Basic groundwater information

Groundwater resources of Germany by aquifer type Source: BGR

Information on the availability and quality of groundwater are essential when addressing groundwater related questions/issues like the evaluation of groundwater resources and their management, aspects of groundwater protection or use of geothermal energy. Thus BGR works on collecting, compiling, processing and analysing spatial hydrogeological information at a scale of 1:200,000 and smaller and aims at improving the availability of this data.

Groundwater related data of Germany, Europe or even the world is captured in close cooperation with the geological surveys of the federal states of Germany, with national and international organisations or by technical cooperation projects with developing countries. This is often related to the compilation of hydrogeological maps. The map content und with it, the corresponding database depend on the availability of data, the map scale and the requirements of the map users. Decision-makers of the federal government, states and local authorities, water managers, heat suppliers, environmentalist groups and people interested in earth science are using these hydrogeological information and often combine and compare them with other data, e.g. on topography, geology, soil or landuse.

Geoinformation systems and databases are used to manage, process, keep up to date and evaluate the collected data. A new approach to processing large amounts of data uses artificial intelligence, applying machine learning methods.

Via the Hydrogeological Information System (FISHy) as a component of the Spatial Data Infrastructure of BGR (GDI-BGR), we provide users with a simple, fast and targeted access to geospatial

• groundwater information in the BGR Geoportal

Current projects:

• FARM - Groundwater vulnerability assessment during authorisation procedure of pesticides
• GRUVO - Groundwater levels and forecasts for Germany
• KIMoDIs - AI-based monitoring, data management and information system for coupled forecasting and early warning of groundwater low levels and salinisation
• MACRO - Development of machine learning methods for multi-scale regionalisation of hydrogeological properties
• MENTOR - Machine learning based, nationwide groundwater level prediction
  
• WHYMAP - World-wide Hydrogeological Mapping and Assessment Programme

Find a compilation of all groundwater related projects in the English or German project list.