WATER TALKS WITH IDAEA: CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS FOR GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT AND TREATMENT

On 5th April, the CWP together with the IDAEA-CSIC successfully held a Water Talks on challenges and solutions for the management and treatment of groundwater with the participation of over 100 attendees in person and online. Xavier Amores, director of the CWP together with Enric Vázquez, deputy director of the IDAE-CSIC, welcomed the participants to the conference.

Afterwards, a round table moderated by Sergi Compte, project manager of CWP, focused on the challenges and trends in the field of groundwater, with the participation of Mònica Ondiviela, from the Catalan Water Agency, Miquel Corredor, secretary of the Cubeta d’Abrera and JCUACC, Joan Solà, from the Junta Central d’Usuaris d’Aigües del Baix Ter and Josep Mas Pla, lecturer at the University of Girona.

In the second part of the day, solutions for the management and treatment of groundwater were presented. First Victor Matamoros, senior scientist at IDAEA-CSIC, presented the Lifespot project to eliminate pollutants by means of microalgae-based photobioreactors. Next, Jordi Roca, project manager of HYDS, presented the AguAlears project, which has developed an AI-ML-based solution for water abstraction, co-funded by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism and in which Amphos 21, Aigües del Prat and CWP are participating. Next, Sandra Pérez, researcher at IDAEA-CSIC, spoke about the presence and the fate of organic pollutants in groundwater. Ester Vilanova, project manager at Amphos 21, presented how to use Artificial Intelligence to address challenges in water management. Enric Vázquez, Deputy Director of IDAEA-CSIC, spoke about tools and data science in groundwater management. Finally, Vinyet Solà, Head of Quality of the Technical Department of CUADLL, presented the Aquifer Sudoe project of innovative instruments for integrated groundwater management.