Offshore Freshened Groundwater (OFG) represents a promising new frontier for hydrogeological investigations and water resource management strategies, that can help to address climate adaptation and water resilience of coastal regions. OFG refers to low-salinity groundwater stored within sediments beneath the seabed, and it has been acknowledged as an unconventional water resource by the UN-Water Task Force (2020). Despite being identified within the majority of passive continental margins worldwide, the investigation of this resource is challenging due to its limited accessibility and often limited data coverage.
The understanding of OFG potential as an unconventional water resource is of growing importance due to the critical conditions of many coastal areas worldwide in terms of water scarcity, quality, anthropogenic pressure and climate change. In order to properly understand and characterize OFG a multidisciplinary approach is needed, including geophysical surveys, drilling campaigns, stratigraphic and sedimentological analyses, geochemical analyses, numerical modeling of groundwater flow and solute transport, as well as the use of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and advanced remote sensing.
In this session, we invite contributions relating to different aspects of offshore freshened groundwater research, including (but not limited to) site specific case studies, geophysical surveys, characterization of the sedimentary architecture of the aquifer-bearing units, aquifer geometry and geological heterogeneity, as well as hydrogeological and stratigraphic numerical modeling. We also encourage presentations that address OFG detection, characterisation, and modelling, for both past emplacement, current status, future evolution and potential role in future water security. The goal is to foster an interdisciplinary discussion and advance the global understanding of offshore freshened groundwater systems.