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’11EuroGeoSurveysAnnuAl REpoRt

I EGS 2011 Annual Report

Pioneering research for Society’s benefit since 1971

A workforce that includes thousands of geoscientists at the service of European citizens

33 Geological Survey organisations from across Europe


Content Executive Summary 4

EGS in Brief 5

Conversation with Marko Komac 7

Key people 8

EGS exceeds all boundaries and strengthens its role 13

Celebrating 40 years of activity 17

Earth moving 22

the shape of our business 31

Integrating expertise 102

publications 133

there’s more 136


Executive SummaryThe year 2011 has marked the 40th Anniversary of

EuroGeoSurveys, which has allowed us to look

back at our past and the steps made during four

decades. This way the Geological Surveys of Europe

could confront with the dramatic transformation our

organisation has gone through during this period.

It has progressively evolved from a network for

Geological Surveys Directors to a melting pot of

joint research and exchange of scientific

competences, up to the current umbrella

organisation regularly advising the EU institutions

and at the service of the 33 members to facilitate

large pan-European actions.

Such a transformation has significantly accelerated

during the past few years, especially driven by

the increasing demand by EU institutions for both

independent advice and geological data and

information. In particular, the increasing importance

of the raw materials supply policy and the attention

given to emerging research needs, such as in the

field of unconventional fossil fuels (e.g. shale gas),

have been major drivers for increasing the

importance and recognition of EGS as a major EU

institutions partner.

2011 has also shown that the transition phase has

not concluded, having seen the EGS members

actively engaged in the definition of a new

multiannual Strategy Action Plan, and in high-level

debates on how to better serve the needs of the

EU. The discussions lead to the conception and

submission of an ambitious proposal to carry out

a feasibility study on the creation of a European

Geological Data Infrastructure (EGDI).

This phase has also witnessed the set up of a Task

Force on International Cooperation and Development

and of a Task Force on Superficial Deposits, as a

continuation of the trend to make the EGS Expert

Groups role increasingly significant for the operation

of our organisation. During 2011 they have even

more than previously acted as the operational arm

of EGS, integrating their work under the leadership

of the Chairpersons and the horizontal coordination

of the Spatial Information Expert Group.

A large project involving all the EGS members was

also kicked off: PanGeo, a GMES service enabling

access to geological information that will provide

free access to geohazard information for many of

the largest cities in Europe.

Unfortunately 2011 brought also some bad news.

The worst of all from a geological point of view was

certainly the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

The world was shocked by the disastrous events

on 11 March 2011 which severely hurt the Fukushima

nuclear power plant and killed hundreds of people.

The tragedy reopened the issue of tsunami hazard

in Europe, where the risk is significant particularly

for countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea.

Although earthquakes of a magnitude comparable

to that of the recent earthquake in offshore Japan

are not expected in Europe, tsunami waves with

devastating energy may reach similar heights

(>10m). Historically several destructive tsunamis

occurred in the Mediterranean basin. In 1908 one

single event caused about 80,000 casualties along

the Eastern Sicily and Southern Calabria coastlines.


EGS in Brief EuroGeoSurveys (EGS) is a non-profit organisation working solely for the public interest, which represents 33 national geological surveys in Europe and an overall workforce of several thousand specialists.

The EGS mission is to provide public Earth science knowledge to support the EU’s competitiveness, social well-being, environmental management and international commitments. Therefore our actions underpin European policies and regulations for the benefit of society.

WE ARE ACTIVE IN :

Marine Geology• Marine Geology database

• Sedimentological, geochemical, geophysical and paleontological information of the ocean floor and coastal areas.

