Extensive aquifer recharge through atmospheric chloride deposition on the land by means of groundwater from penetrating wells

Abstract

Aquifer recharge is essential to evaluate aquifer renewable water resources for water studies and management. However this is one of the most difficult issues in hydrogeology. In order to get reasonable results, as many different appropriate techniques as possible should be used. The most used ones for total diffuse recharge are those relying on soil water balance. In order to check the evaluations, the use of other independent methods is advisable, even if they are simple ones. The chloride mass balance method is one of them and the subject of this paper. It is not a novel method (Eriksson, 1960; Prych, 1998; Custodio, 2009) and is has been used widely, but some caution is needed. Commonly the results are long–term recharge values.