Global climate change, land degradation, and biodiversity loss increasingly threatening groundwater recharge, availability, and quality. Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) and ecosystem restoration offer complementary pathways to enhance groundwater sustainability and resilience under current and future climate conditions.
MAR has emerged as a key adaptation strategy to reinforce sustainable groundwater management by maintaining water storage, improving water quality, supporting groundwater-dependent ecosystems, counteracting land subsidence and salinization, and creating hydraulic barriers against seawater intrusion or contaminant migration. At the same time, ecosystem restoration measures can improve soil structure, reduce sediment and pollutant loads, enhance infiltration, and promote natural groundwater replenishment while delivering co-benefits for biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and ecosystem services.
For both MAR and restoration-based recharge enhancement to achieve long-term sustainability, it is essential to adapt approaches to local hydrogeological, climatic, ecological, and socio-economic conditions, supported by robust monitoring, modelling, and evaluation frameworks. This joint session aims to highlight advances, applications, and lessons learned at the interface of engineered and nature-based solutions for sustainable groundwater management under climate change.
We welcome contributions focusing on:
• Ecosystem restoration interventions that enhance groundwater recharge, such as soil restoration, erosion control, river, floodplain, and wetland rehabilitation.
• Impacts of restoration measures on groundwater quantity, chemical and microbiological quality, and groundwater safety.
• Environmental and ecosystem co-benefits of restoration.
• Innovations in MAR methods.
• Case studies and lessons learned from MAR schemes in different hydrogeological and climate settings.
• MAR and water quality issues, including impacts on groundwater quality, treatment system effectiveness, and clogging challenges.
• Monitoring, modelling, and assessment approaches for evaluating recharge, water quality, and long-term sustainability.
• Socio-hydrological, governance, and economic aspects, including cost-effectiveness and decision-support tools.
This joint session merges the former sessions HS8.1.3 Sustainable water management with managed aquifer recharge (MAR) and HS8.1.7 Ecosystem restoration for aquifer recharge, groundwater quality, and climate resilience.