IWRA Proceedings

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.