INOWAS

The INOWAS is a free, web-based modelling platform for planning, assessment and optimization of Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR), a nature-inspired solution that aims at intentionally recharging the aquifers for later use or environmental benefits. This platform is comprised of a set of tools for finding the optimal location for MAR schemes, assessing parameters for optimal design and operational management and quantifying the expected impacts of MAR implementation. It contains a compilation of algorithms of varying complexity to solve empirical, analytical and numerical equations, running on a web server that can be accessed via standard web browsers. It is a non-operating system dependent solution that was primarily developed as a decision support system (DSS) for groundwater management applications using web-based technologies, supported by geographical information systems functionalities and conducting cloud-based simulations. Its open-source nature allows for easy implementation and dissemination. It has finite-difference MODFLOW numerical modelling and is currently being upgraded with real-time in-situ monitoring data gathering and analysis capabilities to feed and calibrate the groundwater models. The main goal is to bring real-time responsive modelling procedures and decision making together for the improvement of integrated water resources.

Responsible entity

The INOWAS platform was developed within Dresden Technical University (TUD), by the Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) Junior Research Group – the INOWAS Group (Fig. 1). This is a research unit under the Department of Hydrosciences of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences at TUD.

INOWAS Group is founded on two main pillars: an experimental pillar to understand the processes occurring during MAR and their variability caused by climate change, urbanization and population growth and an instrumental pillar for the development of MAR simulation tools with a focus on scenarios analysis.

The INOWAS team is composed of 18 persons from 12 different countries and has been continuously engaged in international networking since its creation in 2014. Among the contacts established, INOWAS, has active networking with international associations such as IAH, UNESCO Institute for Water Education or the Australian CSIRO. The group also contributes with lectures to various study courses such as “Hydroscience and Engineering” and “Groundwater and Global Change – Impacts and Adaptation” and has promoted a series of international summer schools since 2016.

The group is currently led by Catalin Stefan. and is responsible for the development of the first global inventory of MAR applications in 2015 (Stefan and Ansems, 2018). This survey covered 62 countries and collected information about 1200 case studies concerning historical development, site characterization, operational scheme, objectives and methods used, as well as quantitative and qualitative characterization of in- and outflow of water. This robust database is currently available in UNESCO International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre’s web map tool.

Detailed explanation

The INOWAS group recognized that most decision support systems for water management are desktop-based, which represented a particular constrain in the and dissemination. The INOWAS platform is developed as an open-access web service where the whole workflow is managed directly in a web browser without the need to install additional plug-ins. This also allows for online multi-user collaboration between researchers and decision-makers bringing a global perspective to water resources management, simplifying communication and making information quickly available everywhere if needed. Users can work on private, public or shared tasks while the work progress is saved at any stage and can be resumed later.

The INOWAS platform includes the possibility to assemble groundwater finite-difference models based on MODFLOW and conduct the simulations calculations directly in the web browser, without the need to install any software. This possibility decreases compatibility issues related to operating systems, which are recurrent in desktop applications, and require no update procedures. While modelling, the workflow is saved at any time and can be continued later from another machine if necessary, using ongoing integration of cloud-based services (which will in the future allow for very complex numerical model simulations). The platform is structured as presented in Fig. 3.

The central place of the INOWAS platform is the Personal Dashboard which offers the user access to available tools and user-developed projects. The projects can be either saved as Private or Public (any registered user can access them) which allow for other users to view its content, clone it and further edit a copy of it. On this subject, INOWAS is currently developing the Shared projects in which a user can create a group to share a project by inviting other users and making it accessible and editable. In comparison with the Public option, all members of a group can work together on a single project.

Simulation tools are the strong point of the INOWAS platform. These are hierarchically organized in three types: (1) empirical (derived from data mining such as the global MAR applications inventory or a database for GIS-based MAR site suitability mapping); (2) analytical (based on simple equations for saltwater intrusion assessment, calculation of pumping-induced river drawdown or estimation of groundwater mounding beneath an infiltration basin); (3) numerical (MODFLOW-based simulations using numerical flow and transport models).

In the modelling procedures, the management and analysis of the user-friendly scenario allow for a flexible interpretation of results and future predictions. The set of numerical tools is composed of T20 real-time modelling, T03c variable-density flow (SEAWAT), T07 MODFLOW model scenario manager, T03b solute transport (MT3DMS) and T03 numerical groundwater modelling and optimization.

In its current state, access to the INOWAS platform is free for education and non-commercial purposes, being necessary for the user to create an account. It relies on a very robust set of open-source libraries and platforms (Fig. 4).

Evidence of benefits from implementation

Due to the nature of the platform presented no palpable benefits are presented. The tools that are comprised in the INOWAS platform were used to evaluate MAR feasibility in several locations (Glass et al. 2017a, Kwoyiga and Stefan, 2019) which resulted in a substantial amount of scientific and technical documentation. It can be concluded due to the present well-developed state of the platform that the foundational project was successfully completed. INOWAS group, through the platform, was successful in performing diagnostic analysis of aquifers, accessing MAR implementation schemes, helping to plan and optimize those schemes, promote sustainable water management, develop stakeholders’ capacities and academic training and most of all lay the path to improving the link between modelling and decision making. It was possible to promote MAR through the development of an integrated knowledge base with detailed descriptions and best-practice examples of most common MAR techniques; and demonstrate MAR benefits through the simulation of multiple management scenarios (Glass et al., 2017b).

Replication potential in SUDOE region

MAR methods showed as an important tool in integrated water resources management, particularly in water scarcity prone areas such as Mediterranean regions. It is therefore fundamental to develop models to evaluate those methods feasibility and prove them both economically and environmentally reliable, being the well documented and tested INOWAS platform an already proven stage for such procedures.