Activity

The project MARCLAIMED has the objective of integrating Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) with Alternative Water Resources (AWR) in river basin and drought management plans enhancing the structural supply systems for climate change adaptation and resilience. To reach a high replication potential, the results of MARCLAIMED will be implemented and validated at three demo sites in Southern and Western Europe, one of them in Alentejo, Portugal.

AGREEMAR proposes an improved and integrated management of water resources centred on optimizing the storage of water in the subsurface with the aim of increasing water security in the Mediterranean region. To reach this goal, the project will develop an integrated, participative and coordinated methodology to assess and map the feasibility of nature-based groundwater solutions such as managed aquifer recharge (MAR) for climate change adaptation in alignment with the IWRM principles.

Innovative project, in partnership with Energias De Portugal (EDP), with the aim of recording the pressures and monitoring the dissipation basin of the Foz Tua Hydroelectric Power Station (AHFT)

Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) – storing water in aquifers during times of excess – is a key strategy to enrich groundwater resources in water scarce regions by providing intermediate storage, addressing the typical mismatch between water demand and availability. It can help to mitigate the effects of climate change, and to support water-related environmental services. However, MAR is characterised by complex interaction of physical, biological and hydrochemical processes influencing water quality and the sustainability of infiltration rates. Individual processes are in principal known, but there is a significant knowledge gap on how they link and affect each other. In this project an in-depth understanding of their interplay will be studied - under Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (ITN) - to reach best MAR performance in terms of water storage, water polishing goals, infiltration rates, economic viability, and adaptation to climatic change.

Road runoff contains a wide range of pollutants generated by traffic, road materials and street furniture, as well as contributions from activities associated with road construction, operation and maintenance works. The processes underlying the build-up of pollutants on road surfaces and their subsequent wash-off are subject to multiple sources of variations. These must be viewed as stochastic phenomena as it is impossible or impractical to determine the exact process boundary conditions. Tools applying an understanding of pollutant sources, their mobilization and transport to the receiving surface and groundwater bodies of varying vulnerabilities must hence be viewed in a statistic – or risk assessment – context. In this project PROPER project will assess existing stochastic and risk based models and conceptual approaches that are applied to predict the pollution concentrations and loads in road runoff within a variety of contexts.

FlowRes is a project funded by the French Agency for Research (ANR - Agence Nationale de la Recherche). The objective of the project is to improve the flood hazard assessment (flow depths and velocities in floodplains) by: i) investigating in laboratory flumes the hydrodynamic processes associated with extreme flood flows for various flow rate magnitudes (T ranging from 100 to 1000 years) and various land occupations, and, notably, the FLOW RESistance, in the presence of meadows, trees and houses; and ii) assessing if the existing modeling practices that are used for T ~ 100 year are still valid to predict the floodplain flow for T > 1000year.

The main objective of MARSOL is to demonstrate that MAR (Managed Aquifer Recharge) is a sound, safe and sustainable strategy to storage the excess of water in aquifers to be recovered in times of shortage. This contributes to improve inter-annual water resources management, as well as to solve groundwater quality problems.Videos available for MARSOL demo site 2 Algarve, Portugal:

• Demo Site PT1 Campina de Faro Clogging test July 2014
• Demo Site PT2 Cerro do Bardo MAR test April 2016
• Demo Site PT2 SBMessines SAT basins 2016 17
• Demo Site PT3_Melides_Sandbox Model
  

This project aims to assess the effects of small instream structures on the migratory movements of Iberian cyprinid freshwater species, particularly their ability to negotiate distinct physical and hydraulic obstacles, as well as their seasonal and daily patterns of migration, to further develop mitigation measures for improving river connectivity in Portuguese rivers.

NetFluv project is structured in 2 large groups:

1. Fundamental research in hydrodynamics and mechanics of sediment transport;
2. Fundamental and applied research on floods, morphology and risk mitigation in rivers

SEDITRANS is a Multi-ITN (Multipartners Networks for Initial Training) under the Marie Curie Actions of the 7^th Framework Programme. The research theme is sediment transport in the fluvial, estuarine and coastal environment. SEDITRANS consists of six academic and four industrial partners and provides an elaborate and interdisciplinary training-through-research program to 12 early stage and 4 experienced researchers. It includes a comprehensive academic program, secondment at industrial partners, workshops, winter and summer schools, thematic conferences, production of guidelines and complementary activities. The Network is structured to help the coordination of research and educational activities in sediment transport in a European level and increase the European competitiveness in this important field of S&T.

