Management Options of a Brackish Water Spring. Case Study: Almyros Spring (Heraklion, Greece)

Management options of brackish water springs seemed to attract many researchers the last decades. The unsuitable quality of the brackish water resources is generally considered as a great barrier to their application for irrigation or human consumption. The main goal of the development of brackish spring water is to obtain a good quality status for water body. This goal can be achieved by taking measures against seawater intrusion (controlled withdrawals, increase fresh water head by dam construction) or by applying desalination methods (e.g. reverse osmosis,ε lectrodialysis). A simplified flowchart has been presented to develop the brackish spring water in coastal aquifers. The example of the Almyros Heraklion spring water (Crete, Greece) is discussed.