Artificial recharge is the technique of relocating excess surface water underground to refill aquifers. Artificial recharge increases the level of water in underground storage, which has less environmental consequences than surface reservoirs and may lead to improved water quality.
Communities can conduct artificial recharging in a variety of ways. Surface spreading is the cheapest option, but it is also the most effective. The concept entails “spreading” water across huge surface features such as ponds, canals, or individual catch basins, as the name implies. It can naturally seep through the ground and into subsurface water supplies in certain places.
This simple but efficient strategy can only be used with shallow aquifers that fluctuate with the rise and fall of the water table (unconfined aquifers), not with deeper aquifers enclosed by geological features such as thick clay layers.
Using channels, pipelines, barriers, check dams, and other diversionary devices, surface water must be collected and routed to spreading/seepage zones. Surface spread is mostly determined by nature. Injection methods, such as recharge wells, are used in more aggressive recharge approaches to provide water rapidly and straight underground.
Traditional wells meant to extract water from subsurface storage are similar in concept to recharge wells. They have the ability to penetrate deep into the soil and transmit water to encased aquifers.
The water that is moved underground by the recharge wells is not susceptible to the evaporation losses that are frequent in surface spreading systems. The wells, on the other hand, are prone to clogging and, even when functioning well, are a more expensive and energy-intensive means of water storage and recovery than surface spreading systems.
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