Groundwater: Making the Invisible Visible IGRAC – Making the invisible visible European Experience It’s a great pleasure to be here today and talk a little bit about IGRAC’s activities and also about our experience in Europe. I would like to thanks Wilko for the invitation…. 30th WORKING GROUP GROUNDWATER PLENARY MEETING Amersfoort-NL, 11-12 April 2016 Daniela Benedicto van Dalen Groundwater: Making the Invisible Visible

Content What is IGRAC? IGRAC activities Assessment of groundwater resources in Europe Transboundary aquifer assessment GGIS - Global Groundwater Information System Global Groundwater Monitoring

What is 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 Focus: - information and knowledge management, - transboundary aquifer assessment and - groundwater monitoring Receives financial support from the Government of The Netherlands IGRAC’s mission is to contribute to world-wide availability of relevant information and knowledge on the groundwater resources of the world, with particular emphasis on developing countries, in order to support sustainable utilisation and management of the groundwater resources, to promote the role of groundwater in integrated water resources planning and elucidate the impact of groundwater on the ecosystems of the Earth. Main objective “promoting sustainable groundwater resources utilisation and management by means of global exchange of knowledge” In-house partner of UNESCO-IHE in Delft, The Netherlands

Groundwater in Europe 2nd assessment of transboundary rivers, lakes and groundwater - UNECE Published in august 2011

Groundwater in Europe DIKTAS project Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro Improving state of knowledge Establishing/improving cooperation mechanisms Facilitating harmonisation & priority reforms

Groundwater in Europe - TWAP Structured TBA database Multi-disciplinary assessment methodology Reinforced international networks Interactive Information Management System Assessment report of transboundary aquifers worldwide (199 aquifers and 43 SIDS) including TBA information sheets in the IMS

Groundwater in Europe - challange Groundwater GIS reference layer – EEA 2013 13.345 polygons GWBs 8.193 at transboundary location 268 reported transnational GWBs The polygons indicate some gaps of information concerning delineation. Delineation is of particular interest for the assessment of transboundary aquifers.

Transboundary Aquifer Assessment

Meta Information Module Global Groundwater Information System Meta Information Module documents, people and organizations Together with regional hydrogeologists, IGRAC is working on assessment of transboundary aquifers. The results are stored in the Global Groundwater Information System. GGIS shows delineation of the aquifers and the main aquifer attributes. It has two basic functions: to overview and compare, by browsing and searching. https://ggis.un-igrac.org

GGIS Viewers Country-based Information Aquifer-based Information

GGIS impression of functionalities Generate new information by making overlays of thematic maps Use of WMS - Web Mapping Service Analyze data by using filters / queries

Global Groundwater Monitoring Network GGMN is a participative, web- based network of networks, containing measurements and aggregated estimations GGMN GGMN People Network GGMN Portal

Global Groundwater Monitoring Network GGMN in Europe Portugal France Switzerland Germany Belgium Netherlands Norway Sweden

For more information, please, visit IGRAC’s portal www.un-igrac.org

info@un-igrac.org www.un-igrac.org Delft, The Netherlands World Meteorological Organization Government of The Netherlands