Managed Aquifer Recharge as an Adaptation Strategy to Climatic and Hydrological Extremes

Climatic and hydrological extremes increasingly pose a challenge to the successful management of water resources in the Lower Spree catchment in Brandenburg Germany, near Berlin. To increase the resilience to such extremes this study explores managed aquifer recharge (MAR) as a potential management strategy to address these challenges.  In this study we present the development and calibration of a high-resolution (approximately 2.65 million active model cells) groundwater model (MODFLOW)  in a complex geological setting, an assessment of MAR source water availability, identification of optimal recharge locations through a multicriteria site selection process, and preliminary results of an optimized recharge scheme based on a multi-objective optimization. The findings provide a decision support tool that stakeholders can utilize to evaluate MAR as part of an integrated water resources management strategy.