GIS multi-criteria potentiality map that combines onshore and offshore hydrogeology, faults, drainage, seabed geology and bathymetry with environmental and land-use constraints (protected areas, archaeology, ports, airport, tourism), then characterised the hydro-stratigraphy, groundwater levels, hydrochemistry and submarine groundwater discharge of the selected corridor. Exploitable volumes and salinity were estimated for a shallow sedimentary and a deeper karst aquifer scenario using Mediterranean analogues and a sensitivity analysis, abstraction by subsea wells and horizontal directional drilling from shore were compared, and the desalination business case was assessed on energy consumption with an uncertainty (tornado) analysis.
Aquifer Storage and Recovery Feasibility and Simulation
North of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
A feasibility study for storing water in a deep sandstone aquifer and recovering it when needed. TDS mapped salinity across the aquifer with hydrochemistry and isotopes.
