Assessing the wor ld’s groundwater

2

IGRAC, the International Groundwater Resource Assessment Centre facilitates and

promotes international sharing of information and knowledge required for sustainable

development, management, and governance of groundwater resources worldwide.

Since 2003, IGRAC has been providing independent content and process support,

focusing on transboundary aquifer assessment and groundwater monitoring.

3A S S E S S I N G T H E W O R L D ’ S G R O U N D W A T E R

Groundwater is a very important natural resource and element of theenvironment. About 50% of the world's population drinks groundwater everyday. Groundwater is also vitally important for agriculture as it contributes tomore than 50% of the world’s production of irrigated crops. Groundwatersustains ecosystems, maintains baseflow of rivers and stabilises land in areaswith soils that are easily compressed.

To ensure maximum benefit from groundwater and to control groundwaterproblems that develop under increased pressures from climate change andhuman activities, groundwater resources need to be assessed and managedproperly. Groundwater management can only be effective if it is based on area-specific information and is tailor-made for the area of concern. In order toidentify and analyse the issues to be addressed worldwide and to definepriorities for the global water agenda, this area-specific information needs to beaggregated at the national, regional and global levels. Therefore, IGRACcollects, processes and disseminates groundwater related information to theglobal groundwater community.

GROUNDWATER: AN IMPORTANT GLOBAL RESOURCE

Distribution of the water on earth

Icecaps &Glaciers2.06%

Oceans & Seas97.00%

Groundwater0.903%

Lakes, Swamps& Rivers0.009%

Others0.027%

AvaiableFresh Water0.94%

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In 1999, UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization tookthe initiative to establish IGRAC - the International GroundwaterResource Assessment Centre. In 2000, the Government of theNetherlands expressed interest in hosting IGRAC and the centre waslaunched in March 2003, during the third World Water Forum in Kyoto.Initially, IGRAC was hosted by Netherlands Organization for AppliedScientific Research (TNO) and financed by the Government of theNetherlands through the Partners for Water Programme.

In January 2011, the Government of the Netherlands reaffirmed itscommitment to IGRAC and in June 2011 IGRAC was registered as alegally independent foundation. Becoming an independentorganisation facilitated IGRAC’s recognition as a UNESCO centre.The agreement between UNESCO and the Kingdom of theNetherlands regarding IGRAC was signed in November 2011. Notmuch later, in October 2012, the World Meteorological Organizationand IGRAC signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work underits auspices.

Now, IGRAC is the UNESCO Global Groundwater Centre, workingunder the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization andcooperating closely with the International Association ofHydrogeologists. IGRAC continues to be financially supported by theGovernment of the Netherlands. Being the in-house partner of theUNESCO-IHE - UNESCO’s Institute for Water Education - IGRAC’soffices are located in Delft, the Netherlands.

ESTABL ISHMENT OF IGRAC

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IGRAC was born from the need to better understand groundwater at theregional and global scales. Since groundwater assessments cannot bedone without sufficient information and knowledge, from the beginningIGRAC’s main task has been one of knowledge management andknowledge sharing. Ten years ago IGRAC began gathering, processing anddisseminating groundwater data and information, with ambitions offacilitating and promoting broader information and knowledge sharingwithin the global groundwater community.

In 2003 IGRAC started with two main activities: the collection, developmentand promotion of Guidelines and Protocols related to groundwater dataacquisition and groundwater monitoring and the development of a GlobalGroundwater Information System (GGIS). Now, the Guidelines andProtocols initiative has concluded and has paved the way for the creation ofa global groundwater monitoring network programme. The second activity,the Global Groundwater Information System has been developed into aneasily accessible on-line platform. Year by year, it keeps on expanding asan increasingly robust source of information.

From the very beginning, IGRAC was also enthusiastic about participatingin regional and global projects and programmes. This took some time, butnow international cooperation is present in most of IGRAC’s activities.IGRAC is participating in numerous projects and programmes together withagencies such as the UNESCO International Hydrologic Programme andthe Global Environment Facility (GEF).

IGRAC ’S F IRST IN I T IAT IVES

A S S E S S I N G T H E W O R L D ’ S G R O U N D W A T E R

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In 2003, IGRAC conducted an inventory of existing guidelines andprotocols for groundwater assessment and monitoring. It was aimed atimproving the international community’s access to monitoring guidelinesand protocols that might be useful to them. Following the same objective,IGRAC developed an on-line database containing structured informationof about 400 guidelines and protocols.

