ABOUT US

Imagine a groundwater manager sitting in front of the computer, with a window open to a website where questions about the response of the aquifer to a reduction of infiltration in a dry year could be asked and answered almost instantly. Imagine a farmer in need of introducing a new fertilizer who could query the same website and know the impact that a given load will have on groundwater quality. Imagine a hydrogeologist building a numerical model to analyse the impact of some dewatering wells in need of historical data about the evolution of piezometric levels in the aquifer and getting those data online. Imagine a citizen, any citizen, concerned with climate change and interested in the evolution of groundwater reserves in the region and obtaining this information from the cloud. Imagine innovative sustainable management of groundwater in the MED. Stop imagining because this is InTheMED, a project aimed at providing the most innovative decision support system tools to be demonstrated and applied in selected case studies around the Mediterranean; a project also aimed at fostering the sharing of data, methods and results, making sharing the rule rather than the exception. Tools solidly founded in the most advanced system-process and socio-economic models, and the participatory involvement of all stakeholders, from water authorities to end users, from hydrogeology experts to total system analysts. Imagining InTheMED is imagining a better understanding of groundwater, better groundwater resilience, a new way of modelling, management and remediation, and a new manner of understanding decision support systems, always aimed at ensuring groundwater sustainability in water-stressed areas in the Mediterranean.

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Period of Implementation

Mar 1, 2020 - Aug 31, 2023
Total Budget

EUR 1,589,000.00

OUR IMPACT

Goals

1. Identification of groundwater problems in the MED region by means of a SWOT analysis regarding quantitative and qualitative groundwater aspects of the five field sites, 2. Investigation of the long-term groundwater trends by a data-driven analysis using historical in-situ groundwater quantity and quality data, 3. Application of the innovative High-Resolution Monitoring Approach (HRMA: allowing near real-time monitoring), 4. Incorporating groundwater management within a broader socio-economic context to improve water resources resilience through stakeholder workshops and dynamic simulation modelling, 5. Raising awareness in society and among stakeholders to improve groundwater management through the implementation of a multi-actor participatory approach, 6. Identification of groundwater problems and implementation of the appropriate feasible preventive mitigation options through sustainable learning processes, 7. Establishment of adaptable and sustainable management strategies through the combination of HRMA, smart modelling, socio-economic assessments, bottom-up management and remediation strategies, an innovative Fuzzy WebDSS tool and effective communication dissemination strategies, 8. Prediction of the effects of future climate and anthropogenic changes, and how they can be mitigated by stakeholder-suggested preventive options using smart modelling, 9. Advice to industries at selected sites to reduce their discharge loads through the adoption of a local water management concept and the implementation of the best technologies for the treatment of their effluents, 10. Development of an easy-to-use Fuzzy WebDSS tool benefiting from the real-time measured data using specific sensors and modelling results to reinforce early-warning and ensure the real-time groundwater characterization and optimal decision making, 11. Promotion of InTheMED results and improvement of its regional and international visibility through participation in high-level international conferences and integration of different initiatives targeting the MED region, 12. Upscaling of the InTheMED concept to the whole MED region and replicability of its methodology to other MED countries through cross-country dissemination tools based on participatory workshops and public communication.

Objectives

The aim of the InTheMED project is to implement innovative and sustainable management tools and remediation strategies for MED aquifers (inland and coastal) in order to mitigate anthropogenic and climate-change threats by creating new long-lasting spaces of social learning among different interdependent stakeholders, NGOs, and scientific researchers in five field case studies, located at the two shores of the MED basin (Spain, Greece, Portugal, Tunisia, and Turkey).

