Six sites, one question

From the Netherlands to the Western Cape, each site recharges an aquifer with a different kind of water, under a different climate, through a different system. Comparing them shows what holds everywhere and what depends on the place.

Six sites, from Lieshout to Cape Town

Each site recharges an aquifer with a different kind of water, in a different climate. Select a site on the map to read about it.

Map tiles and data from OpenStreetMap, loaded from openstreetmap.org when the map comes into view.

Compare the sites

The six case-study sites compared
Site	Country	Climate	Aquifer	MAR system	Expected contaminants
Lieshout-case	Netherlands	Temperate, increasing droughts, heavy rainfall	Shallow unconfined, sandy soils	Subsurface irrigation with treated industrial wastewater	Salts
GROW pilot, Kinrooi	Belgium	Temperate	Shallow unconfined; sandy, loamy and gravel layers	Subsurface irrigation with treated domestic wastewater	PFAS, Pharmaceuticals, Pesticides
Besòs river basin	Spain	Mediterranean, seasonal droughts	Alluvial, sandy	Direct injection	Pharmaceuticals, Pesticides
Llobregat river basin	Spain	Mediterranean, seasonal droughts	Alluvial, sandy, highly permeable	Infiltration basins	Pharmaceuticals, Pesticides
Wadi Khairat	Tunisia	Semi-arid, episodic floods	Shallow fractured and alluvial system	Check dams, recharge basins and injection wells	Pesticides, Trace metals
Atlantis & Cape Flats	South Africa	Winter rainfall, variable	Sandy coastal aquifers	Infiltration basins (Atlantis), planned injection (Cape Flats)	PFAS, Urban and industrial organics