Manuel Sapiano

• Executive at Energy and Water Agency - Malta

In coastal areas, saltwater intrusion causes a depletion of the resource by reducing potable and irrigation freshwater supplies and causing severe deterioration of groundwater quality. This trend is observed in Pwales Valley, in the North part of Malta where the management of water resources plays a crucial role for the environmental sustainability...

Whitin the aim to reduce the water demand by increasing water use efficiency and providing alternative water resources, and mainly to meet the demand of good quality irrigation water for agriculture, the Energy and Water Agency of Malta is planning to develop a Managed Aquifer Recharge pilot plant in Pwales Valley to improve the quantitative and qu...

Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) is a promising technique for water management. It comprises a group of technologies that enhance the infiltration of various water sources into aquifers. The water stored underground can serve different uses, such as irrigation, industrial and drinking water supply, and the recovery or preservation of environmental as...

Two small Maltese aquifers, Mizieb and Pwales, were numerically analyzed to test the existing hydrogeological conceptual model and suggest optimized groundwater monitoring strategies in support of the forthcoming monitoring network coordinated by the Government of Malta through the Energy and Water Agency. The model will undergo further revision of...

While we increasingly turn to desalination as a secure water supply, it is still perceived as an expensive and environmentally damaging solution, affordable only for affluent societies. In this contribution, we recast desalination from one of a last resort to a far-reaching, climate change mitigating, water security solution. First, we argue that t...

Maximizing the value of Managed Aquifer Recharge for integrated water management The Commission promotes the securing and expanding of water resources and improving water quality in ways that are appropriate, environmentally sustainable, technically viable, economic and socially desirable. It encourages research, development and adoption of improve...

Because of the spatial nature of groundwater-related data and their time component, effective groundwater management requires the application of methods pertaining to the Information and Communication Technologies sector, such as spatial data management and distributed numerical modelling. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the effective...

Because of the spatial nature of groundwater-related data and their time component, effective groundwater management requires the application of methods pertaining to the Information and Communication Technologies sector, such as spatial data management and distributed numerical modelling. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the effective...

MARSOL project (Demonstrating Managed Aquifer Recharge as a Solution to Water Scarcity and Drought) has taken place since 2014 to 2017 within EC FP7 call with GA 619120. In the final part of the project, first row members put together the conclusions from their personal point of view and after three years of intense research. All these statements h...

The last 60 years has seen unprecedented groundwater extraction and overdraft as well as development of new technologies for water treatment that together drive the advance in intentional groundwater replenishment known as managed aquifer recharge (MAR). This paper is the first known attempt to quantify the volume of MAR at global scale, and to ill...

The Maltese Islands are located in the central Mediterranean area, on the Malta-Sicily Platform. The archipelago consists of three main islands, Malta, Gozo and Comino, and several other small uninhabited islets. Malta, the largest of the three islands, has an extent of 246 km2. The aim of this paper is to describe the collaboration between CNRIRPI...

The Maltese Islands are intersected by two major fault systems associated with two diverse rifting episodes affect the islands. The first and most widespread system is Early Miocene to mid-Pliocene in age, and consists of faults that are orientated ENE-WSW. The most distinct of these faults is the Great Fault (known also as the Victoria Lines Fault...

Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) can be affected by many risks. Those risks are related to different technical and non-technical aspects of recharge, like water availability, water quality, legislation, social issues, etc. Many other works have acknowledged risks of this nature theoretically; however, their quantification and definition has not been...

Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) activities can be affected by a combination of hazardous events. Those events are related to different aspects of recharge, water availability and quality, engineering issues, etc. Many other works have acknowledged risks of this nature, theoretically, however their quantification and definition has not been developed...

La ponencia incluye tres aspectos diferentes: el estudio y comparación de las regulaciones sobre SAT-MAR existentes en todo el mundo (1), las propuestas del proyecto MARSOL para la redacción de la futura directiva sobre reutilización y recarga gestionada, así como sugerencias prácticas para su implementación (2), y el estado actual en el que se enc...

The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires the achievement of good status in the water environment through the implementation of River Basin Management Plans (RBMP). The long-term impact of these plans and their contribution to the achievement of good status is however generally difficult to predict and quantify, thus presenting an important c...

Given the significant potential for MAR to help communities adapt to the challenges of drought and water security, the MARSOL project is therefore proposing a regulatory framework which can be commonly used in EU Member States to ensure that MAR schemes are implemented in line with the requirements of EU Environmental Legislation. The proposed fram...

The MARSOL project aims at providing scientists, practitioners and end-users with an engineering-enabled set of technical solutions to improve Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) efficiency in areas where it is applied, and consequently, on general water management. They will rely on a shared understanding and test performed in the different demo sites,...

This work analyses the state of water resources in six Mediterranean islands: Corsica, Crete, Cyprus, Mallorca, Malta and Sicily. The analysis is focused on the prevailing social, economic and hydroclimatological characteristics of these islands in order to identify the main common features affecting water availability, demand and use. A detailed a...

Levels of nitrate in Malta’s groundwater are high. Median concentrations in the main sea-level aquifers of Malta and Gozo are 14 and 10 mg NO3-N L-1, respectively, and even higher in the younger groundwaters of the perched aquifers on Malta (37 mg NO3-N L-1). The wide variations in groundwater nitrate concentration are not due to denitrification, a...

The Maltese islands are composed of two limestone aquifers, the Upper and Lower Coralline Limestone separated by an aquitard, the ‘Blue Clay’. The Lower Coralline Limestone is overlain in part by the poorly permeable Globigerina Limestone. The upper perched aquifers are discontinuous and have very limited saturated thickness and a short water level...

IntroductionRegional settingBackground Hydrochemical characteristicsGeochemical controlsConclusions References

The Maltese Islands are densely populated but poorly endowed with freshwater resources. Since the 1980's, the drinking water supply has been heavily dependent on saltwater desalination. The population and the tourist sector are served with good quality drinking-water, but certain trends such as the depletion of groundwater in terms of both quantity...

Since time immemorial, the provision of water in sufficient quantities has been one of the most pressing national problems. This paper will try to analyze the changing public perceptions towards water and its use throughout the last two millennia, through the development of a correlation between the prevalent social and economic changes experienced...