A year later, a worldwide inventory on groundwater monitoring practicesfollowed. It further identified the need for guidelines and protocols in thefield of groundwater monitoring. At the time available guidelines did notadequately address challenges in the early stages of creating agroundwater monitoring system. These challenges include poorhydrogeological information, limited financial resources and/or limitedinstitutional capacity.

To confront these challenges, IGRAC assembled a working group ofspecialists from 12 countries to develop a guideline on groundwatermonitoring for general reference purposes. The guideline was completedin 2006 and translated into Spanish a year later. With these initial efforts,IGRAC’s activities on Guidelines and Protocols have been completed.Currently, the Guideline and Protocols on-line database is incorporatedinto the Global Groundwater Information System.

GROUNDWATER MONITOR ING GU IDEL INES AND PROTOCOLS

A S S E S S I N G T H E W O R L D ’ S G R O U N D W A T E R

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In 2004, IGRAC launched the first version of the GGIS - Global Groundwater Information System.GGIS is an interactive, web-based portal to groundwater-related information and knowledge. GGIS is simple to use and publicly accessible. It leads the user from aggregated, globalinformation in Global Overview via related information sources in the Meta-Information Moduletowards a direct information exchange in a collaborative environment. The Global Overviewcontains information on the assessment of global groundwater resources. The online applicationcurrently contains a Country View with about 70 world maps showing aggregated groundwater-related attributes for each of the countries. The Meta Information Module is an online repository,containing information on groundwater experts, organisations and groundwater relateddocuments. Groundwater specialists and groundwater-related organisations can upload theirprofiles, links and documents that they wish to share with the wider groundwater community.The Global Groundwater Monitoring Networkis the youngest GGIS module developed tofacilitate monitoring of a global change ofgroundwater resources.

After eight years of on-line operation, in2012, IGRAC undertook a major update ofthe Global Overview and Meta InformationModule in order to apply state of the arttechnology and make the system moreinteractive and user friendly. Currently, theGlobal Overview is undergoing a majorcontent update, including the developmentof Transboundary Aquifer View, which willenable users to view attributes of specifictransboundary aquifers.

GLOBAL GROUNDWATER INFORMAT ION SYSTEM

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Lack of data from systematic groundwater monitoring is one of the crucial obstacles forsustainable management of groundwater resources. Based on the principles ofparticipatory monitoring, IGRAC has developed the Global Groundwater MonitoringNetwork (GGMN). The GGMN is a programme in which groundwater data from a globalnetwork of groundwater professionals is gathered, processed and made accessible to arange of stakeholders. The programme aims to close the groundwater data gap,enabling periodic assessment of groundwater resources at the transboundary, regionaland global scale.

The GGMN has two major components: GGMN Portal, which is an online GIS-basedapplication, and a GGMN People Network. The GGMN Portal assists the members ofthe People Network in the analysis of monitoring data and provides insights intochanges occurring in groundwater resources worldwide.

IGRAC is continually engaging more countries and regionalspecialists in the programme. Regional workshops are organised tostrengthen and expand the GGMN People Network in data sparseareas. At the same time, IGRAC is establishing automated datatransfer from national databases that are already available on-line.The long-term ambition of the GGMN is to provide an on-lineoverview of global groundwater changes on a monthly basis.

GLOBAL GROUNDWATER MONITOR ING NETWORK

A S S E S S I N G T H E W O R L D ’ S G R O U N D W A T E R

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The vast majority of countries share aquifers with their neighbours.Political, institutional, socio-economic, cultural and other differencesamong countries make the assessment and management ofinternationally shared aquifers challenging - especially in comparison toaquifers encompassed within national borders. Insufficient knowledge oftransboundary aquifers and a lack of mutually coordinated managementcan lead to undesirable changes in groundwater flow, quality and quantity.Accordingly, appropriate assessment and management of TransboundaryAquifers (TBAs) is necessary to prevent or mitigate groundwater problemsand to improve the overall benefits from groundwater.

In the last several years, assessment of transboundary aquifers hasbecome one of IGRAC’s main activities. The major transboundary aquiferassessment activities at IGRAC are carried out within the framework ofISARM - the Internationally Shared Aquifer Resource Managementprogramme (www.isarm.org), the UNECE assessments and the GEF -Global Environment Facility projects. In collaboration with these threeprogrammes maps of transboundary aquifers from across the world havebeen mapped. The results of the mapping are compiled in the IGRACmap Transboundary Aquifers of the World in 2009 and updated in 2012.

