Introduction and Background
Groundwater in Denmark is an important resource, as more than 98% of the drinking water in Denmark is abstracted from groundwater. In addition Groundwater is used for irrigation, industry and livestock. Further groundwater plays an important role for groundwater-dependent nature areas, such as lakes, streams and wetlands in general.
The Regional Council of Central Denmark Region has launched the process of a Growth and Development Strategy for the period 2015-2030. The policy-based approach to ensure the development of society and business while ensuring consistency between, among others growth partnerships, government growth plans and municipal strategies. Four main areas has been selected, Competitiveness, Welfare, Demographics and Climate and Resources.
In connection with the climate and resource area in regional Growth and Development Strategy there is a need to examine the challenges and issues that are most important in connection to the exploitation of groundwater resources. The purpose of this analysis is to clarify the challenges, but also to describe the process to be implemented to achieve an appropriate long term management of groundwater resources. An important factor for being successful is to involve the key stakeholders and resource persons in the sector.
Central Denmark Region believes that clean groundwater is a fundamental prerequisite for growth in the region.
In Denmark there is a long tradition of understanding the groundwater recharge processes, aquifer flow, and resource deployment. This is a prerequisite for protecting groundwater, where it makes the most benefit and ensure that the resource is clean future. The work has traditionally involved a variety of actors, including research institutions, authorities, consulting engineers and water companies. During the last decade the mapping of the Danish groundwater resource has led to development of highly sophisticated methods for the identification, investigation and modeling of groundwater and water cycles in Denmark.
Approach
In order to explore the players' short-term and long-term challenges in the groundwater sector the survey seeks to make a survey partly to uncover main challenges and also the main and most promising opportunities for the development of the groundwater area for the benefit of the resource and its use.
The study is based on a series of themed half-open person interviews with selected people in and around the groundwater sector. Additionally conducted focus group interviews based on the statements in the interview round will be carried out.
Abstraction of groundwater for drinking purposes takes place in large and small waterworks. These are either embedded in a local environment or a portion of a larger unit which supplies a substantial area of water. The treatment of the water is based on simple techniques like sand filtering for iron and manganese removal. The Danish groundwater abstraction is built upon a political agreement that the water should be clean at the source.
Additional water treatment has been avoided by regulations on land use, remediation and moving the abstraction wells.
The individual consumer use water as it is delivered also for drinking water purposes. In industry, there may be special production processes which require special quality. For these purposes dedicated facilities which can be targeted individual needs is setup.
The exploitation and protection of groundwater involves a wide range of stakeholders. The survey of the main challenges and possibilities are analysed by interviewing relevant persons representing organisations in different part of the value chain.
Danish association of waterworks, Agriculture, water dependent businesses (Arla and Danish Crown) NGOs, Engineering consultants, Confederation of Danish industry, Municipalities, Regions, Danish Ministry of Environment, DG environment, Universities and research institutions.
Phase 1: Phase 2: Phase 3:
Data collection/interviews -> Analyse of interviews -> Qualification/group interviewing
Output and time line:
The survey will point out main areas to support for future growth of the groundwater sector in Denmark. It will give direction focus points for future development and enable the politicians to support this in future programmes and policies.
The data collection phase has been initiated and is expected to be finalised by the end of January 2015. The focus group interviewing will be carried out in February and the reporting made available in the middle of March.
The preliminary results from the interviews all ready carried out are related to water quality: 1. Emergent contaminents like PFC’s and pesticides; 2. Conflicts between groundwater protection, agriculture and city development and 3. Climate adaptation and risk of contamination of groundwater resource.
Ecosystem services of the groundwater and the subsurface; filling the knowledge gap
J. Lijzen, S. Vermooten, H.P. Broers, S. van der Meulen, M. Rutgers
In densely populated areas, the use of groundwater and the subsurface for functions such as groundwater extraction, aquifer thermal energy storage and infrastructure is increasing. This results in a need for subsurface spatial planning and careful consideration of the use of groundwater for several (economic) activities. When planning activities influencing the groundwater system, the relation between activities and Ecosystem Services (ESS) is useful to assess the sustainable use and impact and for weighing activities. Therefore, a) information of relevant ESS and related anthropogenic activities was generated, and b) a technical decision support framework was developed for the sustainable use of the groundwater system. The purpose of the information is to support the National and local authorities with knowledge and data in order to make informed decisions on the use of the subsurface and groundwater. For the definition of the ESS, the structure of CICES (2013) and MAES (2014) was used.
