Cetaqua Andalucía leads the GOTHAM project to promote sustainable and participatory management of the Poniente Almeriense aquifer, together with Hidralia, irrigator organizations, local town halls, the University of Almería and the Junta de Andalucía

Cetaqua Andalucía has started the European GOTHAM project (PRIMA 2019 call), whose objective is to develop and validate a digital tool that allows efficient management of groundwater to preserve the quantity and quality of this strategic resource in the Mediterranean, mainly in the Poniente Almeriense area. Thus, Hidralia will collaborate in the development of this innovation project together with the municipalities of Roquetas, La Mojonera and Adra, as responsible for the management of the urban water cycle in these municipalities.

To achieve an effective tool, Cetaqua also has in Andalusia the participation of local collaborators, users, managers and administrations involved in the water cycle, such as the Directorate General of Planning and Water Resources of the Junta de Andalucía, which will cede its control network for the installation of sensors and the monitoring of the status of the water mass "Campo de Dalías-Sierra de Gádor" , and the Consortium of the Integral Water Cycle of the West (CIAP), as responsible for the management of water purification and regeneration facilities in the area.

They also participate as stakeholders in the project, the Central Board of Users of the West Almeriense Aquifer (JCUAPA), as responsible for the implementation of the program of measures for the recovery of the groundwater mass "Campo de Dalías - Sierra de Gádor", and the Chair of Water in Agriculture, Irrigation and Agri-Food of the University of Almería (UAL), as a reference entity in the promotion , impetus and encouragement of research, development, innovation and training in the use and sustainable management of water to ensure the sustainability of the Almeria agricultural model.

The collaboration of the users who capture the water of these bodies of water is fundamental to the correct development of GOTHAM, since one of the maximum complexities of the management of groundwater bodies in an integral way is the lack of knowledge about the availability of water resources and the low exchange of data between the different water users. Therefore, the integration of this highly valuable information throughout the governance process, together with the collaboration of end-users, will overcome current critical problems and limitations in groundwater management. In particular, such integration and collaboration will help to specify the water balances (inputs and outputs) of aquifers and enable a more sustainable use of their resources. All this, with the application of Artificial Intelligence techniques to historical series of rain, temperature, evapotranspiration, river flows and piezometric levels, among others.

GOTHAM seeks to develop a scalable and replicable tool (called GTool) for different water users (irrigator communities, comprehensive water cycle managers, industrial users and competent public administration), which will allow progress towards effective water governance, essential for integrated water resource management.

GTool uses a methodological approach based on the evaluation of multiple scenarios (current and future) of water resource allocation, from an environmental, social and economic perspective. In fact, one of the strengths of this tool is that it provides a common framework for collaboration and participation between different users and thus detect their needs and the information generated at all times.

The GOTHAM project is part of the European PRIMA (Association for Mediterranean Research and Innovation) programme, focusing on the development and implementation of solutions for water resources in the Mediterranean basin. It will be developed in campo de Dalías (Almería, Spain), and will be replicated to two additional sites, in Laat Baalbeck-Hermel (Lebanon) and in the Azraq-Zarqa Basin (Jordan). The project lasts for 3 years and Cetaqua Andalucía leads a consortium of entities from 5 different countries: Spain (Cetaqua Andalucía and Universidad de Córdoda – WEARE), France (GAC Group), Italy (Istituto per la Cooperazione Universitaria – ICU – and Engineering Ingegneria Informatica – ENG -), Lebanon (Ministry of Agriculture) and Jordan (National Agriculture Research Centre - NARC). 

CETAQUA Andalusia and Hidralia are committed to efficient groundwater management

Cetaqua Andalucía, Centro Tecnológico del Agua, represents a pioneering model of public-private collaboration between administration, university and company. This model has been consolidated as a European benchmark in the application of scientific knowledge to water and the environment, proposing new R&D&I solutions in order to ensure the sustainability and efficiency of the water cycle, taking into account local needs.

Projects such as GOTHAM reaffirm the commitment of Cetaqua Andalucía and Hidralia, an integral company of the Technological Center, together with the CSIC and the University of Malaga, for the sustainable management of the water resource, mainly the managed recharge of aquifers as a high value measure to recover groundwater bodies. In particular, Cetaqua Andalucía and Hidralia have led projects that improve the knowledge and management of available water resources, as in the ALOHA project where the quality and quantity of groundwater was improved by the managed recharge of a deep coastal aquifer with excess water from another surface.

Cetaqua Andalucía reaffirms as a leading technological centre in the water and environment fields with the leadership of other projects from European programmes such as LIFE NIRVANA, for the decontamination of aquifers with high nitrate content from the application of iron nanoparticles.