Assessment of groundwater resources: Nauru project 2010 - 2019

Nauru is a small limestone island in the Pacific region where, as in many small islands in the world, the population heavily rely upon groundwater as primary freshwater resource, in conjunction with rainwater and desalinated water. The Nauru project started in 2010 and led by Politecnico di Milano (nauru.com.polimi.it), consisted on the hydrogeological characterization of the northern part of the island and the implementation of 3 numerical models for: (1) understanding the mechanisms governing groundwater flow and accumulation, (2) assess the adequate sustainable fresh groundwater exploitation in order to prevent saltwater upconing occurrences in the area more suitable for groundwater extraction and (3) to simulate future scenarios based on climate changes and population growth.