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Most underground constructions, which are needed to improve mobility and increase available space in urban areas, require excavations that are usually deeper than the water table (e.g., for the construction of stations or underground parking lots). A frequently used technique to develop excavations under these conditions consists in combining the cut-and-cover method with a dewatering system based on deep pumping wells. Retaining walls used for the cut-and-cover method allow excavating between vertical walls and minimizes the inflow of groundwater, while deep pumping wells provide dry and stable conditions. Despite this technique is widely used, some aspects related with the presence of groundwater must be considered to avoid accidents. Dewatering systems must be properly designed to guarantee suitable conditions and to minimize the pumping settlements outside of the working area. In addition, it is required to assess the presence of defects in the retaining walls because the flow of groundwater through them may entail negative consequences. This chapter explains procedures (i) to design efficient dewatering systems considering the working conditions, the stability and the impacts generated in the vicinity of the construction, and (ii) to evaluate the state of the retaining walls by using hydrogeological tools.

Groundwater is a vital resource for the development of urban areas, where the problem focuses on the quantity and on the quality of this freshwater resource. Barcelona is a good example as because currently groundwater is used for irrigation of parks and gardens and street cleaning due to its poor quality as drinking water source. Among the pollutants found in groundwater, of special interest are contaminants of emerging concern (CEC), as they pose a high risk to the aquatic environment and human health. The behaviour, spatial distribution and processes that control them in the aquatic environment are still uncertain and most of them are unregulated. In this paper we study the inputs and processes controlling the hydrochemistry of Barcelona urban groundwater with special emphasis on the CEC. We selected 29 CEC that were detected at high concentrations of up to 1 μg L-1 (e.g. gemfibrozil, benzotriazole, among others). Towards the higher zones we identify groundwater with relative low mineralization more proximate to the natural recharge composition, while towards the urban area the anthropic inputs are evident (e.g. nitrate concentrations range from 50 to 200 mg L-1). Near the Besos river there is a clear contribution from this superficial water highly polluted, mostly from wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) discharges, and reducing conditions. The main contributor of CEC pollution in groundwater was the river-aquifer interaction (Besos river), while towards the urban area it might come from sewage seepage and probably a minor input from urban runoff. The redox state of these waters seems to control the fate and occurrence of several of these CEC. The limitations of this study are restricted to a single sampling campaign, therefore these results should be corroborated with other sampling campaigns, including the seasonal variations, which would allow establishing more robust conclusions., This research has been supported by the European Commission, the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) and Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) through a collaborative international consortium (URBANWAT project), and the Ministry of Science through the UNBIASED project (Ref: RTI2018-097346-B-I00). We acknowledge support of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI).

Urban aquifers are a valuable resource of freshwater for cities, however, their quality is degraded due to the presence of organic contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). The effects of organic CECs are largely unknown, but there is evidence that they pose a risk for human health, soil, plants and animals. Organic CECs are naturally degraded in aquifers and their degradation rates depend on the physico-chemical properties, i.e., redox conditions and groundwater temperature. Some anthropogenic activities, like low-enthalpy geothermal energy (LEGE), may modify subsurface physico-chemical conditions altering the behaviour of organic CECs. LEGE is a renewable and carbon-free energy that allows obtaining cooling and heating energy. The utilization of LEGE is currently growing and it is expected that in a near future the density of LEGE systems will increase. LEGE modifies the groundwater temperature and in some situations the redox state (i.e., if the dissolved oxygen increases when groundwater is returned to the aquifer as a result of a poorly design), thus, it is of paramount importance to determine the impact of LEGE related activities on the behaviour of organic CECs. The behaviour of organic CECs under the influence of LEGE is investigated by means of thermo-hydro-chemical numerical modelling. Simulation output shows that LEGE activities have the potential to modify the degradation rates of organic CECs, and thus, their concentrations in aquifers. In the simulated scenario, the concentration of the chosen CEC decreases by the 77 % at the downgradient boundary of the model. The results of this study have significant implications for predicting the behaviour of organic CECs in urban aquifers and suggest specific changes in the design of LEGE facilities aiming to improve the quality of urban groundwater by boosting in-situ attenuation mechanisms., This research has been supported by the Barcelona city council through the Award for Scientific Research into Urban Challenges in the City of Barcelona 2020 (20S08708) and by the grants PID2021-128995OA-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033T and FEDER “one way to make Europe”, CEX2018-000794-S funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and RYC2020-029225-I funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and “ESF Investing in your future”.​​​​​​​ We acknowledge support of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI).

