1. International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC)
G. Jousma
June 2004

2. What is IGRAC? An initiative of UNESCO and WMO (1999)
Principle: global sharing of information and knowledge for optimal and sustainable groundwater resources development and management
Centre with a non-commercial profile
Hosted by the Netherlands Institute of Applied Geoscience TNO at Utrecht, The Netherlands
Operating under auspices of UNESCO and WMO
Receiving financial support from the Dutch government for the initial years
Developing activities since early 2003

3. Why IGRAC has been established
Groundwater is extremely important, often highly vulnerable and sometimes difficult to develop
Activities at a supra-national or global level may create very significant additional value:
understanding regional or global processes and patterns
management of transboundary aquifers
internationally consistent data collection and monitoring
promoting groundwater in water resources planning

4. Scope of activities (3 clusters)
Establishing a web-based Global Groundwater Information System (GGIS)
Promoting use of Guidelines and/or protocols for groundwater data acquisition and groundwater monitoring (G&P)
Co-operate in global or regional projects or programmes with a significant groundwater component

5. Cluster1: Global Groundwater Information System (GGIS)
Map of countries and groundwater regions of the world with
lumped attribute sets for each of the spatial units
Global
Overview
Selected (and standardised) information on groundwater systems or themes
Detailed
ground-
water
info
Meta-information on groundwater and Collaborative Environment
Services
and
enabling
environ-
ment

6. GGIS Global Overview on-line

7. Cluster 2: Guidelines and Protocols
Inventory of
1. guidelines &
protocols
2. monitoring
practices
Inventory reports on
1. guidelines and protocols
2. monitoring practices
Planning new (updates of)
guidelines and protocols
Improved access
to guidelines
and protocols
(web site)
International working groups
New or updated
guidelines and protocols

11. Groundwater Monitoring Inventory and Proposals for support
IGRAC’s world-wide inventory on groundwater monitoring practice shows 3 “levels”:
level 1: countries with no systematic monitoring going on
level 2: countries with systematic monitoring - far from optimal
level 3: countries with very advanced monitoring systems
IGRAC proposals for working groups:
for level 1: A guideline on "Baseline groundwater monitoring”
for level 2: A guide for “evaluating and optimizing” groundwater monitoring programmes

12. What can be IGRAC’s role in relation to WFD ?
Assist in exporting WFD experience to other continents ?
Provide information on experiences from elsewhere ? (for instance: “HP-India”)
Use IGRAC on-line facilities to promote and support international co-operation and discussion on water-related issues ?
Other ?