Groundwater deficits occur in several areas of Central Mexico, where water resource assessment is limited by the availability and reliability of field data. In this context, GRACE and InSAR are used to remotely assess groundwater storage loss in one of Mexico's most important watersheds in terms of size and economic activity: the Lerma-Santiago-Pacifico (LSP). In situ data and Land Surface Models are used to subtract soil moisture and surface water storage changes from the total water storage change measured by GRACE satellites. As a result, groundwater mass change time-series are obtained for a 12 years period. ALOS-PALSAR images acquired from 2007 to 2011 were processed using the SBAS-InSAR algorithm to reveal areas subject to ground motion related to groundwater over-exploitation. In the perspective of providing guidance for groundwater management, GRACE and InSAR observations are compared with official water budgets and field observations. InSAR-derived subsidence mapping generally agrees well with official water budgets, and shows that deficits occur mainly in cities and irrigated agricultural areas. GRACE does not entirely detect the significant groundwater losses largely reported by official water budgets, literature and InSAR observations. The difference is interpreted as returns of wastewater to the groundwater flow systems, which limits the watershed scale groundwater depletion but suggests major impacts on groundwater quality. This phenomenon is enhanced by ground fracturing as noticed in the field. Studying the fate of the extracted groundwater is essential when comparing GRACE data with higher resolution observations, and particularly in the perspective of further InSAR/GRACE combination in hydrogeology.In Mexico, groundwater fulfills more than 70% of the water needs for the 120 million inhabitants [Instituto Nacional de Estad ıstica y Geograf ıa, 2015]. Annual rainfall rates show a smooth transition from high Key Points: InSAR and GRACE observations are compared with the groundwater management scheme Discordance between GRACE, InSAR, and water budgets suggests important wastewater recharge Cointerpreting GRACE and InSAR brings an unprecedented insight into groundwater sustainability Correspondence to: P. Castellazzi,

Hard water causes many problems in domestic and industrial usage, which has to be removed using costeffective technologies. To achieve this, the main goal of this study is to assess and optimize the factors controlling water softening applications. The research approach included a combined use of batch and column experiments performed in laboratory conditions through the ion exchange process, evaluating the effectiveness of natural and homoionic clinoptilolite on the removal characteristics of divalent cations. The equilibrium data could be fitted by both the Langmuir and the Freundlich models, even though it was fitted better by the Langmuir model with a maximum adsorption capacity of 10.5 mg g -1 for homoionic clinoptilolite (HC) and 9.68 mg g -1 for the natural clinoptilolite (NC). The adsorption kinetics can be successfully fitted to pseudo-second order kinetic model and the results of the intraparticle diffusion model suggest intraparticle diffusion was not the only rate-controlling step. It was also observed that the statistics indices of agreements from non-linear Thomas model were higher than that linear Thomas model. Nevertheless, the slope of the breakthrough curve for the linearized method decreased with increasing time as compared to non-linear method, thereby resulting in a slightly steeper slope for the nonlinear method and reducing the adsorption capacity. The study also concludes that the non-linear method is slightly more effective in predicting the performance of the selective removal efficiency of hardness ions. Results illustrate that clinoptilolite may be used as an alternative to more costly materials, due to its low cost and high abundance.

Population pressure, urbanization, and industrial developments, among other factors, have resulted in severe degradation of environmental resources such as wetlands. Thus, a groundwater model (MODFLOW) was integrated with a particle tracking MODPATH model to simulate the hydrodynamic flow head field and to analyze the vulnerability of the Salburua ecosystem and propose control measures to protect the riparian area. The simulations show that pathways of particle tracking originating at potential contaminant sources will tend to migrate downwards towards the sensitive ecosystem, which suggests that the quality of the hydrological ecosystem is likely to deteriorate in the future. Variation in exit points of particles indicates that the time-related capture areas are affected by changes of the hydraulic gradients. Two control measures of potential sources of pollutants in the vicinity of the Salbarua ecosystem were analyzed. The study results suggest that the travel time-related capture zone with a funnel-and-gate system is much smaller than without the control alternative, which indicates that the gate configuration has an effect on capture zone size and shape and on the residence time with a better attenuation performance. It is also shown that a leakage-proof barrier is less effective for point-source containment, assuming that hydraulic control performance and cost-efficiency are the criteria for pollution control effectiveness. Instead, a program of monitoring wells would effectively characterize water quality in the aquifer and provide a decision support system. This approach may be used in helping water managers to develop more physically based and quantitative protection strategies.