The consistent technical framework explains:
1. How anthropogenic activities depend on the ecosystem services;
2. The impact of these activities on ecosystem services;
3. Which activities could be combined or have an adverse impact on each other.
A set of factsheets summarizes all available knowledge about these relations and preliminary guidance for local and regional authorities for decision making. Nine activities (out of a list of 26) were selected and described: Drinking water abstraction from groundwater; Irrigation with groundwater; Aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES); Abstraction of salt groundwater combined with injection of brine; Subsurface storage of radioactive waste; Application of manure and pesticides; Nature conservation measures; Groundwater level management in polders; Remediation of historical groundwater contamination.
The knowledge gap of ESS for the subsurface and groundwater was filled, as until now little has been published on that matter in comparison to the ‘above-ground’ ESS. Eleven ecosystem services are defined for the groundwater compartment:
Provisioning services
1. Availability of sufficient water with specific quality
2. Energetic content
Regulating services
3. Attenuation capacity of the subsurface
4. Soil bearing capacity
5. Storage capacity
6. Bio-geochemical cycles (material and water cycles)
7. Temperature regulation
8. Providing surface water base flow and surface water quality
9. Upward seepage to groundwater dependent nature reserves
Cultural services
10. Cultural–historical and experience values
11. Biodiversity and habitat
These 11 ESS were described extensively. The processes that determine the performance of the service were described for each ESS, together with possible measures to optimize the ESS and the availability of data and indicators describing the performance of the ESS in the Dutch situation.
Currently a Structure vision on the subsurface is made by the National Government in close cooperation with local and regional authorities (MinIenM, 2014). Some of the generated data was already used in this process. On the basis of sustainable resource-driven management, priority can be given for example to scarce services. Similar priorities can also be drawn up using an assessment framework in which various forms of potential use are ranked according to what currently the government deems to be in the public interest.
Another important policy development is the National Ecosystem Assessment that has to be carried out within the context of the EU Biodiversity Strategy. Geographical data and maps on all ESS including the ESS related to the groundwater and subsurface are developed. The data in this project also contribute to that purpose.
References
- Broers and Lijzen. Afwegingskader grondwater Deltares-no. 1207762-016, RIVM-no 607710003/2014
- Lijzen en Vermooten, 2014 in preparation
- CICES (2013) Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES): Consultation on Version 4, August-December 2012 (Haines-Young R, Potschin M, eds.), EEA Framework Contract No EEA/IEA/09/003 (Download at www.cices.eu or www.nottingham.ac.uk/cem)
- Maes J, et al. (2013) Mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services. An analytical framework for ecosystem assessments under action 5 of the EU biodiversity strategy to 2020. Publications of the European Union, Luxembourg.
- Min IenM, 2014. ‘Opgaven voor de ondergrond; Probleemstelling van het Programma STRONG, juni 2014 (Min IenM, 2014).
- EU Biodiversity Strategy (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/biodiversity/comm2006/2020.htm
Soil and groundwater related ecosystem services in the Atlas Natural Capital
Suzanne van der Meulen (Deltares), Kees Hendriks (Alterra), Michiel Rutgers (RIVM)
The upcoming Atlas Natural Capital will provide a first large dataset about ecosystem services and natural capital in the Netherlands. Construction of the maps comes with many interesting challenges since translating soil and groundwater data into ecosystem services is not straightforward and has not been done before at such a large scale. While soil and groundwater is in many cases neglected in ecosystem services assessment, the atlas includes many maps that demonstrate services from the subsurface such as drinking water from groundwater, water regulation, groundwater purification, carrying capacity and temperature buffering.
Ecosystem services for soil and groundwater management
In the Netherlands, the ecosystem services concept has been taken up by policy makers as basis for sustainable use of subsurface resources. The ambition for groundwater is to exploit multiple ecosystem services without unacceptable impact on other ecosystem services and to sustain groundwater quality and quantity to ensure the provision of ecosystem services in the long term. Besides, a new policy will be developed for spatial planning of the subsurface, that addresses (current and potential) conflicts in the subsurface, e.g. related to aquifer thermal energy storage, shale gas extraction, storage of substances, groundwater extraction for different purposes, etc.
The mapping of ecosystem services in the context of the National Ecosystem Assessments and the European Biodiversity Strategy can support these new policy developments and decision making by providing comprehensive (spatial and temporal) information about ecosystem services related to subsurface ecosystems.
