A thorough understanding of the hydrologic mechanisms that control the movement of water through the soil is essential for developing effective stormwater management strategies. Infiltration is ...critical for determining the amount of water entering the soil and controlling surface runoff. Spatial and temporal variations in soil properties strongly affect infiltration rates, which underscores the importance of evaluating field-specific values for hydraulic conductivity, which are also highly dependent on the chosen measurement and evaluation methods. The objective of this study is to determine and compare soil hydraulic conductivity under dry conditions using two field measurement techniques, namely the double-ring infiltrometer (DRI) and the mini-disk infiltrometer (MDI). The results demonstrate the importance of performing multiple replicates of infiltration tests, especially during the dry season, as the initial dry surface caused deviations in hydraulic conductivity estimates for both methods used (DRI and MDI). Significant spatial variability was observed within the radius of the test replicates over short distances (<1 m). In addition, experimental infiltration curves for a selected site were used to evaluate and compare soil hydraulic parameters through infiltration modeling. In general, the Philip, Green-Ampt, and Smith-Parlange theoretical models showed a better fit to the experimental DRI data than the semi-empirical Horton model.
Waste management in Europe has improved in recent years, reducing the amount of waste disposed at landfills. However, there are still many landfills in the countries. It is well known that landfills ...that do not have measures in place to control leachate entering groundwater can contaminate groundwater long after the landfill is closed. Collecting monitoring results from all landfills allows permitting and management agencies to improve action plans. This relies on a synoptic risk assessment that allows prioritization and milestones to be set for required actions. The developed method of synoptic risk assessment is based on a conceptual model of the landfill and the results of chemical groundwater monitoring tested at 69 landfills in Slovenia. The study confirms that most landfills have a direct or indirect impact on groundwater quality. All landfills were classified into three priority classes on the basis of the synoptic risk assessment. The results show that a total of 24 landfills have a clearly pronounced impact on groundwater. A total of 31 landfills have a less pronounced impact due to the favorable natural attenuation capacity of the soil or the technically appropriate design of the landfill itself. A total of 14 landfills have a less pronounced or negligible impact on groundwater.
The assurance of drinking water supply is one of the biggest emerging global challenges, especially in urban areas. In this respect, groundwater and its management in the urban environment are ...gaining importance. This paper presents the modeling of nitrogen load from the leaky sewer system and from agriculture and the impact of this pressure on the groundwater quality (nitrate concentration) in the urban aquifer located beneath the City of Ljubljana. The estimated total nitrogen load in the model area of 58 km2 is 334 ton/year, 38% arising from the leaky sewer system and 62% from agriculture. This load was used as input into the groundwater solute transport model to simulate the distribution of nitrate concentration in the aquifer. The modeled nitrate concentrations at the observation locations were found to be on average slightly lower (2.7 mg/L) than observed, and in general reflected the observed contamination pattern. The ability of the presented model to relate and quantify the impact of pressures from different contamination sources on groundwater quality can be beneficially used for the planning and optimization of groundwater management measures for the improvement of groundwater quality.
I sistemi a pompa di calore che utilizzano la geotermia di bassa profondità (altrimenti nota come a “bassa entalpia”) per il riscaldamento ed il raffrescamento degli edifici rappresentano una ...tecnologia efficiente e vantaggiosa che può contribuire significativamente alla riduzione delle emissioni di gas serra. Nonostante le bassissime emissioni e i costi energetici significativamente ridotti rispetto all’impiego di combustibili fossili, la diffusione dei sistemi che sfruttano l’energia geotermica a bassa entalpia (profondità generalmente comprese tra i 30 e i 150 m dal piano campagna), è ancora limitata da molteplici fattori. In questo ambito, gli amministratori del territorio esercitano un ruolo chiave in quanto, attraverso la predisposizione di strumenti di vario tipo (informativi, normativi e tecnici), essi possono imprimere un impulso importante allo sviluppo dei sistemi geotermici di bassa profondità, ampliando così il ventaglio di tecnologie attualmente disponibili per lo sfruttamento delle fonti energetiche rinnovabili ...
The Alpine regions are deeply involved in the challenge set by climate change, which is a threat for their environment and for important economic activities such as tourism. The heating and cooling ...of buildings account for a major share of the total primary energy consumption in Europe, and hence the energy policies should focus on this sector to achieve the greenhouse gas reduction targets set by international agreements. Geothermal heat pump is one of the least carbon-intensive technologies for the heating and cooling of buildings. It exploits the heat stored within the ground, a local renewable energy source which is widely available across the Alpine territory. Nevertheless, it has been little considered by European policies and cooperation projects. GRETA (near-surface Geothermal REsources in the Territory of the Alpine space) is a cooperation project funded by the EU INTERREG-Alpine Space program, aiming at demonstrating the potential of shallow geothermal energy and to foster its integration into energy planning instruments. It started in December 2015 and will last three years, involving 12 partners from Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia. In this paper, the project is presented, along with the results of the first year of work.
The economic viability of Borehole Heat Exchangers (BHEs) depends on the ability of the ground to exchange heat, and maps of the shallow geothermal potential are therefore useful planning tools for ...future installations. In this work, we present the assessment of shallow geothermal potential in Cerkno, a mountain town of 5,000 inhabitants in western Slovenia. The recently developed G.POT method was applied, taking into account site-specific ground thermal parameters and usage profiles depending on climate conditions. This work is part of the EU-funded project GRETA, aiming at supporting the diffusion of GSHPs in the Alpine territory.
This paper investigates depletion rates and available thermal water resources of the transboundary Upper Pannonian loose sandstone geothermal aquifer of the Mura Formation in the Mura-Zala ...sedimentary basin in north-eastern Slovenia, and outlines a regional reinjection strategy to mitigate depletion. The research monitoring network of 12 geothermal wells, which is being constantly upgraded since 2009, has highlighted that the current abstraction rate of 2.4 million m
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in 2014 is not sustainable because hydraulic state has been continuously deteriorating regionally while the chemical state is affected only locally. The average regional drawdown rate in observation wells is 0.67 m annually, while very rough average value for abstraction wells is 3.0 m per year. The cumulative historical regional drawdown is above 16 m. The available thermal water resources are addressed as the cumulative abstraction rate which reverses the observed declining trend of groundwater levels, and were numerically assessed to be ~1.3 million m
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of thermal water per year. These numerical models set up in the AUTOUGH2 code also provided the quantification tool of the regional groundwater balance and confirmed the gravity-driven regional groundwater flow with prevailing conductive heat transfer mechanism. Simulations of the regional reinjection strategy outline that the cumulative reinjection rate of ~1.48 million m
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of thermal water per year should be sufficient to reach good status of the aquifer if the cumulative regional abstraction rate does not change. If it does, the rate should be adjusted accordingly. The water is provided by eight users of geothermal heat and should be returned by the existing reinjection wells in Lendava and Murska Sobota and two new wells situated in the central part of the basin by 2021 the latest. These findings should enhance optimization of exploitation practice and implementation of geothermal doublets in the region as the successful example of a doublet in Lendava exemplifies that no major technological issues should occur if the system is properly designed.
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