Anna Jurado Elices
437720
anna.jurado@idaea.csic.es
ORCID:
0000-0003-1683-7908
Research group: Groundwater and Hydrogeochemistry
Anna Jurado studied Geology at the University of Barcelona (2005) and holds a PhD in Geotechnical Engineering with specialization in Groundwater Hydrology that she finished in October 2013 with an Excellent Cum Laude (UPC, 2013). Afterwards, she has pursued two postdocs in foreign EU countries. She worked at the Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology group at the University of Liège (ULg, Belgium) from November 2015 to October 2017. Thereafter, from November 2017 to March 2020, she worked at the Institute of Groundwater Management (TU Dresden, Germany). In total, she has more than 40 months of international research experience. During this period she obtained competitive fellowships: (1) Marie Curie Cofund and (2) Open Topic Postdoc Position. Recently, she has been awarded with a Beatriu de Pinós and she is a postdoctoral researcher at IDAEA-CSIC since April 2020.
She has participated in 7 competitive I+D+I projects funded by public entities (4 of them international) and in 8 research contracts funded by national (SACYR, GISA, ADIF) and international (Bridges Technologies) companies. She was the principal investigator of two of the I+D+I projects funded by the European Council (EC) through the Marie Curie actions and German Federal and State Governments (German funding). Recently, she has received funding for a new project (Contaminants of emerging concern in urban Aquifers: Are they a pRoblem for groundwater usE? (CARE)) funded by the Catalan Government and EC.
At mid-term she would like to investigate the field of urban hydrogeology. Pressure on freshwater resources in urban areas is increasing due to several factors such as high population growth and climate change. Consequently, further research must be devoted to identify potential freshwater resources such as urban groundwater. With that purpose in mind it is necessary to 1) identify the most suitable conditions that contribute to the natural bioremediation of selected contaminants in urban groundwater and (2) propose and develop solutions for the sustainable management of urban groundwater resources by means of numerical modelling facilitating the decision making and improving its management.
REACTANT
GeotheRmal Energy enhAnce polar and emerging organic ContaminanT removAl iN groundwaTer
The project REACTANT aims at investigating the suitability of using Low Enthalpy Geothermal Energy (LEGE) systems to enhance the removal capacity of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in groundwater, specially focusing on polar (highly mobile) organic compounds which pose evidence-based environmental and human health threats. Therefore, REACTANT will contribute to increase the availability of freshwater resources (essential to cover the growing demand) and will encourage the use of renewable energies like geothermal energy (needed to supply clean energy and thus, to mitigate climate change).
Funding: Agencia Estatal de Investigación - PID2021-128995OA-I00
Start Date: 01/09/2022 – End Date: 31/08/2025
Project Leader: Estanislao Pujades Garnes , Marc Teixidó Planes
Researchers: Anna Jurado Elices
Support: Sergi Badia Latre , Diego Schmidlin Roccatagliata , Jiaqi Xu , Franco Tomas Coscia , Alejandra Cruz Bolaños
Funding: National Project
Hydrochemical coupled processes affecting contaminants of emerging concern in urban groundwater
Freshwater resources are suffering increasing pressure in urban areas due to several factors, such as growing population and climate change. Urban aquifers are an alternative to obtain freshwater, but they are commonly polluted by contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) (pharmaceuticals, personal care products, etc.). The research challenge that this research will answer is: Are CECs a water management challenge as they might limit the use of groundwater as safe drinking-water in urban areas? To answer this question, the understanding of the behaviour of CECs in groundwater at field scale is required. CECs’ behaviour is controlled by occurrence of the coupled hydro-chemical processes in the subsurface; which has been mainly studied at laboratory scale, missing the complex hydrochemical conditions inherent to urban aquifers. In groundwater, the attenuation of CECs seems to occur mainly through microbial degradation, because adsorption is reversible and only retards their transport. Biodegradation of some CECs is a redox-dependent process; however, the redox state of urban groundwater is not described in many CECs field-scale investigations.
The aim of this project is: the quantification of the hydrochemical processes affecting CECs in urban aquifers at field scale paying special attention to redox conditions. The study of these coupled processes is necessary for a sustainable management of groundwater in urban areas. This project will open new research avenues and will significantly advance on the state-of-art of this relevant topic, which will be transferable to worldwide urban areas suffering from water scarcity.
Funding: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and CSIC