Aquifer Characterisation, Indicators and Information Management

Dr Neno Kukuric, IGRAC

IGRAC - International Groundwater Resource Assessment Centre (since 2003) is UNESCO and WMO groundwater centre

IGRAC facilitates and promotes global sharing of information and knowledge required for sustainable groundwater resources development and management

Focused on information and knowledge management, transboundary aquifer assessment and groundwater monitoring

Receives financial support from the Government of The Netherlands

In-house partner of UNESCO-IHE in Delft, The Netherlands

Groundwater from Global Perspective

www.un-igrac.org

IGRAC Portal

The fact: many aquifers cross the political borders

Potential cross-boundary problems: changes in flow, levels, volumes (quantity) and dissolved substances (quality)

Benefits: eliminating potentialsources of conflict and improving the overall benefit from groundwater.

Trans-Boundary Aquifer (TBA) Assessment

Actions: adequate monitoring and assessment; joint management

Transboundary Aquifer Assessment

ISARM – Internationally Shared Aquifer Resources Management

UNECE Assessments in Europe and Asia

Participation in GEF (Global Environment Facility) projects

Development of a TBA Methodology anda TBA Course, contribution to UNILC, WWAP, …

Transboundary Aquifers of the World Map

www.isarm.org

ISARM Portal

Transboundary Aquifer Assessment

TBA Aquifer Assessment

Environmental issues Socio-economic framework Institutional settings International legal framework

Hydrogeological Aspect Delineation and description Classification, diagnostic analysis and zoning Data harmonisation and information management

Data collection(mainly existing)

Data harmonisation

TBAassessment

Proposal for harmonised monitoring

Multi CountryConsultative

Body

Sustainable management

of TBA

TBA Aquifer Assessment

Type of data needed

• Hydrogeological: parameters and variables– System boundaries, transmissivity, groundwater levels, rainfall, recharge,

etc• Environmental conditions

– Pollution (natural and anthropogenic), groundwater dependent ecosystems, aquifer vulnerability

• Socio-economic– Population density, dependency on groundwater (domestic, agriculture,

industry)• Legal / Institutional

– Water laws, regulations and agreements, characterisation of water management institutions (both: use and protection)

Data collection

• Sources:– Country data at aquifer level: Mainly existing data– Some global data-sets from TWAP (e.g. population)– Maybe some in-situ data collection (if feasible)

• Tools:– Questionnaires– Protocols

• Who: – National Experts (National Technical TBA Groups) – Coordination by Regional Coordination Focal Point – Support from IGRAC

Data Harmonisation

Transboundary Aquifer Indicators

• Indicators:Smart combinations of variables in order to describe the complex aquifer system in easy to understand and intuitive way

• To enable comparison of TBAs:Indicators will be aggregated per TBA and per national segment (1 value per TBA/national segment)

Comparison of

TBAs (TWAP)

Data collection Data Aggregation

Indicator basedAssessment

Trifinio

Stampriet

Pretashkent

Transboundary Aquifer Indicators

Core indicators (TWAP)

1. Mean annual groundwater recharge depth

2. Annual amount of renewable groundwater resources per capita

3. Natural background groundwater quality

4. Human dependency on groundwater5. Groundwater depletion6. Groundwater pollution7. Population density8. Groundwater development stress9. Transboundary legal framework10. Transboundary institutional frameworkAdditional indicators

11. Aquifer buffering capacity12. Aquifer vulnerability to climate change13. Aquifer vulnerability to pollution14. Human dependency on groundwater for

domestic water supply15. Human dependency on groundwater for

agricultural water supply16. Human dependency on groundwater for

industrial water supply17. Ecosystem dependency on groundwater18. Prevalence of springs19. Control of groundwater abstraction20. Groundwater quality protection

Transboundary Aquifer Indicators

Renewable Groundwater Per Capita

Long term mean recharge volume, incl. man-made components, divided by inhabitants on aquifer.

1. Low: < 1000 m3/yr/capita2. Medium: 1000 – 5000 m3/yr/capita3. High: > 5000 m3/yr/capita

Total annual groundwater abstraction divided by long-term mean annual recharge.

1. Very low: < 2%2. Low: 2-20%3. Medium: 20-50%4. High: 50-100%5. Very high: > 100%

Groundwater Development Stress = Abstraction/Recharge

Groundwater Information Management System

Purpose of Groundwater Information Management System:• Supports the assessment process and

serves as a TBA management tool through: collection, storage, visualisation, analysis and sharing information

• Contemporary ITC allows easy access and easy maintenance of web-based systems– Structural data & information storage

(and on-line visualisation and processing) – project outcomes are preserved, easily available

and reusable

GGIS - Global Groundwater Information System

Global Overview (ca 70 world maps showing aggregated groundwater related attributes per country)

Meta Information Module (people, organisations, documents)

Global Groundwater Monitoring Network (facilitate monitoring the state of global groundwater resources)

Collaborative Environment (forum facility, on-line project archive )

Country-based information

Transboundary Aquifer –basedinformation

GGIS: Country-based and TBA-based Approach

Aggregated values

(Spatially) distributed values(point data, vectors, polygons, imagines, ..)

Transboundary Aquifer Assessment – detailed

AccessibilityInteractivity

User Friendliness

Ownership Agreements

Authorisation

Global Groundwater Information System

Monitoring of Groundwater Change GGMN, Global Groundwater Monitoring Network is a participative, web-

based network of networks, containing measurements and aggregated estimations

GGMN

Monitoring of Groundwater Change

Final remarks

Climate change and human impact on groundwater resources does not stop at the country borders

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

World Meteorological Organization

Government of The Netherlands

info@un-igrac.orgwww.un-igrac.org

Delft, The Netherlands

Thank you for your attention