Groundwater is critical for agricultural production, drinking water supply, and climate change adaptation. Yet overexploitation has caused depletion, quality degradation, land subsidence, seawater intrusion, and ecosystem degradation. Water managers increasingly turn to managed aquifer recharge (MAR) — intentional transfer of excess surface water, recycled, or treated water to underground storage — to generate extractive and non-extractive benefits.

This session invites contributions on advances in MAR, including: emerging technologies (injection methods, vadose zone recharge via drywells, surface spreading via infiltration basins, flood-MAR, and agricultural MAR); methods to characterize and simulate water flow and contaminant transport; water balance studies examining MAR roles in water supply reliability, flood-risk reduction, drought preparedness, and climate adaptation; hydrologic, ecological, and socio-economic co-benefits; and institutional challenges, socio-environmental impediments, and unintended consequences of intentional recharge. We especially welcome case studies addressing complex process interactions, tradeoffs, socio-hydrology, water policy, and governance.