Problems and Needs Analysis

- Overexploitation of water resources especially in the summer season, where the touristic and agricultural activities increase water consumption (especially in Greece and Tunisia). In the Portuguese case study, a significant area around the mining site has a depressed water table that caused dry wells in nearby properties. In Turkey, a large part of the Konya basin water budget deficit (2 billion m3) is supplied by groundwater resources. The estimated number of wells in Konya closed basin is around 130,000 with only 27,140 of them licensed, what jeopardizes the basin’s environmental and agricultural sustainability. In the Requena-Utiel, Spain, there is a problem with the continuous decline of piezometric levels in the aquifer due to the transformation of dry vineyard farming to irrigated farming. Similarly, the Korba aquifer (Tunisian case study) has experienced a significant historical overexploitation, where the number of pumping wells increased almost linearly from 270 wells pumping 4 million m3 in 1962 to more than 8000 wells pumping 50 million m3. This increase resulted in a severe regional depletion of the water table and salinization by seawater intrusion. Numerical simulations showed that about 150 years are needed to turn back the aquifer to the natural situation and stop the depletion problem, - Increase of water pollution risks due to diffuse, point sources and seawater intrusion. The use of large amounts of organic and synthetic fertilizers and uncontrolled discharge of urban and industrial wastewaters (especially in Tunisia) are the main origins of this pollution. It has been recently shown that the sea water intrusion and the shallow salinization from irrigation in the Korba aquifer were the main source of salt pollution up to 1.5 km inland. While, in Castro Verde, Portugal, the mine tailings facilities have significantly increased the risk of aquifer contamination with current monitoring already detecting a contaminated plume dispersing downstream, - Absence of a legal framework for water resources integrated management (especially in Tunisia), which negatively affects the efforts deployed by all concerned actors. In Turkey, there is a legal framework that addresses exploration, allocation, utilization, protection and regulation of groundwater resources; however, this legal framework aims for the short term rather than for the long-term sustainable use of the groundwater resources. The experiences from the application of the water framework directive in Spain, Greece, and Portugal, will be shared with Tunisia and Turkey. The establishment of a legal framework for water quality and a long-term perspective will be one of the core objectives of InTheMED proposal, - Presence of various institutions in charge of water resources management. The poor communication between them, due mainly to bureaucracy, has seriously limited the national strategies regarding water resources management, especially in Tunisia and Turkey. Indeed, in Tunisia, at the regional scale, water resources are mainly managed by the following institutions: i) the regional commissaries for agriculture development, ii) the regional drinking water agencies, iii) the regional water sanitation offices, iv) the regional environment protection agencies and v) the local agricultural development. Similarly, in Turkey, at the regional scale, water resources management is fragmented between numerous institutions such as: i) the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning, ii) the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, iii) State Water Works, iv) local irrigation associations, v) local agricultural production cooperatives, and vi) municipal water works, resulting in clear lack of coordination and communication between responsible institutions. The coordination between all these institutions should be reviewed on the basis of the current systems used in other countries such as Spain, Greece and Portugal, - The disengagement of civil society and socio-economic actors in the quest for an efficient water resources governance is due mainly to a faulty coordination and poor communication and dissemination strategies among the different actors. According to the SWOT analysis, this weakness exists in all case studies, except Portugal. This non-participatory approach has led to the absence of an integral water resources management in some partner countries such as Turkey and Tunisia. The Spanish case study adds a special situation to this problem, where farmers have moved from vase vine crops to vines growing in trellises. The latter is more productive but requires irrigation to adequately control the stress at which the plant grows. This change in the type of farming has been made to maximize profit disregarding the impact that it would have on the aquifer, what has prompted the water authorities to take measures to mitigate the impacts. In Turkey, civil society is not an active participant of the governance scheme. Policy making and management is a top down approach. The experience gained in Greece, Portugal and Spain with an appropriate legislative framework for water management will be shared with Tunisia and Turkey.

Intervention Strategy(ies)

- Engage the main concerned stakeholders (such as farmers, hotel owners and public water managers) in the design of desirable governance strategies for water use and to jointly build a common vision by integrating scientific and local knowledge on water resources management at the five sites, - Promote remediation strategies through increasing the safe reuse of wastewater for agriculture or aquifer recharge, - Increase the frequency of water resources monitoring through the implementation of specific sensors that permit the access to tight measures (hour scale) regarding the quantitative state of the system (piezometric level, river and Wadi water levels and flow) to reinforce current monitoring at the five case studies,

Impact Pathway

- Application of European standards on water management and wastewater treatment to non-European countries, - Willingness of stakeholders to get involved on a new, innovative transparent governance, - Economic growth in the study sites due to the adaptation of an efficient and effective management of groundwater, - Positive impact on the environment, - Improve water management by Water Authorities and concerned stakeholders by means of an innovative DSS tool.

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