Artificial aquifer recharge: systematic mapping study

Groundwater is one of the most important natural resources on the planet Earth. Nevertheless, many aquifers are overexploited especially in arid and semi-arid regions where groundwater is the only source of water supply as surface water resources are limited and insufficient to meet all water needs. The preservation of this resource is paramount to ensure its sustainability, hence the invention of the practice of artificial aquifer recharge (AAR), also known as managed aquifer recharge. It is a practice invented to supplement the replenishment of the aquifer with human-controlled methods to prevent groundwater levels from becoming too low due to over-abstraction. The objective of this paper is to structure the existing AAR literature, highlight the most recent stage and aspects that have been covered, and identify the open issues, knowledge gaps, aspects that require improvement, and the research trends in that field. To this end, a systematic mapping study has been conducted on the literature published about AAR from 2013 until 2015 to categorize and summarize the existing publications concerning the research in that field. Application of the systematic mapping study method resulted in 204 publications which are the relevant papers synthesized following exclusion and inclusion criteria and served to answer 7 research questions defined at the beginning of the study. The obtained results will serve as a basis for future research and will allow the development of a better understanding and a broad overview of this field to direct and guide future AAR projects.