The main objective of the COST Action TU1201 is to study urban Allotment Gardens and their relevance for urban sustainable development by creating a scientific platform at EU level.

NRE is developing its action focused in: (a) the analysis of the soil and water pollution risk in the city context; (b) the study of environmentally sustainable urban agriculture (including food security) within the wider urban water cycle.

G-Terra project, concluded in 2011, had the objective of analysing the origin and magnitude of pollutants in road runoff and to understand the relationships between these variables and specific road characteristics. The results achieved have been used to establish guidelines for improved road runoff management in Portugal, taking in account both national and European legislation, and with the aim of environmental protection – particularly of water resources.

The main objective of this project was to promote the scientific and technical cooperation between Europe and Asia in the domain of water resources management, with the objective of improving the quality and sustainability of water resources exploitation. The scientific activity was focused in five main themes: (1) watershed management, (2) water efficiency in agriculture, (3) floods and erosion, (4) pollution of water resources, (5) governance and strengthening synergies between knowledge and practical action in the field.

The main objective of ControlSed project was to evaluate the efficiency of using obstacles to control reservoir sedimentation due to turbidity currents. These obstacles can be built as submerged embankment dams that will block partially or totally the flow and cause the fine sediment to settle preventing the currents to deposit near intakes and outlets. The project included two different approaches: laboratorial experiments and numerical model development.

The main objectives of the project were the following: (1) identify alternative water sources and investigate the economic and environmental feasibility of its use in semi-arid regions, (2) research the potential of using aquifers as storage systems for alternative water sources, (3) to improve the knowledge concerning the different schemes and technologies of artificial recharge, including water quality monitoring and the possibility of natural depuration by attenuation and filtering.

The main objective of URBEM project was to provide new tools, techniques and procedures to enhance watercourses located in urban areas. These tools were designed to provide enough scope to cover the differing, multi-functional uses of urban watercourses and their adjacent communities across Europe. URBEM helped those involved in urban river rehabilitation, the best and most innovative practice with which to develop a comprehensive rehabilitation scheme that will achieve the "maximum ecological potential" requirements of the Water Framework Directive.

The main objectives of this project were the building of: (1) a knowledge base on estuary and watershed management, (2) a spatially-based decision support system backed by numerical modelling, set to give guidelines for recovery and sustainable development of these areas and ecosystems. For the development of these management tools a multidisciplinary and integrated management approach was used; the methodologies developed in this project have been implemented in three case-study areas.

HarmoniQuA was a project to carry out research, technological development and demonstration under the European Commission’s "Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development” program. It aimed to be a component of a future infrastructure for model based water management at catchment and river basin scale.

This project tried to extract the best of the existing guidelines and practices that were required for implementing the European Water Framework Directive. The domains covered the topics of surface water, groundwater, water quality, ecology and socio-economy for inland water, transition waters and estuaries. This body of knowledge was structured in a knowledge base in order to facilitate using and upgrading it. A software tool was developed integrating guidelines to help modellers, managers and auditors throughout a model based water management study. These guidelines are specific for the type of application (planning, design, operational management) and specific for the complexity of the task (basic, intermediate, and comprehensive).

The project analysed in which ways the social drivers – demographic, cultural, technological and market – interact with the natural systems and generate impacts in India’s coastal resources, with the objective of developing a measuring, monitoring and management system of the development of the coastal area which promotes the sustainable development of the coastal regions. The following was analysed: (a) the key variables affecting coastal resources and ecosystems, (b) the political choices of the decision-makers, (3) the information and decision tools’ requirements for an efficient management of coastal regions of Goa, Thane and Kakinada, India.

FLOCODS was an interdisciplinary long-term research project on the functioning of the Red River System in flood seasons, facing increasing degradation of the ecosystem and climate changes. Its overall objective was to develop a Decision Support System (DSS) in support of ecosystem upgrading and flood control with particular emphasis on the Red River System (RRS). The DSS provided decision-makers with an analytical tool to assess and evaluate ecosystem-upgrading and flood-control measures which fit into a sustainable use of natural resources in the Red River Basin, while reducing flood risks to an acceptable level and doing no harm to other interests. The end-users of the DSS were the Chinese and Vietnamese river authorities, for example, the Department of Flood Control and Dyke Management in Vietnam. Chinese end-users were contacted for testing and validating the DSS in the upper part of the Red River Basin.

