From 15-19 September, the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) organised its 41st edition of the IAH International Congress. The venue of this annual event was the Royal Mogador Agdal Hotel in Marrakech, Morocco. Dr. Neno Kukuric and Ms. Laura del Val Alonso represented IGRAC during this congress and gave several presentations.
Global Groundwater Information System 2.0
On Tuesday, Ms Del Val Alonso presented the IGRAC's Global Groundwater Information System (GGIS) 2.0. IGRAC is currently developing this improved 2.0 version, which will be launched by the end of 2014. During her presentation, Del Val Alonso showed the progress of the software development and explained how the accessibility, performance and user friendliness of the refurbished GGIS will be improved.
Transboundary Waters Assessment Programme
Ms Del Val Alonso also presented in another session on Thursday, the 'First Global Baseline Assessment of Transboundary Aquifers: Food for Cooperation'. During this session, she gave an overview of the objectives and methodology of the groundwater component of the Transboundary Waters Assessment Programme (TWAP). TWAP is a two year project funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and executed by UNESCO with the assistance of IGRAC. TWAP aims to conduct the first global baseline assessment of transboundary water systems. Ms Del Val Alonso also presented examples of the information potential for the final database which is being build up in this project. The data of TWAP groundwater will be made available to the public through the GGIS 2.0.
The presentation is available here. Please note that the presentation contains slides with examples based on preliminary, incomplete data sets. These examples are not representative of the final data sets.
Global Groundwater Monitoring Network
Dr. Neno Kukuric, Director of IGRAC, led the session 'Groundwater Monitoring: Building Blocks for International Water Cooperation' on Thursday. At this session, Kukuric gave more information regarding the Global Groundwater Monitoring Network (GGMN), which facilitates periodic assessments of changes in groundwater quantity and quality by aggregating data and information from existing groundwater monitoring networks and regional hydrogeological knowledge.
IAH International Congress 2015
The next IAH International Congress will be hosted by Rome, Italy, and will be held from 13 to 18 September 2015. IAH has recently announced that the name of this 42nd international congress will be 'AQUA2015' and the overall theme will be: 'Back to the Future', conjugating previous experience with future tools and needs.