Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NINFA (TakiNg actIoN to prevent and mitigate pollution oF groundwAter bodies)
Reporting period: 2022-11-01 to 2024-04-30
The NINFA Platform will integrate a Decision Support System (DSS) for risk management, a Groundwater (GW) Knowledge Observatory, a data acquisition platform, and a social game app for citizen engagement. It will use data from global knowledge, real-time monitoring, hydrogeological and reactive-transport models, risk assessment models, and innovative water treatment technologies for pollution prevention and mitigation.
NINFA will be tested in 8 diverse case studies across the EU and internationally, covering different environments, climates, socio-economic contexts, and pollution and climate change challenges.
Key objectives of the NINFA project include:
1. Establishing a GW Knowledge Base integrated into a digital Observatory, including a Best Practices Handbook
2. Developing cost-efficient monitoring strategies with existing and innovative tools
3. Assessing GW pollution sources and pathways using validated models
4. Validating water treatment technologies for pollutant removal and resource recovery
5. Conducting risk assessments on pollutants and climate change effects
6. Demonstrating economic, environmental, and social impacts using LCC, LCA, and sLCA
7. Creating an early-warning DSS for GW pollution
8. Conducting GW balances to evaluate water quality and quantity under climate change scenarios
9. Engaging citizens through activities and a social game app
NINFA will be tested in 8 diverse case studies across the EU and internationally, covering different environments, climates, socio-economic contexts, and pollution and climate change challenges.
Key objectives of the NINFA project include:
1. Establishing a GW Knowledge Base integrated into a digital Observatory, including a Best Practices Handbook
2. Developing cost-efficient monitoring strategies with existing and innovative tools
3. Assessing GW pollution sources and pathways using validated models
4. Validating water treatment technologies for pollutant removal and resource recovery
5. Conducting risk assessments on pollutants and climate change effects
6. Demonstrating economic, environmental, and social impacts using LCC, LCA, and sLCA
7. Creating an early-warning DSS for GW pollution
8. Conducting GW balances to evaluate water quality and quantity under climate change scenarios
9. Engaging citizens through activities and a social game app
The 8 NINFA case studies (CS) were analyzed, considering climate, socio-economic aspects, hydrogeology, and groundwater quality. Specifications and requirements for piloting scenarios were outlined, as KPIs indentified for the entire project (an initial validation strategy for these KPIs was proposed). Complementary activities included a State-of-the-Art (SOTA) report on sensors and water treatment technologies, along with a review of crucial monitoring parameters. Additionally, a survey in Montaigu-Vendée (CS4-bis) assessed citizen acceptance of wastewater reuse. European and national legislation and guidelines on reclaimed water reuse were studied to identify potential parameters for characterizing treated water for reuse.
During this reporting period, a flow model was refined for CS1 using Vistas and laid the groundwork for CS2, with plans for further expansion. Regarding the sensor development, activities have been focused on performing bioassays on novel-sensors for detecting hydrophilic organic compounds and improving multisensory device optic-fiber sensors for measuring groundwater flow and salinity.
Laboratory experiments have been performed based on a thorough SOTA of technologies and analytical methods. Platinum Group Elements (PGE), Hydrocarbons, and Microplastics in urban runoff fractions have been characterized, and preliminary assays to assess their retention and elimination by the selected water treatments. Also, targeted Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) and Antibiotic Resistant Genes (ARGs) and Bacteria (ARBs) from CS4 have been selected, analytical protocols for their proper determination were developed and preliminary lab-scale experiments testing their elimination by the selected water treatments were performed. Lastly, an evaluation of Hydrochar from pig manure solid fraction as a soil amendment and treating the liquid fraction with membrane-assisted stripping (MAS) for nitrogen recovery.
Effects of climate and global changes on groundwater have been identified and prioritised, as adaptation and mitigation strategies for CS1. Work for CS2 is ongoing. Various AI techniques and simplified geohydrological models have been tested and flow charts on the negative effects of global changes on groundwater quality as well as a risk analysis, have been initiated to be able to create climatic projections on several scenarios.
