Project description

The Zweckverband Landeswasserversorgung supplies around three million people in 250 cities and municipalities with water, making it one of the largest long-distance water suppliers in Germany. Approximately 100 million cubic meters of drinking water are extracted annually. About 40% of this comes from the gravel aquifer of the Württemberg Donauried, which is one of the most important groundwater reservoirs in the country. The catchment area of the groundwater resource is located on the plateau of the Swabian Alb northwest of the Ried and covers an area of 315 square kilometers.

A large-scale, combined tracer test in the eastern part of the catchment area will help to hydrogeologically characterize the inflow from the karst of the Swabian Alb to the extraction wells in the Donauried more precisely. For the detection of tracers introduced into stream sinks, regular large-scale sampling is carried out at over 30 groundwater monitoring sites, wells, and springs. The aim is to delineate sub-catchment areas for the six extraction facilities and determine flow velocities and paths. Of particular interest is where and how water from the Jurassic karst aquifer of the Swabian Alb flows into the Quaternary gravel aquifer of the Donauried. Furthermore, the experiment can help to identify particularly sensitive areas for pollutant input in the area, which is characterized by agriculture and therefore struggles with high nitrate pollution.