Improvement of water management tools by isotopic analysis of soil profiles to estimate groundwater recharge in Montérégie

Jorge Montiel Mona

The Montérégie region’s agricultural activity is one of the most fertile and productive in the province of Quebec, but the impact of its high water demand and the use of agrochemical pollutants, as well as new climatic challenges and rapid population growth, have created new environmental problems that threaten water security in the region.

To ensure water security and meet the needs of society in the coming decades, it is necessary to create new tools specialized in the recognition of groundwater recharge distribution at the regional level.

The RE-Source project, created to generate these tools, consists in the isotopic analysis of the water molecule present in the pore water of Montérégie soils in order to calibrate more rapidly and accurately the amount of water passing through the unsaturated zone of the soil to reach the water table and recharge the groundwater. This recharge calibration methodology will be integrated into the HyroGeoSphere integral modeling platform, which will allow us to improve the understanding of the behavior of water resources in the Monteregie region in order to improve their management and ensure the resilience of these resources for future generations.