Sowing Water in Monchique Mountain: A Multidisciplinary MAR Project for Climate Change Adaptation

Abstract

This paper presents the objectives and some results of SOWAMO project, which took place between 2014 and 2017 in the Monchique Mountain, Southern Portugal, a region prone to forest fires and desertification. Since Monchique’s population gets its water supply from groundwater, the main goal was to improve the system’s resilience to Climate Change through the construction and implementation of a spreading Managed Aquifer Recharge system. A hydrogeological characterization of the area was performed, including infiltration tests, falling head tests and numerical modelling. The results suggest that induced recharge can effectively mitigate the impacts of climate change in an economically sustainable way. In the case of this project, it is expected an improvement of groundwater flow in the dry season of up to 35%.