Feasibility of bank filtration

The EU project TECHNEAU investigates managed aquifer recharge (MAR) and bank filtration (BF) as possible strategies to ensure safe and healthy drinking water for developing and newly industrialized countries. One of the project tasks is the development of a Decision Support System (DSS) as a first qualitative tool to assess the feasibility of bank filtration for drinking water supply in developing countries.

A specific sub-model used within the Decision Support System (DSS) is the Bank Filtration Simulator (BFS). This tool was initially developed during the NASRI project and upgraded in TECHNEAU with a new parameter, which calculates the minimum travel time of water from the bank to the production wells. In general this software allows a simulation of bank filtration settings on the basis of a two-dimensional, horizontal steady-state groundwater flow model.

Within TECHNEAU (www.techneau.org) KWB and UNESCO-IHE have just organized a two day workshop on "Natural Systems for Drinking Water Treatment" at UNESCO-IHE in Delft (Netherlands) to train the use of the DSS and the BFS software. Participants from Africa, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom learned about the theoretical prerequisites for the successful implementation of MAR and BF for enlarging groundwater quantity and improving raw water quality.

In practical exercises with the BFS they also analysed the impact of decision parameters and natural boundary conditions on the performance of BF systems. The lectures were given by Dr. Saroj Sharma (UNESCO-IHE), Dr. Theo van den Hoven (KWR), Prof. Peter J. Stuyfzand (KWR), Prof. Thomas Grischek (HTW Dresden), Christoph Sprenger (FUB), Dr. Gesche Grützmacher and Michael Rustler (both KWB). TECHNEAU, funded by the European Commission started in 2006 and will be completed by the end of the year 2010. The project activities of KWB in TECHNEAU were co-funded by Veolia Eau. For detailed information about the BFS enter http://tki.techneau.org/bank-filtration-simulator-manual/

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