Finally, all NINFA components and the software platform architecture have been drawn in a preliminary platform architecture for NINFA, including the DSS logic and CS2 scenarios, was created.
During this reporting period, a flow model was refined for CS1 using Vistas and laid the groundwork for CS2, with plans for further expansion. Regarding the sensor development, activities have been focused on performing bioassays on novel-sensors for detecting hydrophilic organic compounds and improving multisensory device optic-fiber sensors for measuring groundwater flow and salinity.
Laboratory experiments have been performed based on a thorough SOTA of technologies and analytical methods. Platinum Group Elements (PGE), Hydrocarbons, and Microplastics in urban runoff fractions have been characterized, and preliminary assays to assess their retention and elimination by the selected water treatments. Also, targeted Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) and Antibiotic Resistant Genes (ARGs) and Bacteria (ARBs) from CS4 have been selected, analytical protocols for their proper determination were developed and preliminary lab-scale experiments testing their elimination by the selected water treatments were performed. Lastly, an evaluation of Hydrochar from pig manure solid fraction as a soil amendment and treating the liquid fraction with membrane-assisted stripping (MAS) for nitrogen recovery.
Effects of climate and global changes on groundwater have been identified and prioritised, as adaptation and mitigation strategies for CS1. Work for CS2 is ongoing. Various AI techniques and simplified geohydrological models have been tested and flow charts on the negative effects of global changes on groundwater quality as well as a risk analysis, have been initiated to be able to create climatic projections on several scenarios.
Finally, all NINFA components and the software platform architecture have been drawn in a preliminary platform architecture for NINFA, including the DSS logic and CS2 scenarios, was created.
The work carried out so far helps NINFA advance beyond the SOTA in several areas: i) GW Flow Monitoring: Using fiber optics and HyGenTox Chip sensors for early in-situ pollution detection, followed by fast, reliable, and affordable chemical analysis of water samples from various sources. ii) Risk Assessment: Ensuring aquifer recharge with reclaimed water is environmentally safe, considering future scenarios like droughts, floods, sea level rise, and overexploitation, using robust AI methods to speed up risk assessment modeling. iii) Sustainable Solutions: Offering technologies to prevent groundwater pollution and promote safe water reuse locally (WWTP, city runoff, manure). This includes four technology trains (NBS and recycled materials) for urban and rural areas, optimized to eliminate hydrocarbons, CECs, and MPs, evaluate ARG fate, and recover valuable materials.
These technological developments performed under this first reporting period of NINFA are still under development, integration and validation phase, so for the moment, no exploitation activities have been yet performed. However, a first version of the Exploitation Plan was released drafting an overview of the results and envisioning the first steps to focus in the most promising ones. So far, several Key Exploitable Results (KER) have been identified:
• Technologies for metals recovery and pollutant removal from urban runoff
• Technologies to minimize nutrient and pesticide leaching in agriculture
• Integration of advanced oxidation processes (AOP) for water reuse in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP)
• Denitrifying woodchip bioreactors
• Analytical methods for contaminant quantification in GW
• Combined water flow and quality sensors
• Methodology for HyGenTox Chip bioassay
• Citizen engagement strategy and social gaming design
These technological developments performed under this first reporting period of NINFA are still under development, integration and validation phase, so for the moment, no exploitation activities have been yet performed. However, a first version of the Exploitation Plan was released drafting an overview of the results and envisioning the first steps to focus in the most promising ones. So far, several Key Exploitable Results (KER) have been identified:
• Technologies for metals recovery and pollutant removal from urban runoff
• Technologies to minimize nutrient and pesticide leaching in agriculture
• Integration of advanced oxidation processes (AOP) for water reuse in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP)
• Denitrifying woodchip bioreactors
• Analytical methods for contaminant quantification in GW
• Combined water flow and quality sensors
• Methodology for HyGenTox Chip bioassay
• Citizen engagement strategy and social gaming design