Establish a functional groundwater network that supports collaboration on groundwater-related issues and challenges and makes developed tools and acquired information from the scienctific community visible and and transferred these tools and information into practice!
Groundwater is a valuable resource that must be protected, since in Switzerland ~80% of drinking water is obtained from groundwater (incl. spring water). Particularly powerful groundwater deposits are often located along large river courses, which often represent heavily populated areas of Switzerland. Contamination from various sources, anthropogenic influences on the hydrogeological system, and climate change have a major impact on groundwater quality and quantity. In order to grasp and better understand hydrogeological issues and challenges under the pressure of new developments and to work on missing basics, there is a great need for a continuous competence building, technical support and a smooth Switzerland-wide exchange between research and practice. To make a significant contribution to this, the CH-GNet network was created.
Through the work of the CH-GNet, the current but also future research central questions are to be made "explicit". Information, developed tools and findings from science are processed and made available to practice. This represents a contribution of research and CH-GNet to society. Purely scientific facts are developed for the respective main topics. The support of the practice are central here. In the long run, the visibility of groundwater research and the exchange with practice in Switzerland shall be increased.
World Water Day 2022, the United Nations is turning the spotlight on our groundwater - an invisible treasure.
Presentations and media releases on World Water Day and groundwater can be found here.
Grundwasser der unsichtbare Schatz
Schweizer Grundwasser wie geht es dir?
Weltwassertag 2022: Grundwasser ein unsichtbarer Schatz
Grundwasservortrag "Das unsichtbare sichtbar machen“
The United Nations World Water Development Report 2022
Birdsall-Dreiss Distinguished Lecture - Prof. Abraham E Springer, School of Earth and Sustainability, Northern Arizona University
Recorded Eawag Seminar by Prof. Abraham E Springer, organized by Eawag and CH-GNet, who talk about "The Stories Told by Springs - Birdsall-Dreiss Distinguished Lecture"
Available here
Special Issue:
"Groundwater and agriculture" in the journal Grundwasser.
Courses:
Workshops:
Conferences:
Talks:
Webinar Series - CH-GNet: Interaction of Agriculture, Water Supply, Research, Cantons and Authorities for Sustainable Groundwater Resource Management organized by the Swiss Groundwater Network (CH-GNet) on 01.12.2022 from 13:00 -14:00.
The speaker Dr. Joel Podgorski is a Senior Scientist at Eawag. Joel studied geology and geophysics in North America before later completing a PhD in geophysics at ETH to model aquifer structures and water quality. At Eawag, he uses machine learning to produce predictive maps of, for example, arsenic and fluoride in groundwater at national to global scales. He coordinates the Groundwater Assessment Platform (www.gapmaps.org) and is also a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of the UN Environment-led World Water Quality Alliance. Joel will give a presentation based on 3 theses followed by a question and discussion session.
The theses for this presentation are:
1. there is increasing use of "Artificial Intelligence (AI)" in groundwater studies and groundwater quality predictions.
2. modeling examples of geogenic grass water contamination in data-poor regions help to assess the spatial hazard situation and improve the local water use situation....
3. are there needs to apply AI also in Switzerland, e.g. for nitrate predictions to better characterize the affected areas and develop local measures?
The event will take place online via Zoom. You will receive the necessary information to participate in the pdf (click on the document below) or by mail (subscribe to the newsletter).
We are pleased to invite you to the First Swiss National Workshop on Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) for hydro-meteorological risk reduction. The event will be held online on June 8, 2022 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The workshop is organised in the context of the EU-funded RECONECT project, which aims to demonstrate, reference, up-scale and exploit large-scale NBS in rural and natural areas. The project grounds itself on three mail pillars: Water, Nature and People. In the workshop, by discussing case studies, we will exchange on why it is of utmost importance that these elements blend together for public acceptance and successful realisation of NBS. The workshop will be an venue where to discuss current hindrances in the design and realisation of NBS but more importantly the possible solutions to overcome them.
Attached (Click on the PDF document on the right) you can find the tentative programme of the workshop, which is composed of one block to provide an introduction to NBS for river restoration, four blocks to present NBS case studies relative to (i) the floodplain, (ii) the drinking water production, (iii) the urban landscape and (iv) the agricultural context. Plenty of time for discussion will be allocated at the end of the presentations.
Please register your participation to the workshop by filling up the online form at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdHl8L4xUKAw4bUf9nRDw9GMHO7nId3S5NQx6RPwXgcNux3qw/viewform?usp=sf_link. After pressing the “Send” button, you will see the link to the Zoom meeting. Please copy it in your calendar. We will still send a remainder email with the details of the meeting 24 hours before the workshop to the registered participants. Should you not have the Zoom link or not receive the remainder email, please email us at the contact email address below: daniele.lacecilia@eawag.ch