Hydro-g: Monitoring Groundwater Resources using Low-Cost Microgravity Sensors

Hydro-g：使用低成本微重力传感器监测地下水资源

• 批准号: NE/X011593/1
• 负责人: Giles Hammond
• 金额: $ 10.28万
• 依托单位: University of Glasgow
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FX011593%2F1
• 关键词: Hydro; Monitoring; Groundwater; Resources; using

Groundwater plays a major role in supplying water to millions of people globally. Across the UK, groundwater contributes >75% of water supplies in some counties and provides crucial baseflow contributions to streams and wetlands, thereby sustaining flow regimes and ecosystem health, respectively. At the same time as water resources are threatened by climate extremes, water demand continues to increase with competing demands from domestic, industrial, and agricultural sectors. Thus, sustainable management of groundwater resources is crucial for communities' resilience and economic development. Cost-effective groundwater monitoring is a key challenge. Installing and maintaining borehole networks is often costly and impractical due to lack of land access. The recent breakthrough invention of a 'gravimeter-on-a-chip' using a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) provides an exciting new sensor to overcome these limitations at a fraction of the cost. The project will evaluate the feasibility of new MEMS gravimeter technology as a low-cost non-intrusive method for monitoring groundwater storage fluctuations and for determining key aquifer parameters in UK bedrock aquifers on a relevant scale for catchment-scale water resource management. The project will advance the generic scientific understanding regarding the hydrogeological application of microgravity methods and establish the new low-cost sensor technology in the field of hydrogeological studies for the first time.

地下水在为全球数百万人供水方面发挥着重要作用。在整个英国，地下水在一些县的供水中占75%以上，并为溪流和湿地提供关键的基流贡献，从而分别维持水流状态和生态系统健康。在水资源受到极端气候威胁的同时，家庭、工业和农业部门的用水需求不断增加。因此，地下水资源的可持续管理对于社区的复原力和经济发展至关重要。具有成本效益的地下水监测是一项关键挑战。由于缺乏陆地通道，安装和维护钻孔网络往往成本高昂且不切实际。最近的一个突破性发明的“芯片上的重力仪”使用微机电系统（MEMS）提供了一个令人兴奋的新传感器，以克服这些限制的一小部分的成本。该项目将评估新的MEMS重力仪技术的可行性，作为一种低成本的非侵入性方法，用于监测地下水储存波动，并确定英国基岩含水层的关键含水层参数，用于流域规模的水资源管理。该项目将促进对微重力方法在水文地质学应用方面的一般科学认识，并首次在水文地质学研究领域建立新的低成本传感器技术。