IWRA Executive Office

abstract 133

eWater: The European multilingual ground water information system.

Author(s):
E. Balloffet (1), A. Tchistiakov (2), J. Theelen (3), B. Dumont(3), D. A. Rotar-Szalakai(4), P. Nagy(3), J.Rodriguez(5), D. Capova(6), J. Belickas(7), M.Hansen(8). 1 Geological Survey of France, Orleans, France 2 The Geological Survey of the Netherla

Keyword(s): European, multilingual, groundwater, information system, monitoring, data

Article:

Poster:

Session: OS5d Transboundary water issues

AbstractProject objectives
Hydrogeological data is

currently stored in national databases and available exclusively for a national user in a local language. Therefore the

data across the national borders forms separated, uncorrelated, not interoperable data sets. As the result much of the

hydrogeological spatial information is not involved in cross-border ground water management. At the same time geo

-data market research shows that the hydrogeological data is of great market demand, occupying the second

position in the rating list immediately after the data on rock composition (lithology).
The main objective of the new

EC co-funded project “Multilingual cross-border access to ground water databases” (eWater) is to increase the

cross-border availability, accessibility and re-usability of spatial data on quality, location and use of subsurface

waters. This is to be achieved via development of an Internet system that provides cross-border multi-lingual access

to ground water spatial data sets stored in the national databases of the participating countries. The system primarily

concern groundwater monitoring measurements, such as water level and chemical composition, as well as digital

hydrogeological maps (www.eWater.eu ).
Consortium
The project lasts from September 2006 to August

2008. It involves twelve Geological Surveys and three commercial data service companies:
1. The

Geological Survey of the Netherlands(TNO)
2. Geological Survey of France (BRGM)
3.

Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS)
4. Geological Institute of Hungary (MAFI)

5. Geofond – Czech Geological Survey
6. Geological Survey of Slovak Republic (GSSR)
7.

Geological, Seismic and Soil Survey of Emilia-Romagna Region; the Emilia-Romagna Regional geological office

(SGSS ) is a part of the Italian Geological Survey.
8. Geological Survey of Austria (GBA)
9.

Lithuanian Geological Survey (LGT)
10. Geological Survey of Slovenia (GeoZS)
11. The Geological

Survey of Spain (IGME)
12. Geological Survey of Sweden (SGU)
------------------
13.

Informacines technologijos (Information Technologies (IT), Lithuania)
14. Geodan Mobile Solutions (the

Netherlands)
15. G.I.M. Geographic Information Management NV (Belgium)
Results
Prior developing

the eWater system we analyzed organizational and institutional aspects of ground water data management at the

national levels that are considerably different in the participating countries. Then we collected the information

regarding availability and interoperability of hydrogeological maps. Further we analysed the existing technical

solutions (Best Practices) regarding description, collection, storing, retrieving, evaluating and distributing

hydrogeological data. Afterwards we identified the requirements for data delivery at EU and national users’ levels.

Based on the results of the research we developed eWater system prototype that would be converted to the

operational system by August 2008.
The distinguishable features of the eWater system are:
1. It’s

central web portal is designed as a focal point for publishing the hydrogeological data from participating EU

countries
2. It provides common user interfaces into different national databases
3. From

different countries, having various database structures, it delivers common data sets in a unified XML format.
4.

It offers on-fly-translation services for user interfaces and data itself
5. A special eWater-Mobile

module enables water specialists, operating in the field, to check recent groundwater measurement by means of a

mobile handheld computer (PDA in combination with GPS).

Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the

EC eContent Plus program for funding the eWater project. Also we acknowledge the support given by the

European geological surveys and institutes in sharing their knowledge and IT experience.

Events

The congress

Programme

Practical Infos

eWater: The European multilingual ground water information system.