Regional training event on scientific tools for the management of coastal aquifers and groundwater in Croatia

Organized in the context of the GEF-UNEP/MAP MedPartnership project, this event will feature two back-to-back training workshops from 2 to 6 February 2015 at the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Geotechnical Engineering in Varaždin, Croatia.  The first workshop is co-organized by UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme (IHP) and the European Space Agency (ESA), and will provide participants with an introduction to the use of spatial technologies for water management, with sessions adapted from a training module developed for ESA’s TIGER Initiative, which promotes the use of earth observation for improved integrated water resources management in Africa. A particular focus will be placed on groundwater, giving participants the opportunity to learn about how groundwater-related information can be extracted from remote sensing data. 

The second workshop is devoted to current methodologies for aquifer vulnerability mapping and will feature interventions by the experts that undertook aquifer vulnerability maps in Croatia and Tunisia for UNESCO-IHP in the context of the MedPartnership project. Two new methodologies developed for the UNESCO-IHP activities will be presented, including a methodology for evaluating the vulnerability of karst aquifers and another that simultaneously considers the vulnerability of an aquifer to land-based pollution sources and intrusion of sea water.  A portion of the training will take place in the computer lab of the University of Zagreb, where participants can apply their newly-acquired knowledge to practical exercises on the topics presented in the workshop.

Institutions involved:          

UNESCO-IHP, ESA-TIGER Capacity Building Facility, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) University of Twente, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Geotechnical Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Croatian Geological Survey, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, BarcelonaTech, Centre Internacional de Mètodes Numèrics en Enginyeria