In 2005, IGRAC partnered with GEF to facilitate a forum on transboundarygroundwaters. Since then, IGRAC has become involved in the preparationand execution of various GEF International Waters projects such as IWLearn, IW Science, DIKTAS, and the Transboundary Waters AssessmentProgramme (TWAP).

For example, the DIKTAS project aims to improve understanding oftransboundary groundwater resources of the Dinaric region of South-EastEurope and to facilitate their equitable and sustainable utilisation. This

COLLABORAT IVE TRANSBOUNDARY AQU IFER ASSESSMENT

Abstractionof transboundaryground water

recharge recharge

Recharge contributingto transboundary flowState border

Aquitard

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includes the protection of unique karst groundwater dependentecosystems. Karst is a special type of geologic environmentcharacterised by almost total absence of surface water, highinfiltration rates and rapid underground flows of groundwater.More than 25 percent of the world’s population either lives on orobtains its water from karst aquifers. DIKTAS is the first everapplication of an integrated, transboundary managementapproach to regional karst water resources and ecosystems.

The objective of the GEF Transboundary Water Assessment Programme is toconduct a global baseline assessment of transboundary water systems,including groundwater. In the first project phase, IGRAC contributed to thedevelopment of the TWAP methodology. Currently, this methodology is underimplementation. IGRAC is also developing an information system to store,manage and disseminate information derived from the TWAP assessment.

Groundwater governance is of particular importance with aquifers acrosspolitical boundaries. Also IGRAC increasingly contributes to programmes ongroundwater governance through actions such as contributing to theformulation of the International Law Commission’s Draft Articles on the Law

of Transboundary Aquifers. IGRAC also stresses the importance ofusing data and information as the basis for groundwatermanagement. Access to this information is crucial to all stake-holders involved in groundwater governance. Therefore, IGRAC isactively contributing to the project Groundwater Governance – aGlobal Framework for Action. The project is designed to raiseawareness on the importance of groundwater resources for manyregions of the world, and to identify and promote best practices ingroundwater governance as a way to achieve the sustainablemanagement of groundwater resources.Transboundary Aquifers of the World

A S S E S S I N G T H E W O R L D ’ S G R O U N D W A T E R

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Over the years IGRAC has conducted global assessments to help groundwater professionalsunderstand the state of the art of highly relevant groundwater issues. IGRAC’s first globalassessments were inventories of fluoride and arsenic occurrence in groundwater throughoutthe world. The assessment reports produced in 2007 are accompanied by comprehensiveoverviews of methods developed for removal or mitigation of fluoride and arsenic fromcontaminated groundwater.

Artificial recharge techniques, also called Managed Aquifer Recharge or MAR for short, use thestorage capacity of aquifers to reserve groundwater in rainy seasons for use in dry periods.MAR is by far the most tangible climate change adaptation method in water resourcesmanagement. In 2006, IGRAC and the Acacia Institute implemented the project ArtificialRecharge of Groundwater in the World to improve visibility and dissemination of existinginformation and knowledge on MAR. A wealth of documentation on MAR, including informationon about 400 case-studies, is now available to the public via IGRAC’s portal.

In 2009, IGRAC carried out a major study entitled Global Overview of Saline GroundwaterOccurrence and Genesis. The purpose of thestudy was to improve the understanding ofbrackish and saline groundwater at shallow andintermediate depths, with an emphasis on theirgenesis and world -wide occurrence. The studyresulted in description, characterisation andgeographical delineation of the globaloccurrence of saline groundwater as well as indocumentation about how saline groundwater isobserved and managed in different parts of theworld.

