Guideline on: Groundwater monitoring for general reference purposes International Working Group I Utrecht June 2006 Revised March 2008 Report nr. GP 2008-1 Acknowledgements The publication of the Guideline was made possible by the generous support of international and Dutch organisations and by the valuable contributions of professionals from several countries world wide. The draft version of the Guideline has been published by the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC). IGRAC is an initiative of UNESCO and WMO. The Centre is hosted at the Netherlands Organisation of Applied Scientific Research TNO, Utrecht, The Netherlands. For the period 2003 through 2006 IGRAC is financially supported by the Dutch inter-ministerial bureau 'Partners for Water'. The published guideline is the result of enthusiastic cooperation by a group of professionals from different geographic areas and with expertise in different groundwater related disciplines. Guideline on: Groundwater monitoring for general reference purposes Editor: Gerrit Jousma, IGRAC, The Netherlands With contributions by: Premadasa Attanayake, Bechtel Corporation, USA John Chilton, BGS, United Kingdom Armin Margane, BGR, Germany Carlos Martínez Navarrete, IGME, Spain Maria Teresa Melo, University of Aveiro, Portugal Pedro Nieto López Guerrero, IGME, Spain Maurizio Polemio, CNR-IRPI, Italy Frans Roelofsen, IGRAC, The Netherlands S.K.Sharma, GRI, India Mike Streetly, ESI, United Kingdom Ali Subah, MWI, Jordan Ahmed Al Yaqoubi, PWA, Palestine/Gaza Utrecht June 2006 Revised March 2008 Report nr. GP 2008-1 International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre GP 2008-1 Table of contents 1 Introduction .....................................................................................................................1 1.1 The guideline - background and rationale .................................................................................................1 1.2 Stages in groundwater monitoring.............................................................................................................1 1.3 Focus and scope of the guideline...............................................................................................................2 1.4 General outline of the guideline ................................................................................................................4 1.5 International cooperation...........................................................................................................................6 2 Groundwater monitoring – general aspects and design procedure .............................7 2.1 Groundwater monitoring – concepts and general aspects .........................................................................7 2.2 Proposed design procedure......................................................................................................................12 2.3 Modular set-up of the groundwater monitoring programme ...................................................................14 2.4 Basic options of monitoring programmes................................................................................................15 3 Groundwater problem identification and preliminary assessments ............................18 3.1 Purpose and approach..............................................................................................................................18 3.2 Preliminary characterisation of the area ..................................................................................................19 3.3 Preliminary characterisation of the aquifers ............................................................................................20 3.4 Preliminary assessment of the groundwater situation..............................................................................22 3.5 Preliminary evaluation of results and specification of key issues ...........................................................26 3.6 Defining a sustainable scale of monitoring .............................................................................................28 4 Groundwater system analysis........................................................................................30 4.1 The conceptual model..............................................................................................................................30 4.2 Inventory of data .....................................................................................................................................31 4.3 Specification of the hydrogeological framework.....................................................................................31 4.4 Analysis of groundwater flow .................................................................................................................33 4.5 Assessment of groundwater quality.........................................................................................................36 5 Analysis of institutional setting......................................................................................39 5.1 Institutional embedding of groundwater monitoring...............................................................................39 5.2 Water sector policy and legislation .........................................................................................................40 5.3 Responsibilities and mandates of water sector institutions and stakeholder groups...............................41 5.4 Required technical capability of water institutions..................................................................................43 5.5 Information exchange and publication of monitoring results..................................................................43 6 Design of a programme for groundwater quantity monitoring ...................................45 6.1 Monitoring objectives and data needs .....................................................................................................45 6.2 Design of groundwater monitoring to meet identified information needs...............................................48 6.3 Considering monitoring options ..............................................................................................................53 6.4 Use of existing wells and planning new ones..........................................................................................54 i International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre GP 2008-1 7 Design of a programme for groundwater quality monitoring......................................56 7.1 Monitoring objectives and data needs .....................................................................................................56 7.2 Design of groundwater monitoring to meet identified information needs...............................................57 7.3 Considering monitoring options ..............................................................................................................66 7.4 Use of existing wells and planning new ones..........................................................................................66 8 Feasibility of monitoring programme options ..............................................................68 8.1 Documents required ................................................................................................................................68 8.2 Definition and preparation of monitoring programme options................................................................69 8.3 Calculation of investments and annual costs ...........................................................................................69 8.4 Evaluation of groundwater monitoring programme options....................................................................71 9 Implementation..............................................................................................................74 9.1 Introduction to the chapter.......................................................................................................................74 9.2 Phase 1: Orientation and inception..........................................................................................................74 9.3 Phase 2: Design of the monitoring programme .......................................................................................75 9.4 Phase 3: Implementation of the monitoring programme improvements..................................................75 9.5 Phase 4: Organisation of monitoring and sampling.................................................................................76 10 Data management: storage, processing and validation ................................................77 10.1 Introduction to data management ............................................................................................................77 10.2 Data storage.............................................................................................................................................78 10.3 Data processing .......................................................................................................................................80 10.4 Data reporting and presentation...............................................................................................................81 10.5 Data validation ........................................................................................................................................82 References and related literature.......................................................................................88