Due to the fast urbanization and climate change, urban aquifers are considered as a strategic source of potable water. However, a potential limitation is the presence of contaminants, such as pharmaceuticals, which might deteriorate groundwater quality. This work investigated the occurrence of pharmaceuticals and evaluated their human health risk in an alluvial urban aquifer recharged by a polluted river that receives discharges from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). To this end, river and groundwater samples were collected from February to May 2021 for the analysis of 92 pharmaceuticals using a solid-phase extraction and a highpressure liquid chromatography coupled to a high resolution mass spectrometric methodology (HPLC-HRMS). Results showed that 35 pharmaceuticals, including 6 transformation products (TPs), were detected in all groundwater samples and the range of concentrations was from the low ng L-1 to 44.5 μg L-1. Moreover, the concentrations of some substances decreased along the flow path during bank filtration, suggesting the occurrence of natural attenuation processes (e.g., adsorption or oxidation-reduction). Finally, most of the measured substances did not pose a risk to human health since estimated risk quotients were low., This research has been supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (grant no. CEX2018-000794-S). We acknowledge support of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI).

Trabajo presentado en la EGU General Assembly 2022 , celebrada en Viena (Austria), del 22 al 27 de mayo de 2022., Pressure over water resources is increasing rapidly as a result of climate change and growing population. In this context, urban aquifers emerge as a valuable resource of fresh-water for cities. However, the quality of urban groundwater is degraded due to the presence of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) that reach continuously urban aquifers from different recharge sources. The effects of CECs are largely unknown, but it is expected that they pose a risk for human health, soil, plants and animals. CECs are naturally degraded in aquifers and their degradation rates depend on the physico-chemical conditions (i.e., redox conditions and water temperature) of the groundwater, which may vary as a result of anthropogenic activities. Therefore, it is needed to establish the impact of anthropogenic activities on CECs to determine their behaviour under modified and variable physico-chemical conditions and allow the safely use of urban groundwater. One of these anthropogenic activities that potentially modify the physico-chemical conditions is the use of the subsurface to obtain cooling and heating energy through low-enthalpy geothermal energy (LEGE) systems. LEGE is a renewable and carbon-free energy whose utilization is currently growing. Thus, it is expected that in a near future the density of LEGE systems will increase over most cities. Then, our objective is to determine the impact of LEGE systems on the behaviour of CECs. We have investigated the behaviour of CECs under the influence of LEGE by means of numerical models and considering different representative scenarios. The results show that the physico-chemical variations induced by LEGE systems modify notably the degradation rates of CECs, and thus, their concentrations on the downgradient side. Our results have significant implications for predicting the behaviour of CECs in urban aquifers and suggest the possibility of specifically design LEGE systems to improve in a passive way the quality of urban groundwater by eliminating CECs.