The objective of the project was the development of methodologies for the suitable evaluation of groundwater resources, and methods for the quantitative evaluation of the aquifer’s intrinsic vulnerability to pollution, in order to minimize the environmental risks arising from a rapid economic growth. The project developed conceptual scientific tools, flow and pollutants transport mathematical modelling, aquifer’s pollution vulnerability mapping and the definition of guidelines for groundwater protection and sustainable exploitation.

The NATO Project was developed in the context of an integrated methodology for dam-break flood risk and safety management at downstream valleys and encompassed five sub-projects: Sub-project 1 (Hydraulic Analysis and Computational Simulations), developed new computational models for a better dam-break flood prediction and zoning; Sub-project 2 (Dam and Reservoir Safety Analysis) prepared design criteria for practical dam-break analysis, dam rupture scenarios, including initial hydrologic conditions, to satisfy dam safety legislation; Sub-project 3 (Land-use, Safety Management and Civil Protection) developed research studies related to the social impact of dam failure risk and downstream land-use and risk management; Sub-project 4 (Computer Aided-Decision Support System) implemented an advanced decision support system (DSS) to be used for dam-break flood safety management; Sub-project 5 (Experimental Integrated Emergency System and Training) had prepared the final specific products on the project including final field exercises and tests, the implementation of a crisis management system and the actions for training and dissemination of knowledge.

PROJECT NATO PO-WATERS "Methodologies for water resources policy analysis” aimed to the development of new methodologies for planning and management of water resources. New computing technologies for planning and management of water resources were developed and applied to the Ave river basin, where relevant water quality problems existed due to several industrial rejections. This case study was also challenging due to the lack of data to support the management activities. Besides the planning and management methodologies, from the project resulted the foundation of a Basin Management Committee as well as a technical support unit (the PGIRHN), formed by LNEC.

The main objective of this project was the identification of effective and sustainable management policies of surface- and groundwater resources, taking into account its relationships with food production and human health. The result of the project was the development of a methodology to design water pollution management policies, flexible enough to be applied to a wide range of situations and watersheds.

The main objective of this project was to promote the use of more sustainable crops and better farming practices which contribute to the reduction of groundwater quality degradation, taking into account their vulnerability to pollution. The project focused in the multidisciplinary and integrated analysis of the impact of farming practices on groundwater quality, with the goal of establishing more sustainable farming practices, as far as water quality protection is concerned.

The main objective of this study was to contribute to the analysis of forest fires’ impacts on quantity and quality of surface and groundwater resources, taking into account the burned areas’ land cover type and its impacts under distinct climatic, morphological, geological and hydrological conditions. The case study areas included burned areas in distinct periods and an unburned control area.

The objective of the project was the application of INSAR in detecting and characterising soil deformations due to soil subsidence in Lisbon Region, generated by unsustainable groundwater exploitation. MODFLOW was used to simulate the processes linked to groundwater abstraction/subsidence.

The objective of this project was the development of methodologies for the evaluation of groundwater resources in island and coastal regions under distinct climatological and hydrogeological conditions, as those found in Bijagos archipelago in Guiné-Bissau and coastal areas of Angola. Project’s framework was Brazilian and Portuguese (IPT & LNEC) hydrogeological knowledge transfer to the Angolan and Guinean partners with the goal of solving local problems.

The objective of this project was to promote the cooperation between research institutions focused on increasing knowledge on aquifer artificial recharge technologies (MAR) with alternative water sources, to develop the numerical modelling of groundwater integrated and sustainable management scenarios. The case-study area was the Korba-Mida aquifer in Cap Bon area, Tunisia, which has a saltwater intrusion problem due to groundwater overexploitation that is partially controlled by the use of MAR.

The use of bad quality water in irrigation, with high salts concentrations, is responsible for soil degradation (e.g. aggregates’ stability degradation, infiltration reduction, lowering the transitability of agricultural machinery) which in extreme cases leads to its total uselessness and ensuing agricultural production losses. The objective of this project was the demonstration and dissemination amongst farmers, agricultural technicians and other interested public, of crop-dependent practices and strategies to reduce soil salinization and achieve better nitrogen fertilization.