• Exploration for energy and mineral resources

• Enviromental protection

• Marine geological information as a basis for marine spatial planning

Earth Observation - GeoHazards • Satellite, airborne and ground-based Earth

observation for geoscience

• Mapping, characterising and monitoring areas exposed to geohazards

• Geoscience contributions to EC Global Monitoring for Environment & Security

• Global Earth Observing System of Systems for Disasters, Energy & Geo-resource

Geochemistry• Distribution of natural backgrounds and anomalies

in rocks, sediments, soil and water

• Exploration for energy and mineral resources

• Support to land-use planning and public health policies

GeoEnergy• Exploration and assessment of fossil energy

sources

• Development of renewable geothermal energy

Water Resources• Characterisation of Groundwater bodies

and their recharge area

• Groundwater resources exploration, exploitation, management and protection

• Pollution mitigation and remediation

Mineral Resources• Exploration, characterisation and exploitation of

mineral deposits

• Mineral economics and statistics

• Environmental protection around mining site and post-closure mitigation

Climate change and Carbon Capture and Storage

• Paleoclimates and paleogeography

• Storage of CO2 in geological formations

• Impacts of climate change

Spatial Information - INSPIRE• Provide with a clear technical strategy to

guarantee the adequacy of the developments of its infrastructure in the context of global spatial

information infrastructure 5 INSPIRE, GEOSS, One Geology…)

• Focus on the global consistency of the way spatial information has to be defined, managed and delivered to provide harmonized services at the European scale.

International Cooperation and Development

• International cooperation focus on Africa: European data available for the African Geological Surveys

• Future collaboration with Latin-southern America

Soil Resources - Superficial Deposits • Exploration and integration of existing experiences

and datasets on the distribution, properties and weathering behavior of exposed rocks and superficial deposits

• Harmonization of existing parent material information, and integration of it towards a European-wide new geological data layer: a soil parent material map of Europe

Cities and Geoheritage• Engineering geology for safe construction

• Use of subsurface space for infrastructure and storage

• Waste disposal

• Protection of heritage made of natural stone

• Geoparks and geoturism


Respected reader,

Conversation with Marko Komac DIRECtOR Of GEOlOGICal SuRvEy Of SlOvENIa - EuROGEOSuRvEyS PRESIDENt 2011-2012

The Year 2011 was special for EuroGeoSurveys

(EGS). Fourty years ago, in 1971, directors of

several Geological Surveys from north-western

Europe met and agreed on the enhancement of

future cooperation. What at the beginning was a

gentlemen club with no written rules and no formal

or semi-formal structure, it has evolved and grown

in proceeding decades into today’s form of legal

organisation with 33 Members - National

Geological Survey Organisations (NGSO) -

with a staff of more than 10,000 and a Secretariat

in Brussels with a permanent staff of five that has

a continuous back-office support of numerous

experts in different geoscientific or related fields.

Despite the fact that fourty years does not

represent more than an instant in time for

geologists, it is still a proof that geological surveys

of Europe knew far ahead (in human time

perception) of many politicians that geology does

not acknowledge the political boundaries. If one

wants to effectively manage geology related

challenges or problems these have to be tackled

with a holistical approach and in a transboundary,

regionally or in pan-European scale. Today EGS

itself or by its members proves to be one of the

pillars of successful environmental, mineral

resource, energy and geo-IT European policies

and processes.

Europe is facing tough times. Effective tackling

of Europe’s present financial, demographic and

resource challenges will bring advances in

economy, technology and society. These are

important issues for Europe’s competitiveness

on a global scale especially with new economic

powers emerging. It’s no secret geosciences and

consequentially NGSOS jointly under the umbrella

of EGS are already playing and will keep playing an

important role in the process of overcoming future

obstacles the European continent is confronting.

With our knowledge, expertise, tradition, through

centuries collected data, stored in vast archives

and long lasting experience of transnational

cooperation we, the EGS members have the will,

the ability, the social commitment and the

know-how to step into these big shoes of

responsibility to the European taxpayers to ensure

their better tomorrow.

The EGS Annual report 2011 that you’re holding in

your hands is an excellent proof that the words

above are not just letters on a paper but a reality.

I recommend a thorough reading of it. If you’re a

geologist you might find some good ideas for your

future work. If you’re not, you’ll learn that geology

is not only dull at all and that it spreads from micro

to macro scale, from laboratory to field work, and

from distant past to future events. Just turn to the

next page... And enjoy!.

