1. Aquifer Characterisation, Indicators and
Information Management
Dr Neno Kukuric, IGRAC

2. Groundwater from Global Perspective
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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

3. IGRAC Portal
www.un-igrac.org

4. Trans-Boundary Aquifer (TBA) Assessment
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The fact: many aquifers cross the political borders
Potential cross-boundary problems: changes in flow, levels, volumes (quantity) and
dissolved substances (quality)
Actions: adequate
monitoring and assessment;
joint management
Benefits: eliminating potential
sources of conflict and
improving the overall
benefit from groundwater.

5. Transboundary Aquifer Assessment
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ISARM – Internationally Shared Aquifer Resources Management
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UNECE Assessments in Europe and Asia
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Participation in GEF (Global Environment Facility)
projects
Development of a TBA Methodology and
a TBA Course, contribution to UNILC, WWAP, …
Transboundary Aquifers of the World Map

6. ISARM Portal
www.isarm.org

7. Transboundary Aquifer Assessment

8. TBA Aquifer Assessment
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Hydrogeological Aspect
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Delineation and description
Classification, diagnostic analysis and zoning
Data harmonisation and information management
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Environmental issues
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Socio-economic framework
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Institutional settings
International legal framework

9. TBA Aquifer Assessment
Multi Country
Consultative
Body
Data collection
(mainly existing)
Data
harmonisation
TBA
assessment
Proposal for
harmonised
monitoring
Sustainable
management
of TBA

10. 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)

11. 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

12. Data Harmonisation

14. 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)

15. Transboundary Aquifer Indicators
Pretashkent
Trifinio
Stampriet
Data collection
Data
Aggregation
Indicator based
Assessment
Comparison
of
TBAs (TWAP)

16. Transboundary Aquifer Indicators
Core indicators (TWAP)
Additional indicators
1. Mean annual groundwater recharge
depth
2. Annual amount of renewable
groundwater resources per capita
3. Natural background groundwater
quality
4. Human dependency on groundwater
5. Groundwater depletion
6. Groundwater pollution
7. Population density
8. Groundwater development stress
9. Transboundary legal framework
10. Transboundary institutional framework
1.
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Aquifer buffering capacity
Aquifer vulnerability to climate change
Aquifer vulnerability to pollution
Human dependency on groundwater for
domestic water supply
5. Human dependency on groundwater for
agricultural water supply
6. Human dependency on groundwater for
industrial water supply
7. Ecosystem dependency on groundwater
8. Prevalence of springs
9. Control of groundwater abstraction
10. Groundwater quality protection

17. Renewable Groundwater Per Capita
1. Low: < 1000 m3/yr/capita
2. Medium: 1000 – 5000 m3/yr/capita
3. High: > 5000 m3/yr/capita
Long term mean recharge volume, incl. man-made components, divided by
inhabitants on aquifer.

18. Groundwater Development Stress =
Abstraction/Recharge
1. Very low: < 2%
2. Low: 2-20%
3. Medium: 20-50%
4. High: 50-100%
5. Very high: > 100%
Total annual groundwater abstraction divided by
long-term mean annual recharge.

19. 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

20. GGIS - Global Groundwater Information System
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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 )

21. GGIS: Country-based and TBA-based Approach
Country-based information
Transboundary Aquifer –based
information

22. Transboundary Aquifer Assessment – detailed
Aggregated values
(Spatially) distributed values
(point data, vectors, polygons, imagines, ..)

23. Global Groundwater Information System
Accessibility
Interactivity
User Friendliness
Ownership
Agreements
Authorisation

24. Monitoring of Groundwater Change
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GGMN, Global Groundwater Monitoring Network is a participative, webbased network of networks, containing measurements and aggregated
estimations
GGMN

25. Monitoring of Groundwater Change

26. Final remarks
Climate change and human impact on groundwater
resources does not stop at the country borders

27. Thank you for your attention
info@un-igrac.org
www.un-igrac.org
Delft, The Netherlands
Government of
The Netherlands
United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization
World Meteorological
Organization