Los procesos colmatantes en dispositivos de gestión de la recarga de acuíferos y empleo de la termografía para su detección y estudio. Un ensayo metodológico en el acuífero "Los Arenales", España.

The use of thermography for technical purposes is a tool with a broad range of applications, especially in architecture, where it has been used for years. Nevertheless its use in other technical fields and in science has been less tested. Clogging is considered the major negative environmental impact affecting the "artificial recharge" devices. According to the experiments carried out in the framework of the R&D DINA-MAR Project related to management of aquifer recharge in the context of sustainable development, since 2010 studies aimed at the study of clogging in managed aquifer recharge (before artificial recharge) facilities have been carried out, specifically the detection and distribution of physical, chemical and biological clogging processes and their synergistic combinations, by means of radiometric images and field photographs. In addition to sampling, on site analysis and classification by binocular microscope, serial radiometric images have been taken in the infiltration ponds and canals of the main field site used as an experimental laboratory where the project has been developed: Santiuste basin (Segovia, Spain). The work has been focused, specifically, to locations already studied and well known through other methods, such as chemical analysis, interaction models, sequential gauging tests, infiltration tests, etc. The article aims to characterize the clogging processes in the study area, correlate the results of the thermograms with those obtained by other procedures, map the different clogging processes by their nature and also, try to extrapolate practical conclusions to other less known sites from the same aquifer and/or analogous scenarios. It also proposes a methodology for the application of thermography in hydrogeology, especially in "artificial recharge" studies. The following results are worth mentioning: - Thermographic techniques applied to the characterization of clogging typologies have matched, in general, differentiation by other methods. - The line of action must continue with a tendency to reach a "thermal palette" sufficiently precise as to detect variations in the thermal signature motivated by changes in the soil-aquifer-water system. - Knowledge of the distribution of the incipient clogging processes allows improving designs and scheduling maintenance operations more efficiently. - The technique seems likely to achieve significant progress and, although it is not decisive, complements other methodologies of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]