Marko Komac


Expert knowledge at the disposal of all European

citizens, institutions, companies, media, universities, …

tHE ExECutIvE COMMIttEE

is the primary decision-making body. It implements

the strategy formulated by the General Assembly

of Members and makes proposals for future actions.

BOaRD Of DIRECtORS

tHE SECREtaRy GENERal

is responsible for the day-to-day operational

management and administration of EGS, contacts

with the European Commission and other third

parties, managing the budget and carrying out

the activities agreed by all Members.

Secretary General Luca DemicheliGeological Survey of Italy - ISPRA

PresidentMarko Komac Geological Survey of Slovenia - GeoZS

vice-PresidentJohnny Fredericia Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland - GEUS

MemberOlivier LateltinGeological Surveys of Switzerland - SWISSTOPO

Key people WORkING tOGEtHER tO REaCH OuR GOalS

ExPERt GROuPS

NatIONalDElEGatES

SECREtaRy GENERal

BOaRD Of DIRECtORS ExECutIvE

COMMIttEE

Adil Neziraj Albanian Geological Survey - AGS

Michiel Dusar Geological Survey of Belgium - GSB

Eleni Georgiu-Morrisseau Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environments Geological Survey Department - GSD - Cyprus

Peter Seifert Geological Survey of Austria - GBA

Josip Halamic Geological Survey of Croatia - HGI-CGS

Zdenek Venera Czech Geological Survey - CGS

treasurerPeter Seifert Geological Survey of Austria - GBA

Todor Dimitrov Ministry of Environment and Water - Directorate of Subsurface and Underground Resorces - MEET- Bulgaria


Johnny Fredericia Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland - GEUS

Olafur Florenz Iceland Geological Survey - ISOR

Branislav Zec State Geological Institute of Dionyz Stur - SGUDS - Slovak Republic

Elias Ekdahl Geological Survey of Finland - GTK

Claudio Campobasso Geological Survey of Italy - ISPRA

Mart J. van Bracht Geological Survey of the Netherlands - TNO

Hans-Joachim Kümpel Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe - BGR

Robert Maquil Service Geologique Du Luxembourg - SGL

Jan Magnusson Sveriges Geologiska Undersokning - SGU

Aivar Pajupuu Geological Survey of Estonia - EGK

Patrick O’ Connor Geological Survey of Ireland - GSI

Bernardo De Bernardinis President Institute for Environmental Protection and Research - ISPRA - Italy

Marko Komac Geological Survey of Slovenia - GeoZS

Jean-François Rocchi Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières - BRGM

Jouzas Mockevicius Geological Institute of Lithuania - LGT

Morten Smelror Geological Survey of Norway - NGU

Rosa de Vidania Instituto Geológico y Minero de España - IGME

Kostas Papavasileiou Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration - IGME - Greece

Anthony Rizzo Malta Resources Authority - MRA

Stefan Marincea Geological Institute of Romania - GIR

Teresa Ponce de Leão President Laboratorio Nacional de Energia e Geologia - LNEG - Portugal

Olivier LateltinGeological Surveys of Switzerland - SWISSTOPO

Eduard Sravytskiy State Geological and Subsurface Survey of Ukraine - SGSSU

Panagiotis Mitropoulos Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration - IGME - Greece

Oleg Petrov A.P. Karpinsky all Russia Geological Research Institute - VSEGEI

Mário Rui Machado Leite Laboratorio Nacional de Energia e Geologia - LNEG - Portugal

John Ludden British Geological Survey - BGS

Sergiy Goshovskiy Ukrainian State Geological Research Institute - UkrSGRI

László Kordos Geological and Geophysical Institute of Hungary - MFGI

Key people

BOaRD Of DIRECtORS (continued)

Jerzy Nawrocki Polish Geological Institute - National Research Institute - PGI-NRI