The role of the subsurface in ecosystem services maps
The subsurface system is an important part of our natural capital that provides many ecosystem services to society. The first edition of the Netherlands Atlas of Natural Capital therefore will include about 40 maps with spatial explicit information on:
• the potential of ecosystems to deliver soil and groundwater related services;
• trends, opportunities and threats to these ecosystem services
• the use of these services.
An example of an ecosystem service map is given below.
We will demonstrate maps of soil and groundwater related ecosystem services, share lessons learned from the development of these maps, and we will discuss the importance of the subsurface environment for ecosystem services and possible future directions to include environmental data in National Ecosystem Assessments at different spatial and temporal scales.
The main purpose of the study is to evaluate wider environmental impacts, i.e. impacts other than those directly related to land use (both on- and off-site), of brownfield (BF) development by applying and then evaluating and applying the Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) approach to three real-world case studies. LCT seeks to identify possible improvements to goods and services in the form of lower environmental impacts including reduced use of resources across all life cycle stages. In the case of Brownfield development this includes the remediation, construction, future use and decommissioning stages.
In many cities there are abandoned or under-used industrial areas, which were developed previously and can have residual in-situ contamination from earlier activities. These areas can be remodelled in order to satisfy the increasing demand for new urbanized areas with different purposes, including residential use, infrastructure or green areas.
Urban planning activities have associated environmental impacts over a long time period, as the result of planning conditions the behaviour of cities over several years. From a sustainability point of view, considering all life cycle stages, including early project stages, is desirable. Holistic approaches supported by comprehensive tools are needed to guarantee this view.
Existing literature suggests that the environmental impacts of brownfields development projects are not considered in a holistic manner. Usually only specific aspects, such as selected impacts from remediation activities or construction activities, are assessed. Therefore, applying the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach to brownfield developments is seen as a good opportunity to assess the overall environmental ‘profile’ of such developments and identify possible improvements in their management.
Recently EEA has led a study to explore the feasibility of applying the LCA approach to reusing brownfields as part of urban planning. Three case studies were analysed including two different brownfields and a greenfield (non-urbanised area). The study includes all life cycle stages and the associated impacts: i) primary impacts, associated with the site status, including soil and groundwater contamination; ii) secondary impacts, related to the development stage (soil investigation, soil remediation, demolition of existing buildings, levelling works, infrastrucutres construction and construction of new buildings); and iii) tertiary impacts, associated with the use of the site after development.
Outcomes from the study show potential to succesfully apply life cycle thinking approaches to brownfields and urban (re)development projects. The selection of a representative funcional unit (depending on the planned use of the remodelled area, the surface, the built surface, or the number of residents/users) proved to be a key parameter affecting the results. The findings showthat, for the three cases, the most relevant life stages in terms of environmental impacts are the use stage (with a selected duration up to 20 years), as well as the development stage with important contributions from the construction of new buildings and construction works.
Management of the subsurface by spatial planning
It is a worldwide development that in intensively used areas, a growing number of solutions for the densely used surface is found in the subsurface. In the Netherlands it is growing accustomed to build parking lots in city centres in the subsurface, build railway’s and highways underneath nature reserves and make use of the possibility for ATES or geothermal energy. In addition to these rather new developments, we also have mining activities and drinking water supplies in the subsurface.
With the increasing use of the subsurface, conflicts can occur that cannot be solved by local governments alone.
The Dutch Cabinet assigned an integrating role to the subsurface in policymaking. Their ambition is a broad policy document for a sustainable and efficient use of the subsurface, including a spatial plan for the subsurface. The spatial plan should cover all the central government aims to secure energy supply and drinking water supply.
The Netherlands is in the process of making an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as a preparation for a spatial plan for subsurface use of national importance. In fact two EIA’s are made. One especially for shale gas and another one for several activities in the deep subsurface like large groundwater extraction for drinking water supply or industrial use, gas extraction, salt extraction, geothermal energy, and storing gas or other products in the subsurface.
In the process of making the EIA, a broad policy document is written in which a system is developed for weighing different interest in the subsurface. Central government wants to come up with a democratic accounted decision making system that will give clarity in how decisions are made.
Important questions that will be answered in the presentation are:
What scenario's are accounted for in the EIA, which alternatives are described and how specific will this national plan for the subsurface become. In addition I will explain the balancing of different interests and how are local governments involved in this decision making process?