2012 NGWA Ground Water Summit: Innovate and Integrate

Around the World Tour of Nationwide Groundwater Monitoring—Examples from Several Countries at Various Stages of Network Planning, Design, Implementation, and Operation

Monday, May 7, 2012: 8:40 a.m.
Royal Ballroom A (Hyatt Regency Orange County)
Robert P. Schreiber, PE, BCEE, D.WRE, CDM Smith;

While the United States struggles to implement its National Groundwater Monitoring Network, as cited in a presentation by the Subcommittee on Ground Water (SOGW, of the federal Advisory Committee on Water Information, or ACWI), several other countries have completed various stages of their nationwide networks. The United States can learn from nations further along in the process, while also serving as a guide to countries just entering the early stages. This paper provides an overview of nationwide groundwater monitoring networks as a foundation for discussing countries at each stage, ranging from planning and design through implementation and operation.

Examples include nations within the European Union that have the Water Framework Directives (WFD) to guide their network implementation efforts. WFD implementation has proven to be both technically and administratively challenging, thus the EU experience provides a useful model for development and maintenance of monitoring networks in non-EU countries, including the United States.

In contrast, some countries in Africa have just begun network planning that includes comprehensive groundwater resource protection and restoration. Their efforts demonstrate the advantages of beginning this work with no pre-existing groundwater-focused legislation or regulatory framework, while also showing the considerable challenges they are facing.

Additional examples come from South Asia and the South Pacific. New Zealand implemented nationwide water resource monitoring including groundwater several years ago, and thus serves as an example similar to the WRD-driven countries in the European Union. In India, monitoring network planning has progressed through early stages of implementation, including evaluation of benefits and costs. Given the large population and significant stresses on groundwater resources in India, this example offers insights that can prove valuable to other similar countries.