Treasuring groundwater and reclaimed water for drought adaptation (TREASURE).

The concept of the project TREASURE is to minimize the effect of water scarcity under drought conditions by properly allocating groundwater and reclaimed water resources. Allocation will be determined by a sound hydrological knowledge of the system that will serve to test adaptation actions deriving from participated and inclusive governance activities. Artificial Intelligence (AI) models are proposed as promising tools to inform agents, stakeholders, and general citizenship on the actual state of the system and test the suitability of the proposed actions. Our goal is to evaluate the potential of groundwater and reclaimed water sources as management alternatives to minimize drought impacts on both human water supply and environmental functions. It intends to fully incorporate both water sources into the water cycle while considering the hydrological idiosyncrasy of each basin, their drought record (past and future) and their overall water needs, whether human or environmental, managed though a well-documented governance project. In this sense, it proposes drought management based on data-driven models (AI) that value these alternative water sources and interrelate all the aquatic compartments: rivers, aquifers, wetlands, plus treated wastewater resources while reducing the effects of droughts and increasing water security.

Funding agency:

Project PCI2024-153494 (Treasure); Funded by MCIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/EU and Cofunded by the European Union.