Members of the research team “Groundwater under human impact” (PhD student Krzysztof Janik and Dr Sławomir Sitek) in co-authorship with Dr Arno Rein (Technical University of Munich) published an article entitled “Towards efficient management of riverbank filtration sites: new insights on river–groundwater interactions from environmental tracers and high-resolution monitoring” in the prestigious journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS).
The publication presents a modern approach to managing riverbank filtration (RBF) sites – one of the key technologies for managed aquifer recharge (MAR).
Using the example of the Kępa Bogumiłowicka RBF site near Tarnów, which is an important source of drinking water for the region (almost 270,000 people), the authors showed that over 90% of the water abstracted by selected production wells comes from riverbank filtration (i.e. from the Dunajec River). The study used an integrated set of tools, including the analysis of environmental tracers such as stable water isotopes and chlorides, as well as high-resolution monitoring of selected water environment parameters. This made it possible to determine, among other things, the residence time of infiltration water in the aquifer and to propose a practical monitoring and management scheme for owners of such well fields.
The study is international in nature and sets the direction for the effective and sustainable management of groundwater resources exploited from shallow aquifers.
Reference: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-5893-2025
Note author: KJ
