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Workshop on Global Monitoring of Groundwater Resources
[For the conclusions and the follow-up of the workshop go to the GGMN (Global Groundwater Monitoring Network) pages at this site.]
Around the world, groundwater resources are under the pressures of increasing human activities and climate change. Monitoring the aquifer variables is crucial for quantifying and understanding the consequences of these pressures. Often, groundwater variables are recorded at local scales, but such records are not routinely digitized, quality controlled, centralized, and made available to the public, save for a few regional networks.
Satellite and airborne observations are playing an increasingly important role in global water resources assessment, but coarse resolutions and other issues exist. Numerical models may be valuable, but their predictions are dubious when high quality input data are not available. A systematic approach for monitoring groundwater globally and with sufficient resolution is sorely needed. Such an approach must integrate all available information. Thus, convincing governments, agencies, and individuals to share relevant data for the benefit of all is central to this goal.
18-19 October 2007, Utrecht, The Netherlands