Brief introduction to the activities of the Water Resources Expert Group (WREG) of the EuroGeoSurveys at the UNECE Resources Management Week, 2019

1. 40 Years Listening to the Beat of the Earth
Klaus Hinsby, WREG chair
Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland
Activities of the Water Resources
Expert Group (WREG)
UNECE Resources Management Week, 2019,
UNFC and UNRMS for Europe,
Palais de Nations, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

2. WREG members
Chair and co-chairs: Klaus Hinsby (GEUS), Hans Peter Broers
(TNO), Laurence Gourcy (BRGM), Anna Kuczynska (PGI)
+ > 60 members from current EU member states and Norway

3. WREG MISSION & ACTIVITIES
Sustainable management and geoethical use
of groundwater resources for current and
future generations and protection of:
Groundwater eligible uses: drinking water, irrigation and
industry*
Groundwater dependent terrestrial and associated aquatic
ecosystems (incl. marine ecosystems)*
*According to the Water Framework and Groundwater directives and
associated guidelines

4. CURRENT AND FUTURE MAIN RESEARCH AND POLICY
SUPPORT ACTIVITIES
Conducting groundwater research and identifying knowledge gaps for the
EU research agenda on (ground)water incl. Horizon 2020/Europe, JPI, ERDF,
BONUS etc. – e.g. in GeoERA (Horizon 2020 ERA-NET)
Support and advise to DG-ENV of the European Commission related to the
Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) of the Water Framework Directive
and the CIS Working Group on Groundwater incl. contributions to guidance
Contributions to future activities in the new UNFC Working Group on
Groundwater
Convening / co-convening groundwater related sessions at relevant
conferences and meetings – e.g. EGU, AGU, IAH and UNECE/UNFC/UNRMS

5. Groundwater – one of 4 research themes
in the GeoERA program (www.geoera.eu):
EGDI /
www.europe-geology.eu
Tessa Witteman
TNO

6. GeoERA - Groundwater
Main objective: To provide groundwater data and knowledge for the assessment
and protection of groundwater resources and EGDI, and to support EU policy
1) Protection from Surface activities 2) Protection from shallow and deep
subsurface activities

7. GeoERA groundwater : the four groundwater projects and their
main contributions to the GeoERA Information Platform / EGDI
EGDI
HOVER
RESOURCE
TACTIC
VoGERA
HOVER:
GW Quality and age
(include development of gw age
classification system defining
pristine and contaminated gw
VoGERA:
GW vulnerability to
deep energy related
activities (mainly reports
from pilots in UK, NL, BE &
HU to EGDI)
TACTIC:
GW and climate change
(e.g. Pan EU GW recharge map and +40 pilots
across Europe to EGDI)
RESOURCE:
GW Quantity
(e.g. Pan EU gw resource map
and pilots to EGDI)
Synergy on Pan EU gw resource and
recharge map

8. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and
innovation programme under grant agreement No 731166
HELP US BUILD THE EUROPEAN SUBSURFACE INFORMATION PLATFORM (EGDI)
FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND GEOETHICAL EXPLOITATION OF
SUBSURFACE RESOURCES
8GeoERA
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION 
http://www.europe-geology.eu/
PLEASE VISIT THE GeoERA website: http://geoera.eu/ and ..