I EGS 2011 Annual ReportKey people

NatIONal DElEGatES

They represent the National contact points of each Geological Survey.

albania AGS Arben Pambuku

austria GBA Hans-Georg Krenmayr

Belgium GSB Cecile Baeteman

Bulgaria MOEW Valeri Trendafilov

Croatia HGI-CGS Josip Halamic

Cyprus GSD Stelio Nicolaides

CzechRep CGS Ivana Svojtkova

Denmark GEUS Jens Stockmarr

Estonia EGK Jaan Kivisilla

finland GTK Mika Räisänen

france BRGM Jacques Varet

Germany BGR Birgit Kuhns

Germany State-Hamburg Renate Taugs

Greece IGME Nikolaos Arvanitidis

Hungary MFGI Annamária Nádor

Iceland ISOR Ingibjorg Kaldal

Ireland GSI Patrick O´Connor

Italy ISPRA Claudio Campobasso

Italy Region Emilia-Romagna Michela Grandi

lithuania LGT Juozas Mockevicius

luxembourg SGL Robert Maquil

Malta MRA Julie Auerbach

Netherlands TNO Tirza Van Haalen

Netherlands TNO Paul Bogaard

Norway NGU Jan Host

Poland PGI-NRI Ilona Smietanska

Portugal LNEG Maria Luísa Duarte

Portugal LNEG Rita Caldeira

Romania GIR Marcel Maruntiu

Russia VSEGEI Oleg Petrov

Slovakia GSSR Alena Klukanova

Slovenia GeoZS Marko Komac

Spain IGME Manuel Regueiro

Spain Region Catalonia IGC Xavier Berastegui

Sweden SGU Lisbeth Hildebrand

Switzerland SWISSTOPO Peter Hayoz

ukraine UkrSGRI Boris Malyuk

united kingdom BGS Nick Riley

united kingdom BGS Vicky Hards


ExPERt GROuPS CHaIRS

Marine Geology : Henry Vallius Geological Survey of Finland - GTK

Spatial Information (INSPIRE) : François Robida Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières - BRGM

Geochemistry : Clemens Reimann Geological Survey of Norway - NGU

International Cooperation and Development : Marek Graniczny Polish Geological Institute - National Research Institute - PGI-NRI

Water Resources : Hans Peter Broers Geological Survey of the Netherlands - TNO

Earth Observation - GeoHazards : Stuart Marsh British Geological Survey - BGS

Carbon Capture and Storage - EGS.CO

2 :

Kris Piessens Geological Survey of Belgium - GSB

GeoEnergy : Peter Britze Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland - GEUS

Soil Resources - Superficial deposits : Rainer Baritz Bundesanstalt für Geowissenshaften und Rohstoffe - BGR - BGR

Mineral Resources : Slavko V. Šolar Geological Survey of Slovenia - GeoZS

Key people


2011 is marked by intense networking activity

culminated in the signature of several important

agreements. The efforts made involved not only

Europe with the agreement of the European

technology Platform on Sustainable Mineral

Resources (ETP-SMR) but also the rest of the

world with agreements with the Organisation of

African Geological Surveys (OAGS).

uNlOCkING tHE GEOlOGICal Data ON afRICa

In the last few years the necessity to establish

closer ties with Africa has become increasingly

evident. Europe is no longer able to cope with the

demand for raw materials and to recover the loss

of competitiveness so it needs to go beyond its

borders. And at the same time Africa needs to

develop their mineral resources, have the facilities,

the infrastructures and the human capacity.

In this framework EGS produced concrete results in

terms of guiding the European cooperation efforts

with Africa on geological knowledge and skills . The

strengthening of the capacity of the Organisation of

Africa Geological Surveys is a pre-requisite for this

co-operation. EuroGeosurveys’ expertise and its

public status represent the main impetus for the

Africa geological Surveys in their efforts

tostrengthen geological mapping capacity, develop

common trans-boundary cartography at regional

level , harmonise data collection and ensure the

interoperability of data sets.

