1. 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, April 2016
Daniela Benedicto van Dalen
Groundwater: Making the Invisible Visible

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

3. 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

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

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

6. 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

7. Groundwater in Europe - challange
Groundwater GIS reference layer – EEA 2013
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.

8. Transboundary Aquifer Assessment

9. 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.

10. GGIS Viewers
Country-based Information
Aquifer-based Information

11. 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

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

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

14. For more information, please, visit IGRAC’s portal

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