Aquifers under agricultural areas are considered to be an indirect source of nitrous oxide emission (N2O) to the atmosphere, which is the greenhouse gas (GHGs) characterized with the highest global warning potential and acts as a stratospheric ozone depletion agent. Previous investigations performed in the Cretaceous Hesbaye chalk aquifer in Eastern Belgium suggested that the dynamics of N2O in the aquifer is controlled by overlapping biochemical processes such as nitrification and denitrification. The current study aims to obtain better insight concerning the factors controlling the distribution of N2O concentration along a vertical dimension in the aquifer, and to capture and quantify the occurrence of nitrification and denitrification processes in the groundwater system. Low-flow groundwater sampling technique was undertaken at different depths in the aquifer to collect groundwater samples aiming at obtaining information about ambient aquifer hydrogeochemical conditions and their effect on the accumulation of GHGs. Afterwards, laboratory stable isotope experiments, using NO3- and NH4+ compounds labeled with heavy 15N isotope, were applied to quantify the rates of nitrification and denitrification processes. Ambient studies suggest that the occurrence of N transformation was related to denitrification while laboratory incubation experiments did not detect it. Such controversial results might be explained by the discrepancy between real aquifer conditions and lab design studies. Thus, additional in situ tracer experiments should be carried out in areas where natural groundwater fluxes do not flush the injected tracer too rapidly. In addition, it would be useful to conduct microbiological studies to obtain better insight into the nature of subsurface biofilm biotope., This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 675120. Los Gatos Research OA-ICOS was funded by the Fonds National de la Rechecherche Scientifique (FNRS) (22547486). AVB is a Research Director at the FNRS.

AkvaGIS is a novel, free and open source module included in the FREEWAT plugin for QGIS that supplies a standardized and easy-to-use workflow for the storage, management, visualization and analysis of hydrochemical and hydrogeological data. The main application is devised to simplify the characterization of groundwater bodies for the purpose of building rigorous and data-based environmental conceptual models (as required in Europe by the Water Framework Directive). For data-based groundwater management, AkvaGIS can be used to prepare input files for most groundwater flow numerical models in all of the available formats in QGIS. AkvaGIS is applied in the Walloon Region (Belgium) to demonstrate its functionalities. The results support a better understanding of the hydrochemical relationship among aquifers in the region and can be used as a baseline for the development of new analyses, e.g., further delineation of nitrate vulnerable zones and management of the monitoring network to control chemical spatial and temporal evolution. AkvaGIS can be expanded and adapted for further environmental applications as the FREEWAT community grows. © 2018 The Authors, Funding text This paper is presented within the framework of the project FREEWAT , which received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement n. 642224 . R. Criollo thanks the financial support from the Catalan Industrial Doctorates Plan of the Secretariat for Universities and Research , Ministry of Economy and Knowledge of the Generalitat de Catalunya . A. Jurado and E. Pujades gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the University of Liège and the EU through the Marie Curie BeIPD-COFUND postdoctoral fellowship programme (2015–2017 and 2014–2016 fellows from FP7-MSCA-COFUND , 600405 ).

Water scarcity periods will increase in frequency and magnitude in the near future, especially in Mediterranean regions, and proper groundwater management has been recognized as a key issue to mitigate possible impacts. In this context, numerical models acquire a special relevance to quantify the availability of water resources and predict their behavior under changing climate conditions. This work shows the procedure followed to model a mountainous fractured aquifer located in the northern Apennines (Italy) using an open source code. This aquifer feeds springs with an average discharge of about 96.8 L/s. Even though they are not exploited at the moment, these springs might represent a relevant resource of freshwater for public water supply and are essential for ecosystem sustainment. The main limitation faced to model the aquifer in a realistic way is the lack of data, which hinders the calibration of the model. A nonconventional procedure was followed to obtain information on the hydraulic parameters. The hydraulic conductivity is computed from a steady-state calibration for which a limited number of groundwater head observations are available, whilst information concerning the storage coefficient is obtained analytically from the spring discharge recession curve. Finally, the model is used for predicting the system behavior under different groundwater recharge scenarios. Numerical simulations and analytical approximations reveal that the studied aquifer can provide fresh water under different groundwater recharge conditions and has the capacity to smooth the effects of short drought periods, representing an option for water management strategies in the region.

