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One of the first steps in the development of MAR schemes is the selection of suitables sites that need to match several specific criteria. Our approach for this is a combination of GIS-based spatial anaylsis with a multi-criteria decision analysis (GIS-MCDA). A detailed GIS-MCDA tutorial for MAR site selection can be found on our INOWAS.com platform.

Our group created so far several MAR site suitability maps for regions such as: Machuca River basin in Costa Rica, Hanoi metropolitan area in Vietnam, as well as for entire countries such as Guatemala, Costa Rica, Spain and China (in progress). For these studies, a rather similar approach was used, with only some minor variations. However, other similar studies used very different methods so a comparison between different regions or countries is not possible (see the MAR suitability maps of Costa Rica, Jordan, Pajaro Valley - USA, North Kenia, Spain and South Africa on the MAR Portal website). To address this, the INOWAS Group works on the development of an unified approach for MAR suitability mapping (the MARSSI Index), which is not aimed at replacing the common GIS-MCDA approach but instead to provide a simplified GIS-based technique than enables comparison between different regions and countries.

Read more

• Sallwey, J., Schlick, R., Bonilla, J., Stefan, C. (2019) Suitability mapping for managed aquifer recharge: development of web-tools. Water, 11(11): 2254. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11112254.

• Sallwey, J., Bonilla Valverde, J.P., Vásquez López, F., Junghanns, R., Stefan, C. (2018)
  Suitability maps for managed aquifer recharge: a review of multi-criteria decision analysis studies. Environmental Reviews, 27(2): 138-150. https://doi.org/10.1139/er-2018-0069.

• Bonilla Valverde, J.P., Blank, C., Roidt, M., Schneider, L., Stefan, C. (2016) Application of a GIS Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for the Identification of Intrinsic Suitable Sites in Costa Rica for the Application of Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) through Spreading Methods. Water, 8(9): 391. https://doi.org/10.3390/w8090391.