El conocimiento del flujo de agua subterránea es de suma importancia para la planificación sostenible de los recursos hídricos, especialmente en regiones con demandas crecientes de agua. En el presente estudio, la distribución de los materiales geológicos y la geología estructural han sido integradas en un Modelo Hidroestratigráfico Tridimensional (THM) para evaluar el comportamiento del flujo de agua subterránea en el acuífero de San Salvador, localizado en la porción oriental del volcán de San Salvador. La información geológica fue analizada, clasificada, reinterpretada y correlacionada a partir de informes de perforación de pozos y del mapa geológico nacional para agrupar capas con características geológicas similares, las cuales fueron relacionadas con sus propiedades hidráulicas para definir las Unidades Hidroestratigráficas (UHE) que conforman el acuífero. En el dominio de las UHE, se evaluó la distribución de las fallas, conductividad hidráulica y rendimiento de los pozos existentes en el acuífero para evaluar su relación con el flujo de agua subterránea. El modelo evidenció la existencia de seis unidades hidroestratigráficas (UHE) intercaladas y formadas por piroclasto y toba con la conductividad hidráulica (K) más baja de 10-2 a 1 m/día, lava basáltica y andesítica fracturada con valores de K entre 1 y 101 m / d, y escoria con K más alta de 101 hasta aproximadamente 103 m/día. El modelo también mostró el desplazamiento de los bloques asociados al graben central en la Zona de Falla de El Salvador (ZFES) particularmente en el sur y este de la zona de estudio.Los resultados indican que la UHE de baja producción de material piroclástico y toba se extiende en toda la zona de estudio, y que es aprovechada por la mayoría de los pozos de explotación en el Área Metropolitana de San Salvador (AMSS). Mientras que las UHE de lavas de Cuscatlán y San Salvador son menos extensas y localmente aprovechadas; sin embargo, presentan mayores caudales, principalmente cerca de fallas geológicas. Por su parte, la Escoria del Plan de La Laguna es una UHE localizada, pero la más productiva de la zona y se encuentra densamente fracturada. Adicionalmente, hay cuatro fallas importantes que pueden ser consideradas como potenciales conductos de agua subterránea y una que se comporta como barrera de flujo horizontal. Las fallas reflejan influencia en el flujo de agua subterránea cuando intersectan a flujos de lava; por el contrario cuando intersectan a materiales porosos, esta influencia no fue evidenciada. Este estudio proporciona nuevos elementos al conocimiento de la distribución espacial y aprovechamiento de los materiales permeables en el acuífero de San Salvador y podría respaldar algunas decisiones para el manejo sostenible del agua subterránea, especialmente aquellas orientadas a las zonas de nuevos aprovechamientos. Esta metodología se podría aplicar en acuíferos con condiciones similares de datos escasos y múltiples fuentes de información.

Las características químicas e isotópicas del acuífero urbano de San Salvador, y de los sistemas de agua potable (SAP) y aguas residuales (SAR) se evaluaron en un área de 362 km 2 para detectar si las fugas en dichos sistemas están recargando el acuífero y modificando su calidad natural. Un total de 37 sitios de muestreo conformados por pozos, manantiales y dos sistemas de importación de agua del Área Metropolitana de San Salvador (AMSS) se muestrearon en 2007, 2009 y 2017. Las muestras se analizaron para iones mayoritarios e isótopos estables de  18 O y  2 H. Por su parte, el SAR se caracterizó mediante los trazadores químicos de Cly NO3 -. Los resultados indican la existencia de cuatro grupos de agua: los grupos A (Ca-Mg-HCO3), B (Mg-Ca-HCO3), y D (Na-Ca-HCO) tienen la precipitación como principal fuente de recarga y no mostraron influencia urbana en su calidad; el grupo C (Na-Ca-HCO3 y Na-Mg-HCO3) se deriva del grupo A, fluye bajo el AMSS y sugiere tres fuentes de recarga: la recarga natural directa por precipitación, la recarga 2021, Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua Open Access bajo la licencia CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

The estimation of soil hydraulic properties in the vadose zone has some issues, such as accuracy, acquisition time, and cost. In this study, an inexpensive automated test column (ATC) was developed to characterize water flow in a homogeneous unsaturated porous medium by the simultaneous estimation of three hydraulic state variables: water content, matric potential, and water flow rates. The ATC includes five electrical resistance probes, two minitensiometers, and a drop counter, which were tested with infiltration tests using the Hydrus-1D model. The results show that calibrations of electrical resistance probes reasonably match with similar studies, and the maximum error of calibration of the tensiometers was 4.6% with respect to the full range. Data measured by the drop counter installed in the ATC exhibited a high consistency with the electrical resistance probes, which provides an independent verification of the model and indicates an evaluation of the water mass balance. The study results show good performance of the model against the infiltration tests, which suggests a robustness of the methodology developed in this study. An extension to the applicability of this system could be successfully used in low-budget projects in large-scale field experiments, which may be correlated with resistivity changes.

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