Programme

Groundwater is world's most important, best protected and most exploited freshwater resource. It is intensively used by man; it is the prime source for drinking water supply and irrigation, hence critical to the global water-food-energy security nexus. But also for sustaining low flow requirements and ecological values of groundwater dependent ecosystems, the contribution by groundwater flow is essential. Groundwater therefore needs to be managed wisely, protected and especially sustainably used. These requirements are also expressed in Integrated Water Resources Management concepts, as e.g. in the European Water Framework Directive. Under a changing environment, climate, land use, population growth, etc., this task becomes a challenge especially in the light of limited data availability and consequential uncertainties. From arid over humid to arctic regions, in every type of climate changing environmental conditions become apparent and have very different local to regional hydrological effects.
In this session, we invite contributions which identify new consequences of a changing environment for future management, protection, and sustainable use of groundwater by applying integrative modelling, including water quantity and quality investigations as well as field observational studies. Methodologies, strategies, case studies and quantitative techniques for dealing with uncertainty or limited data availability are particularly welcome. We encourage studies describing how groundwater resources benefit from an Integrated Water Resources Management approaches. Furthermore, contributions describing case studies and innovative techniques for adaptive management and protection of groundwater resources such as artificial recharge and conjunctive use are desired.