The Organisation of African Geological Surveys

(OAGS) is a relatively in it’s infancy and

EuroGeoSurveys can offer very strong support. In

particular EuroGeoSurveys has established a good

relation with several African Survey Directors

based on the proposal to help unlock the geological

data on Africa held by European Geological

Surveys. This evolved into the proposal to make

European data on Africa available to the Organization

of the African Geological Surveys (OAGS) members.

This was done to strengthen the cooperation with

OAGS countries and form a good platform for joint

actions. The co-operation has already started with

exchange of experts and with workshops . The

mineral resources in Africa are immense, but the

decision makers should choose them as a priority,

and this is easier with the help of Europeans, that

could create a win-win situation for both parties.

(Check with Luca about this sentence because we

need to be very careful how we present this)

EGS established a specific task force called the

« International Cooperation and Development Task

Force » to guarantee the development of this

agreement.

MODERN SOCIEty IS INCREaSINGly DEPENDENt ON RaW MINERal RESOuRCES

The EU faces a number of major societal

challenges from the availability of critical and

essential raw materials from primary and

secondary sources to the availability of jobs,

skills and technological competences. Addressing

these challenges requires that the appropriate

technologies, processes and products are in place,

along with adequate policies to implement and

stimulate the required changes.

The European Technology Platform on Sustainable

Mineral Resources (ETP SMR) is nowadays the

right answer to those challenges, established in

2005 and officially recognized in September 2008,

unites many stakeholders from mining industry,

the research community, regulators, consumers

and civil society to reach a competitive and

sustainable European economy.

The ETP SMR presently consists of the High Level

Group (HLG), the Steering Committee, and the

Secretariat. From the 1st of July 2012 the ETP SMR

commissioned EGS the responsibility

of running the ETP SMR secretariat. In this

framework EGS provides both administrative

and technical support to the Platform and assists in

the implementation of its Work Programme under

the guidance of the Steering Committee.

The ETP SMR focuses its activities on access to

essential and critical mineral raw materials

(exploration, mining, smelting, recycling and

metallurgical recovery and refining, including the

highly innovative enabling technologies and

equipment industry) through innovation point of

view, perfectly in line with the European Innovation

Partnership on Raw Materials proposed by EU,

based on 3 pillar: fostering sustainable supply

EGS exceeds all boundaries and strengthens its role


within the EU and boosting resource efficiency and

recycling.

The ETP-SMR aims to develop innovative

technologies/solutions along the entire value chain

for cost effective, safe, environmentally and

socially sound raw materials, including primary

and secondary sources. The main objective is to

propose specific issues for demonstrating ten

innovative pilot plants for raw materials extraction,

processing, and recycling, within the Innovation

Partnership on Raw Materials.

Today, the deepest European underground mines

operate at about 1,000 to 1,500 meters below

surface. Within the next 20 to 30 years, several of

those mines will operate at depths far below

1,500 meters.

These depths will require the development of new

mining methods to maintain safe working conditions,

increase productivity and production rates, and

reduce waste and tailings as well as mining costs to

maintain competitiveness on international markets.

In the framework “invisible, zero-impact mine”

this will only be possible by moving installations

from the surface to underground and implementing

a complete new layout of the mines of tomorrow.

By 2020, ETP SMR will provide to EU a comprehensive

overview about available intra-EU geological

mineral resource and metal potential (primary

resources) and of the mineral resource and metal

potential in the “urban mine” (secondary sources).

ETP SMR will have developed new, advanced

exploration technologies for land and sea-based

exploration as well as tools to assess the resource

potential in technical infrastructure and products

put on the market, giving the opportunity to EU to

maintain and develop further technological leadership.

In the framework of mineral processing the ETP

SMR will identify new ore and concentrates

processing technologies that will allow steep

changes in energy, water and emissions intensity

and will allow treating more complex (primary and

secondary) mineral resources. These technologies

will pave the way for expanding European business

and future advanced jobs.