The objective of this project was to increase the capacity to solve problems due to water resources scarcity, water uses in agriculture, and industrial and urban pollution. This included the evaluation of water resources and the analysis of optimized management of its exploitation and protection. The project had a special focus on the improvement of water storage strategies using subsurface dams.

The main objective of the Action was to increase the knowledge required for improving the highway performance and minimising the leaching of contaminants from roads and traffic.

The aim of the Action can further be divided into the following four secondary objectives:

• to identify water movement and moisture conditions in unbound pavement layers and subgrade for different types of road constructions in various climatic conditions,
• to investigate the relationship between the mechanical behaviour of materials/soils and their hydraulic conductivity and moisture condition,
• to implement finite element modelling based on laboratory analysis and field studies in order to simulate water movement and moisture conditions in road construction,

to identify, investigate and control contaminants leaching from soils, natural aggregates and by-products.

Within the scope of the research line in Risk Management in Hydraulics and Environment, LNEC developed a study to assess the water stress of all sources of water for public supply under the responsibility of EPAL and AdVT (surface and underground), for consecutive periods of stipulated meteorological drought conditions.

The failure of dams and dikes cause loss of lives and severe property damage. In the context of climate changes and dam decommissioning, it is reckless not to invest on a new generation of experts on dam and dike breach risks and on a new generation of mathematical simulation tools.

In order to establish the conditions for exploitation and management of groundwater resources in four sedimentary basins located in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil (Betânia, with an area of 273 km², Mirandiba, 126 km², Carnaubeira da Penha, 88 km², and Cedro, 161 km² of main occurrence area within the state of Pernambuco), numerical groundwater flow models were developed for each of the basins, this being the main task under LNEC’s responsibility.

The present work was developed to the Albanian consultancy company SPHAERA sh.p.k and concerns the physical model study (scale 1:80) and the numerical modeling of spillways Nr.3 and Nr.4 of Fierza H/P, particularly the discharges from these spillways into the bottom area downstream of Fierza Dam, as well as a detailed analysis, regarding the impact in the downstream area.

If not properly addressed, urban floods will become more frequent as a result of the increased urbanization and due to the effects of the climate change. Therefore, the Lisbon City Council developed the General Drainage Plan (PGDL) with the main objective of reducing the impact of urban floods in the city. The plan comprises the construction of two deep tunnels that will capture the flow collected at the surface. For the connection between the drainage network and the tunnels, three vortex dropshafts will be constructed.

This study aims to analyze the quality of soil, groundwater and edible plant in urban gardens. Furthermore, it intends to determine their degree of potential contamination with the potential pressures identified in the surrounding urban environment (including pressure the city's activities in the gardens and the pressure resulting from own farming practices and / or accumulation of waste at the sites).

Hydraulic physical model studies are carried out with the main intent of analyzing general hydraulic operation conditions and characterizing the hydrodynamic actions on solid boundaries of spillways, outlets, water intakes and hydraulic circuits. Normally, by means of physical model studies it is possible to improve the geometry of the structures and achieve improved hydraulic performance or a similar performance but less costly solutions.

The general objective formulated is further detailed as follows:

1. Characterization of the skew angle effect on the equilibrium scour depth at complex piers;
2. Characterization of the effect of the relative sediment size on the flow field around single-column cylindrical piers;
3. Characterization of the flow field around complex piers;
4. CFD modelling of the flow field around single-column cylindrical piers and complex piers.

The achievement of the stated objectives requires the adoption of sophisticated experimental and numerical modelling approaches to be refined along the process.

This project is meant to frame research efforts in the broad topic of dam and levee breaching due to overtopping, involving research on hydraulics, erosion, deposition, and sediment transport, i.e. encompassing both hydrodynamic and geotechnical phenomena involved.

In particular, the project is aimed at i) advancing the state-of-the-art in the characterization of the hydrodynamic and geotechnical phenomena involved in the evolution of a breach caused by overtopping in earth dams and levees and ii) developing an integrated mathematical model, featuring geotechnical and hydrodynamic phenomena and a method of solution. As a corollary the results of the project will allow for a better understanding of the differences between dike and dam breaching, as these will be built in the numerical model for the deterministic simulation of breach evolution and the calculation of the outflow hydrograph.