DHI Water & Environment has been awarded a research grant from the Danish Strategic Research Council on optimisation of real-time management of groundwater resources. The project will run over the next four years and will be carried out in collaboration with Danish universities, water supply industry, consultancy companies, and end-users.
To date, optimisation in groundwater management has mainly focused on design problems, including groundwater quality control and remediation. In this project real-time, adaptive optimisation and control is being addressed, which allows for interactive management of the water resources, providing the ability to respond before the groundwater becomes contaminated.
Operation and management problems to be specifically addressed by the proposed real-time, adaptive optimisation and control system include:
- Optimisation of pump scheduling to reduce energy consumption, hence providing an economic benefit (reduction of operation costs) as well as an associated environmental benefit.
- Optimisation of pump scheduling and mixing of water from different wells to improve the water quality. This will result in a reduction of the use of chemicals, active carbon etc. for water treatment and reduce operational problems caused by contaminated drinking water.
- Optimisation of water withdrawal to reduce the environmental impacts on surface water (rivers, lakes, and wetland areas) and groundwater bodies.
- Monitoring of water quality and quantity changes, allowing managers to respond quickly, thereby reducing the risk of well-field and water supply contamination.
- Optimisation of performance of pumping systems considering renovation of installed components and changing of operation.
- Optimisation of water resources management within water districts and larger regions by combined management of several well-fields to provide a sustainable utilisation of the groundwater resources.