The whole value chain covering from raw materials extraction to marketed products. The metals life cycle starts with exploration and mining to provide first hand access and bring materials from the geosphere into the technosphere. From then on the basic concept is simple: extract metals at high rates from the ores, use them as efficiently as possible in the manufacturing process of products, avoid dissipation during the use and End of Life (EoL) phase and minimise losses of metals into residues during all phases of the life cycle. By doing so metals can be reused to a high percentage for a second, third etc. life cycle.


Moreover Europe will be able to maintain its

advanced technology in metals production and

develop further its know-how in order to be able to

process even lower grade and/or complex (primary

and secondary) materials in the most sustainable way.

But all these actions are not sufficient if the EU will

not become the leading continent with regard to

recycling of critical and essential raw materials.

The future of metals recycling is under great threat.

The competitiveness of this industrial activity is

rapidly deteriorating due to excessive regulatory

constraints and international trade and competitive

distortions.

To make recycling of raw materials or raw material-

containing products more efficient, it is necessary to:

• mobilize End of Life (EoL) products with critical

raw materials for proper collection

• improve overall organization, logistics and

efficiency of recycling chains focus on interfaces

and system approach

• prevent illegal exports of EoL products containing

critical raw materials and increasing

transparency in flow;

• promote research on system optimisation

and recycling of technically challenging products

and substances.

By 2020, the recycling rates of critical and technology

metals will be at least above 10% in the EU and by

2050, the recycling rates of critical and technology

metals will be at least above 25% and an overall

10% increase in recycling rate is reached for all

other metals.

This gives the opportunity to improve the extraction

from secondary sources increasing the overall

availability of resources for the EU economy.

In the framework, training and education became

an essential part to foster innovations in the raw

materials sector.

Besides innovations in technology, we also need

social innovations to develop skills and transfer

knowledge and understanding within and beyond

current practice.

A secure access to raw materials also requires

capable human resources. The EIP on RM hence

has to play an important role to raise awareness

among young people for the significance of the

sector as a corner stone in the sustainable

development of Europe and to attract more

students to engage in related fields.



In 2011 EuroGeoSurveys celebrated 40 years of

activity. During those years EGS has become more

and more a formal organisation within the EU

system, a reference point for each national geological

Surveys of the continent, a European geoscientific

data repository and center for geological

intelligence integrating different policies .

GEOSCIENCE COOPERatION IN EuROPE: 40 yEaRS Of aCHIEvEMENt a success story told by Dr. Peadar Mcardle, former Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland

The blustery weather of September 2010 did not

dampen the enthusiasm of the representatives of

30 geological surveys gathered in Copenhagen.

In two days of presentations and discussions,

they reviewed the key issues facing geological

surveys at the European level, monitored progress

among their internal thematic working groups,

interacted with a variety of guests, and dealt

with a wide range of organisational issues.

They then set off to experience Denmark’s varied

landscapes and appreciate examples of how

geoscience contributes to Danish society - from

the educational and tourism value of Mons Klint

Geo Center to the use of chalk in the paper industry

and the management of drinking and waste water

in the city of Odense. This group of Eurogeosurveys

Directors, National Delegates and partners were

participating in a distinguished tradition based

on a 40 year history of cooperation and

achievement in European geoscience.

The first network of European geological surveys

was established in Orleans in 1971 with the birth

of WEGS (Western European Geological Surveys).

This was an informal discussion group comprising

the Directors of its member organisations:

the cluster of national geological surveys of

Western Europe and Scandinavia, as well as

Cyprus, Greece and Turkey. West Germany, rather

than Germany, was a member and it was joined

by a representative of the geological surveys of

the Lander. At the time Greenland had a geological

survey which was separate from that of Denmark.

Many WEGS participants referred to their

organisation as a Club: it had a stable membership

with relatively few staff other than Directors

attending. Its relaxed atmosphere belied the fact

that it had well established but unwritten rules.

