Proposals

Many developing countries do not have a programme for systematic groundwater monitoring (IGRAC-report: "Worldwide inventory on groundwater monitoring, March 2004"). Without such monitoring programme a quantitative evaluation of available groundwater resources cannot be made. Also negative impacts, such as depletion of groundwater resources or serious contamination cannot be monitored. IGRAC proposes to establish a guideline on "baseline groundwater monitoring" for interested countries. Baseline monitoring would cover the most relevant aquifers with a minimum of representative monitoring stations. Data collection would focus on monitoring only critical groundwater data, against affordable low budgets.

Many existing groundwater-monitoring programmes are being conducted without a clear view on actual data requirements. By adjusting these programmes to critically reviewed objectives their effectiveness and efficiency can be considerably improved. Wrongly directed expenses on observation, sampling and laboratory work can be significantly reduced and may be invested in more useful activities. IGRAC proposes to develop a "guide for evaluation groundwater monitoring programmes", to be used for critical assessment of the performance of on-going monitoring programmes against the data requirements of relevant user groups. The guide may also give information on financial aspects, provide arguments for new monitoring proposals, and is expected to contribute to uniformity in groundwater monitoring world-wide.

One of the basic issues addressed by a groundwater development and/or management plan for a certain aquifer or area is the maximum aggregate rate of groundwater abstraction to be permitted. This quantity, often called 'exploitable groundwater resource(s)', ranks among the main objectives of groundwater assessment studies carried out all over the world. In spite of the immense importance of this parameter, it is surprising that observational programmes and methodologies to define the exploitable groundwater resources as observed in practice have often a rather poor conceptual basis. As a result, advises on the development and management of groundwater given to planners and politicians may be unrealistic and lead to a wide range of problems. IGRAC proposes to develop a guide with methods for determining "exploitable groundwater resources", with due attention for selecting the most appropriate method under given specific conditions.

Lack of groundwater data or incomplete, inaccurate or even false data may seriously hamper (ground) water studies and cause important negative impacts on decisions taken by water managers. Quality assurance and control procedures are essential tools to prevent incompleteness, to optimise data consistency and uniformity and to analyse and minimise errors and uncertainty. IGRAC proposes to develop a guideline for quality assurance of data collection, processing, analysis, and interpretation of a selected sector of groundwater data, to be defined later. Besides assuring data quality, the guideline should provide insight into the weakest links in the data collection and processing chain. It should also provide insight into the impacts that implementation has on the resulting groundwater information, such as figures, maps and graphs, used by water managers.