A tunnel for the High Speed Train (HST) was constructed in Barcelona with an Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM). The tunnel crosses Barcelona and passes under some famous landmarks such as the Sagrada Familia and the Casa Mill Both monuments are UNESCO world heritage sites and a committee appointed by the UNESCO acted as external observers during the construction. Concerns about soil settlements and the hydrogeological impacts of the construction were raised. These concerns were addressed during the design stage to forestall any unexpected events. The methodology consisted of 1) characterising the geology in detail, 2) predicting the impacts caused in the aquifer, 3) predicting the soil displacements due to water table oscillations produced by the construction, and 4) monitoring the evolution of groundwater and soil settlements. The main estimated impact on groundwater was a moderate barrier effect. The barrier effect, the magnitude of which matched the predictions, was detected during construction. The monitoring of soil settlements revealed short and long term movements. The latter movements matched the analytical predictions of soil displacements caused by the groundwater oscillations. This paper proposes a realistic procedure to estimate impacts on groundwater during tunnel construction with an EPB. Our methodology will considerably improve the construction of tunnels in urban areas. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The occurrence and fate of UV filters (UV F) in an urban aquifer in correlation with (1) the spatial distribution of UV Fin Barcelona's groundwater, (2) the depth of the groundwater sample, (3) the physicochemical properties of the target compounds, (4) the recharge sources, and (5) the redox conditions of the Barcelona aquifers, were studied for the first time. The highest groundwater concentrations and the largest number of detected UV F were observed in an aquifer recharged by a polluted river (around 55 ng/L in SAP-4). In contrast, the urbanized areas had lower concentrations (around 20 ng/L in MPSP-1). Two pathways can be identified for UV F to enter the aquifers: (1) leakage of row sewage from the sewage network in urbanized areas and (2) wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents discharged into the river. Measured concentrations of UV F were significantly much lower than those estimated from the waste water proportion in groundwater samples suggesting that UV F might undergo transformation processes in both reducing and oxidizing conditions. (c) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Deep excavations in aquifers may be constructed by combining pumping with the cut and cover method. The enclosures are often deepened more than structurally needed, in order to diminish the risk of heave or fluidisation inside the excavation, and to reduce pumping rates and the associated settlements outside jet-grouting piles are sometimes adopted for lengthening. We analysed the water-proofing efficiency of jet-grouting and the need for water isolation in preconsolidated sediments. We used data obtained from two shaft excavations during the construction of the high speed train tunnel in Barcelona, located adjacent to the Sagrada Familia Basilica. Jet-grouting was characterised using pumping tests before and after the construction of the enclosure. The effectiveness of deepened enclosures was evaluated by comparing settlements caused and discharges required for several dewatering scenarios. Differences between them lie in the depth of the enclosures. Settlements were calculated analytically, using the drawdown obtained from a hydrogeological model, and numerically employing a hydro-mechanical model. Results show that jet-grouting reduced the permeability of the soil (90% reduction, from 5.5 to 0.6 m/d). However, this reduction only affected the pile area, so that the necessary pumping rate and the settlements outside the enclosure were only reduced by 40%. Results also show that settlements due to groundwater pumping are fairly smooth (i.e., differential settlements are small) with low absolute values. Moreover, they recover when pumping ceases. This rather elastic and stiff behaviour reflects the preconsolidated nature of the sediments in Barcelona and the fact that drawdowns concentrate at depth, where the soil is most compact, causing little change in effective stress near the soil surface. Under these conditions, pumping does not pose a serious risk to settlements, and excavation costs can be lowered by constructing the enclosure at the minimum depth required structurally. Also, an intense control of the pumping process may help reducing the conventional safety factors against heave.