Decisions were taken only by consensus and the

position of Chairperson rotated among all members

on an annual basis. The annual meeting in early

September had a well-tried formula of social

events, business meeting and excursion. A high

proportion of partners attended, providing stability

to the network and enhancing its social dimension.

One couple was very important in establishing its

culture and continuity: the Secretary, Alan Archer,

and his wife, Jane, who served in an unpaid

capacity from 1971 until about 1998. Fastidious and

attentive, Alan ensured new Directors were swiftly

absorbed into the group, he enforced a careful

balance regarding hospitality (anything excessive

was not appreciated) and he devoted much

attention to drafting and revising the minutes of the

business meetings.

WEGS Directors saw considerable value in

maintaining this valuable network. Gradually they

established a number of thematic working groups

which encouraged staff to share experience and,

on occasion, to develop joint projects. However

there is no doubt that WEGS would have had a

limited impact on European institutions and

national governments. This was about to change.

In 1992, after 20 years of networking, WEGS

published its first coordinated and comprehensive

statement (Lumsden 1992) on behalf of its

21 members. Entitled “Geology and the Environment

in Western Europe”, it was intended to demonstrate

the types of issues to which geological surveys

might contribute at the national and European

scales. It succeeded in showing how geological

surveys interact with government, industry and

academe. Despite an admittedly technical treatment,

the book did in practice reach an audience that

extended beyond the limits of the Geoscience

Community and, in so doing, can be regarded as

the first brave step by geological surveys in

demonstrating their relevance to society at large.

Even as WEGS took increasing notice of its political

environment so that very environment itself began

to change. The collapse of the Soviet system in the

late 1980s had a major impact on the practice of

Celebrating 40 years of activity

Front Cover of the book Geology and the Environment in Western Europe


geoscience across Europe. Geological surveys in

western and central Europe took a greater interest

in each other’s activities, wished to share

experiences and aspired to cooperating with each

other. Many far-sighted geologists and Directors

helped this process. For example, Gabor Gaal,

a Hungarian geochemist who worked in a senior

position in the Geological Survey of Finland,

returned as Director of his homeland’s survey for

a time and his influence was very positive.

This effectively led to the transformation of WEGS

into the Forum of European Geological Surveys

(FOREGS), with the latter established by 1993.

WEGS morphed into FOREGS without fanfare in

the twelve months following the September 1992

meeting of Directors. While FOREGS reflected the

geographic expansion of membership there is no

doubt that it also characterised some changes in

the way the organisation functioned. Now it had more

members, they came from more diverse backgrounds

(both scientifically and culturally) and their

Directors tended to have shorter periods of tenure.

The “Club” atmosphere of WEGS diminished and,

in any event, many felt that a more business-like

approach was appropriate. There were varied

expectations of the benefits of membership -

but undoubtedly Directors sought to derive tangible

value. Part of the dividend was the richer diversity

of experience and skill which became available in

the larger FOREGS membership and this largely

overshadowed any sense of regret at the passing

of WEGS.

The membership of FOREGS increased to over 30

by the mid-1990s, this rapid growth reflecting the

desire of surveys in central and Eastern Europe to

affiliate. A survey of these new members in 1995

indicated that they were pre-occupied with providing

a comprehensive and balanced service at a time of

diminishing resources and reducing staff members.

They looked to FOREGS networking to increase

the exchange of experience and ideas, as well as to

participate in collaborative projects that might

attract European funding. Many looked to FOREGS

to promote the value of geological surveys,

thereby enhancing their reputation and influence,

as well as staff morale. But above all, new

members wanted to participate in specialist

working groups, with their potential for establishing

and maintaining international standards. Most

urgent in this regard was the need to transit to

digital databases. In addition to information

management, FOREGS had active working groups

in remote sensing, geochemical mapping, marine

and industrial minerals.