GLOBAL GROUNDWATER INVENTOR IES

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180°150°E120°E90°E60°E30°E0°30°W60°W90°W120°W150°W180°

60°N

30°N

0°

30°S

60°S

Global Overview of Saline Groundwater Occurrence and Genesis

Scale 1 : 50 000 000

- draft version -International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre

© IGRAC 2009

Legend

Saline and brackish groundwater by genesisOccurrences at shallow and intermediate depths (less than approximately 500 m)

Marine origin

Transgression

Flooding

!! !! Lateral seawater intrusion & up-coning

Irrigation

Marine origin

Connate

Marine transgression

Lateral seawater intrusion & up-coning

Combination of connate, transgression and recent flooding

Natural terrestrial origin

Evaporation

Dissolution

Igneous activity hydrothermal mineral water

Combination of evaporation & dissolution

Irrigation

Pollution

Unspecified origin

Elevationice and > 8000 m

Sea Level : 0 m

Geographic elementsPolitical borders

lakes

rivers

© IGRAC, 2009IGRAC works under auspices of UNESCO and WMO,is hosted by DELTARES and funded by the government of the Netherlands through Partners for Water.

www.igrac.netinfo@igrac.net P.O. Box 85467 3508 AL Utrecht the Netherlands

Cartographic editing/GISF. van WeertJ. ReckmanJ. van der GunC.M. van Kempen

Base mapsGeographic features and shaded relief: ESRI data and maps (2006)Elevation: ETOPO1 (Amante, C. and B.W. Eakins, 2008)

Map projectionRobinson projection, geographic coordinates, spheroid WGS84, longitude of central meridian 0º.

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IGRAC actively seeks out venues to share the knowledge we acquire. Throughparticipation in global events for the water community as well as contributions topublications and consortiums relevant to water resources management, IGRACplays a role in the global dissemination of groundwater information and knowledge.IGRAC has also developed facilities to support on-line collaboration and hencebridge the gaps between face-to-face encounters.

Since IGRAC’s launch at the 3rd World Water Forum in Kyoto, we have continued tocontribute to this triennial event. Various reports, maps and promotional materialswere prepared for World Water Forums in Mexico, Istanbul and Marseille, in additionto contributions to sessions and organisation of side events. The annual StockholmWorld Water Week and IAH (International Association of Hydrogeologists)congresses are other global venues with regular contributions from IGRAC.

Over the years, IGRAC has established cooperation with over 100 organisations thatoperate at the global, regional and national level. We are a partner of UN-WATER www.unwater.org and an active member of Group on Earth Observationswww.earthobservations.org. We are also working on various projects with IAH, withthe WHYMAP hydrogeological mapping programme, with the Karst and MARcommissions, and with many others.

IGRAC has also produced reports, scientific papers, andnewsletters in the last several years. We have also contributed tobooks and assessments such as the World Water DevelopmentReport (WWDR), published every three years by United Nations.

KNOWLEDGE D ISSEMINAT ION AND PARTNERSH IPS

A S S E S S I N G T H E W O R L D ’ S G R O U N D W A T E R

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Given that groundwater constitutes 97% of the world’s unfrozen freshwaterresources, it is expected to play a crucial role in water security in the future. InAfrica, Latin America and Asia increasing access to groundwater resourceshas been a major catalyst of growth and development. Overall waterconsumption in developing countries is expected to grow 25% between theyears 2010 and 2025, due to increased demand for water intensive foods incombination with technological advancements and economic development.Also, if managed properly, groundwater use has the potential to combatimpacts of climate change. Consequently, IGRAC foresees playing a criticalrole in facing these future challenges.

IGRAC will continue to provide independent content and process support tothe assessment, monitoring and management ofinternationally shared groundwater resources. IGRAC alsoaims to grow further as the international water community’shub for groundwater information and knowledge-sharing.To this end, we will continue to advance our GlobalGroundwater Information System. We will also make theGlobal Groundwater Monitoring Network exhaustive inorder to provide data for regional and global groundwaterassessments and in particular for the assessment ofinternationally shared aquifers.

We look forward to continue making significantcontributions that will enhance the internationalcommunity’s efforts to understand, manage and protectthe world’s groundwater.

THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD ’S GROUNDWATER

15A S S E S S I N G T H E W O R L D ’ S G R O U N D W A T E R

IGRAC, the International Groundwater Resource

Assessment Centre facilitates and promotes

international sharing of information and

knowledge required for sustainable development,

management, and governance of groundwater

resources worldwide. Since 2003, IGRAC has

been providing independent content and process

support, focusing on transboundary aquifer

assessment and groundwater monitoring.

IGRACWestvest 72611 AX DelftThe Netherlands

T +31 15 215 2325E info@un-igrac.orgW www.un-igrac.org

Government of The Netherlands

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

World Metereological Organization

cover photo: Reuters/Novum

design: VastinVorm