In order to carry out deep excavations under the water table in urban environments, the safety of the work site and of the adjacent buildings is a major cause for concern. One of the most common and effective methods of undertaking these excavations involves combining the cut and cover method with a dewatering system. The success of a construction depends on the stability of the excavation bottom, the effects produced outside the excavation by dewatering (soil movements) and/or the state of the enclosure (defects in the diaphragm walls). This study proposes a realistic multidisciplinary procedure to address these issues. The work emphasizes the importance of soil characterisation and underlines the need to perform a Watertightness Assessment Test (WTAT) before the excavation stage. The procedure was applied to the excavation of a deep shaft of the High Speed Train (HST) tunnel in Barcelona. An earlier geological characterisation at large scale ruled out the use of deep pumping wells. However, a subsequent hydrogeological characterisation, which involved borehole logging, grain size analyses, Natural Gamma Ray and pumping tests, revealed the presence of thin transmissive layers inside the low hydraulic conductivity materials. The dewatering system was designed by considering different model scenarios and the safest design was selected for the excavation. Depths of the enclosure and of the pumping wells differed in accordance with the scenarios. The impacts (settlements due to pumping) and the stability in each scenario were computed. The state of the enclosure underwent a WTAT before the start of the excavation, but after constructing the enclosure, to verify its low permeability. The test consisted in pumping inside the enclosure and monitoring the groundwater behaviour outside the enclosure. Numerical interpretation of this test showed a defect in the diaphragm walls below the excavation bottom. Since this defect was not repaired because of its location (below the bottom of the excavation), the dewatering system had to be redesigned to ensure safety. Surface settlements, which were also a source of concern, were small. They were computed using coupled hydro-mechanical models.

Excavation works in urban areas are often performed in compartments enclosed by means of grouting or structural walls that provide hydraulic isolation and mechanical stability. These functions are sensitive to the presence of discontinuities (apertures in the enclosing wall), which may cause flooding of the excavation and dragging of soil particles. The objective of this work is to develop a methodology to evaluate the hydraulic efficiency of the man-made low-permeability barrier and to identify possible discontinuities, so as to repair them before excavating. To this end, we consider the drainage of a circular excavation enclosed by an annular low-permeability barrier that may present an aperture. We solve the problem numerically in dimensionless form. The overall hydraulic effectiveness of the enclosing system can be easily characterized by monitoring pumping rate and drawdown. However, several piezometers are needed to identify the location of an aperture. The proposed method for characterizing the effectiveness of a low-permeability barrier is applied to several real construction sites. Although little information was available in one case, the method presented here gives results that agree well with those obtained from a numerical model. In another case where data from several piezometers was available, the region of an existing aperture in the low-permeability barrier was localized. © 2011 Elsevier B.V., The authors would like to acknowledge ADIF, GISA, GEOCONSULT and SACYR for their support throughout the hydrogeological monitoring of the civil works. V.V. wishes to acknowledge the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCI) through the “Formación de Profesorado Universitario” program, and the “Colegio de Ingenieros Caminos, Canales y Puertos — Catalunya” (CECCP).

In this study the variability of greenhouse gases (GHGs) concentrations along lateral and vertical dimensions of the chalk aquifer located in the eastern part of Belgium was examined in order to understand its dependence on hydrogeological and hydrogeochemical conditions. Groundwater samples from 29 wells/piezometers were analyzed for concentrations of nitrous oxide (N2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), major and minor elements and stable isotopes of nitrate (NO3−), nitrous oxide (N2O), sulfate (SO42−) and boron (B). For lateral investigations, four zones with different environmental settings were identified (southern, central, north-eastern and northern). Groundwater was oversaturated with GHGs with respect to its equilibrium concentrations with the atmosphere in all zones, except the northern one, undersaturated in N2O (0.07 ± 0.08 μgN/L vs. 0.3 μgN/L). Vertical dimension studies showed the decrease in CO2 concentration and significant changes in both isotope signatures and concentration of N2O with depth. The production of N2O could be attributed to a combination of nitrification and denitrification processes occurring at different depths. CO2 concentration is controlled by the process of dissolution of carbonate minerals which constitute aquifer geology. CH4 is produced due to methanogenesis in deeper parts of the aquifer, though its thermogenic origin is also possible. Differences in hydrogeochemical settings and changing intensity of biogeochemical processes across the area and with depth have considerable effect on GHGs concentrations. Thus, before estimating GHGs fluxes at the groundwater–river interface insights obtained from larger-scale investigations are required in order to identify the representative spatial zones which govern GHGs emissions.