Dresden Summer School 2025

6th International Summer School on Managed Aquifer Recharge – MARISS

Dresden, Germany, September 1st to 6th, 2025

The 6th MARISS was organised by the Division of Water Sciences of HTW Dresden as part of the project “Enhancement of higher education on managed aquifer recharge in the MENA water sector – MENAWAT”(https://lnkd.in/dhHd29N8). The water supply company Fernwasserversorgung Elbaue-Ostharz (FEO) in Torgau, Saxony, and the early-career research group INOWAS at the TU Dresden scientifically contributed to the summer school. The MENAWAT project is funded by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany within the German Academic Exchange Service’s (DAAD) Ta’ziz program and focuses on the Middle East and North Africa region that is one of the most water scarce worldwide.

Two PhD researchers, Akansha Keshariya and Kartik Kumar Jadav, and Dr. Hemant Kumar (project investigator) from the IIT Roorkee added the dimension of WF modelling to MARISS as part of the project “Integration of MAR and WF nexus in higher education”, co-funded by the DAAD’s GIANT program and the SPARC program of the Indian Ministry of Education, which supported their participation in MARISS including a subsequent three-week research stay in HTW Dresden.

Kartik Jadav developed a conceptual and numerical model of a small-scale horizontal collector well for decentralised rural water supply in hilly terrain. These wells, called Koop wells, are installed beneath the riverbed for small-scale RBF schemes in the state of Uttarakhand, North India. The numerous Koop wells across Uttarakhand are a major source of drinking water to its rural population. The study contributed to a better understanding of the subsurface hydraulic processes around Koop wells in order to adapt them to climate change. The study was scientifically supported by Prof. H. P. Uniyal of the Water and Sanitation (WATSAN) Department of the Swami Rama Himalayan University near Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

Akansha Keshariya evaluated the feasibility of using a groundwater circulation well to balance the complex and interlinked processes of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) and sea water intrusion (SWI) in coastal areas of Southwest India. Coastal aquifers are increasingly threatened by over-extraction of groundwater resulting in SWI, which directly impacts freshwater availability for agriculture and food security. The loss of intentionally recharged fresh water to SGD is a major challenge of implementing MAR in coastal regions. Akansha’s study contributed to an understanding of the complex dynamics of the interface of SGD and SWI. To this end a numerical groundwater flow model was developed and different scenarios were simulated using field data.

Akansha’s and Kartik’s research stays strengthened the international scientific networks and the collaboration between the departments of Water Resources, Hydrology and Civil Engineering at IIT Roorkee and with HTW Dresden.