1. A Global Monitoring of Groundwater Resources International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre Sophie Vermooten, Hydrogeologist Koblenz, September 2007

2. What is IGRAC? l A non-profit centre that facilitates and promotes global sharing of information and knowledge required for sustainable groundwater resources development and management. l An initiative of UNESCO and WMO from 1999, l Launched at WWF3 in Kyoto in Spring 2003, l Receives financial support from the Dutch government, l Hosted by TNO, Subsurface and Groundwater unit at Utrecht (NL) l From January 2008, this unit will be part of new Dutch institute called DELTARES together with WL delft hydraulics, Geodelft and parts of RIZA and RIKZ

3. Groundwater represents globally: 96% of the fresh ’fluid’ water 23% of the irrigation water 53% of public water demand 97% of rural drinking water

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8. Groundwater Monitoring: Inventories and Database l Inventory of existing guidelines and protocols for groundwater assessment and monitoring l World-wide inventory of groundwater monitoring

9. Groundwater Monitoring: Inventories and Database

10. GGMS Global Groundwater Monitoring System

11. Global Groundwater Monitoring System (GGMS) l No systematic monitoring and assessment of groundwater change on global scale. l IGRAC intends to establish a sustainable GGMS for a periodic assessment of the global change of groundwater resources l GGMS postulates: l A system rather then a network – use of existing networks l Aggregated groundwater information carried out by regional specialists, involving point measurements and proxy values l Web-based collection, analysis and dissemination of information

12. GGMS: use of existing networks l Why not a new network? l Extremely difficult to set up and sustain (incentives and mandate), l Favorable position of IGRAC as UNESCO/WMO centre. l Inventory on: l Networks/programmes which gather groundwater data (aggregated or not) l Networks/programmes that use data collection procedures potentially applicable for the GGMS l The people networks that might be useful to get data

13. GGMS: the aggregation procedure l Why aggregated information? l Limited representativeness of point measurements (aggregation using the expert knowledge and proxy values) l Obstacles related to international exchange of data (aggregated value is derived information). l Yet to be defined (by an expert group next month) l Monitoring density (grid uniform for all the countries and all the variables?) l Monitoring frequency (monthly, yearly) l Monitoring variables (levels, quality, groundwater use…) l Aggregated and also (by regional expert) derived values?

14. GGMS: the web-based system l Why web-based system? l Easy reporting and analysis tool (only a browser required), l A control over information provided, l Involvement and recognition. l A prototype developed (ArcGIS9.2 & Oracle) l An operational version : l Implemented country estimation/ aggregation procedure l A simple upload of proxy data l Transboundary harmonisation and global aggregation l Presentation functionality (spatial & time-series outputs) l Download facility

16. GGMS: synergy with Remote Sensing l Interpretation of GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) observations as a complementary approach to the terrestrial measurements l Use of other Remote Sensing techniques for the groundwater monitoring on regional scale

17. GGMS: synergy with Global Models l Use of regional/global hydrological models for simulation and prediction purposes

18. l IGWCO/GARS/UNESCO groundwater group: The second meeting/workshop at IGRAC, 18-19 October 2007 GGMS: the further steps l GRAPHIC (Groundwater Resources Assessment under the Pressures of Humanity and Climate Change) l GEO Water Task WA-06-05 (global in-situ water observations) l EC FP7 Environment

19. Our questions l Are there possibilities/opportunities to join existing networks (people networks) l What is your experience when gathering data on a country level?

20. Thank you for your attention www.igrac.nl