third groundwater integration dialogue

1. Global assessment of groundwater systems in SIDS
Leszek BIALY, UNESCO-IHP

2. What is TWAP?
2 years project funded by GEF providing global baseline assessment
of transboundary water systems
Five components
Transboundary Aquifers, and SIDS groundwater
Transboundary River basins
Transboundary Lake Basins and Reservoirs
Large Marine Ecosystems (LME)
Open Ocean

4. SIDS
American Samoa
Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
Aruba
Barbados
Belau/Palau
British Virgin Islands
Cape Verde
Comoros
Cook Islands
C'wealth of the Northern
Marianas
Dominica
Federated State of Micronesia
Fiji
French Polynesia
Grenada
Guam
Jamaica
Kiribati
Maldives
Marshall Islands
Mauritius
Montserrat
Nauru
Netherlands Antilles
New Caledonia
Niue
Puerto Rico
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent &the Grenadines
Samoa
Sao Tome & Principe
Seychelles
Singapore
Solomon Islands
The Bahamas
Timor-Leste
Tonga
Trinidad & Tobago
Tuvalu
US Virgin Islands
Vanuatu

5. TBA Assessment Methodology
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. Groundwater management legal frameworks
10.Groundwater management institutional
frameworks
10 core indicators

6. Data collection - Questionnaires

7. Complementary research by SFU
• Predominant aquifer lithology
• Predominant type of voids (pores, fissures, fissured karst, mixed)
• Predominant hydraulic condition (confined, semi-confined, unconfined, mixed)
• Depth: range(min-max)and average (location of top in meters below surface)
• Thickness: range(min-max)and average (meters)
• Transmissivity: range and average
• Predominant sources of virgin recharge (precipitation, runoff influent streams, lakes, ect.)
• Mean annual virgin recharge
• Areal extent of recharge area
• Predominant sources of natural discharge
• Interlinked lakes, river systems and large marine ecosystems
• Stored volume of fresh groundwater
• Predominant natural groundwater quality

8. OUTPUT
• Categorization of each SIDS on the basis of its
geomorphologic nature
• Categorization of each SIDS, including an inventory
of collected data and information
• Conceptual(representative) hydrogeological cross
section for each representative SIDS
• Values of groundwater indicators for each SIDS –
including current state indicators and projected
groundwater stress indicators organized as best as
possible
• Summary profile for each SIDS
• GIS layers and related MS Access database
summarizing the attributes of each SIDS

9. Data base and Information Management System
•Documents
•Images
Geo-referenced
data:
•Core Indicators
•Main parameters
•Additional parameters
One aggregated
value per TBA or
SIDS
•Georeferenced Images
• Projections
Water GAP

10. Objectives
It is expected that the assessment will to find answers for following questions:
• What human and ecosystem users of the water resources are currently affected or
impaired (use of conflicts, depletion and degradation)
• How will water conditions and users develop during the next decades? Global
change is likely to produce increased pressures during the next decades, such as
higher water demands for food security/irrigation and domestic use, more
intensive use of fertilizers and nitrogen, and increasing seawater intrusion in costal
zones.
• Where will all this problems be occurring? Increasing droughts or floods are
observed in some areas and have been projected though modelling – these
projections will be incorporated and summarized in this assessment

11. Global Objectives
• The assessment will respond to the need of GEF International Waters and
many Official Development Assistance providers, IFIs and governments to
prioritize, and to focus scarce resources where they can be more cost-
effective in addressing groundwater concerns;
• It will allow to monitor evolving trends, and the impacts of GEF IW programs,
and those of other agencies and actors;
• It will bring to the global attention the vulnerability of water systems, and
catalyze action.

12. • Level 1 = baseline assessment: description and
indicator-based assessment of TBAs and SIDS
• Level 2 = in-depth assessment, limited number
of TBA case studies, extended set of indicators
Level 1 – Level 2 Assessment

13. Thank you