However transitions are rarely painless and not all

Directors were equally pleased with the progress

of FOREGS. Already work had started on the

formation of Eurogeosurveys which would focus on

the need of European institutions and would

effectively be limited to members of the European

Union. Many felt that the evolving parallel bodies

of FOREGS and Eurogeosurveys would lead to a

“two-speed” Europe, the members of the latter

being in the fast lane. So perhaps inevitably

FOREGS would have a short life but it did provide a

useful transitional vehicle.

FOREGS had a relatively simple structure. Its

Board consisted of the present, past and future

Chairmen (for they were all male!). It met annually

in June to conduct the business of FOREGS, which

principally consisted of preparing the agenda for

the Annual Meeting of Directors in September.

FOREGS had a number of thematic working groups

and these would report annually to the meeting

- often their presentations formed the major part

of the agenda.

Eurogeosurveys, the Association of the Geological

Surveys of the European Union, was established


Photo of the FOREGS Family taken in Dublin Castle, September 1995.


on 3 September 1995 in Dublin when its members

signed its Statutes. This set out the objectives of

the 16 constituent geological surveys as follows:

• to jointly address European issues of common

interest

• to promote the contribution of geoscientists to

EU affairs and action programmes

• to assist the EU to obtain technical advice from

members

• to provide a permanent network between

members and a common, but not unique, gateway

to each member and their national networks.

These have changed but little over the intervening

years.

A national geological survey, or equivalent body, of

an EU member state was entitled to full

membership while those of EFTA (European Free

Trade Area) were eligible for associate status

without voting rights. Over time a number of

regional and provincial geological surveys also

became affiliated. Members committed themselves

to work together in a cooperative, transparent and

professional manner. In due course members

would commit themselves to Internal Rules and a

Code of Conduct in addition to Statutes. A schedule

of membership fees was agreed, including detailed

mechanisms for deciding the level for each member.

A General Meeting of Directors, the governing

body of EGS, would be held at least once per year

to approve the financial accounts and report of

activities, as well as the budget and work

programme for the following year. An Executive

Committee would oversee the implementation of

decisions made at General Meetings and represent

EGS in dealings with third parties. The Executive

Committee currently comprises the President,

Vice-President, Treasurer and one additional

member (the last mentioned belonging to an EFTA

member state). They are elected for a term of

three years by the General Meeting based on

nominations submitted by a Selection Committee.

In a new departure, EGS appointed a full-time

Secretary General with responsibility for managing

its affairs under the supervision of the Executive

Committee. The Secretary General is appointed for

a term of four years and based in the Brussels

Bureau of EGS. Secretaries General have been

extremely influential in managing EGS affairs and

guiding the organisation’s evolution. They have

had a particular mandate to develop good relations

with European institutions, especially the European

Commission. In chronological sequence they

comprise Richard Annels (1996-1999), Emile

Elewaut (1999-2004), Patrice Christmann

(2004-2009) and Luca Demicheli (2009 to date).

The pace of European integration accelerated

the EGS agenda after the Millennium, so that in

practice the fears that new FOREGS members

had of being excluded from the fast lane did not

materialise. Eurogeosurveys membership rose

gradually to over 30 members at one point and the

FOREGS organisation, with its membership now

served satisfactorily by the newer organisation,

was allowed to lapse.

The new organisation quickly found its feet.

With shorter meetings and quicker decision

making, many saw improved benefits in participating.

Once more thematic working groups were

established and they were effective in bringing

together the experts from the various surveys.

Groups tended to focus on the implementation of

specific European Directives, such as the Water

Framework Directive, the Mine Wastes Directive

and the Directive on Geological Storage of Carbon.

Others were established for the specific projects of

undertaking projects funded from European funds

(such as in geochemical and seabed mapping).

All of this brought cooperation to a higher level

with individual surveys gaining important benefits. Map showing the membership of WEGS (1970s) in blue and

EuroGeoSurveys (2010) in green.



While European Geological surveys can take

considerable pride in their joint achievements over

the past four decades, there is little room for

complacency. With budgetary difficulties

widespread across Europe in 2010, there was an

acknowledged need to sustain investment in

Geoscience in order to reap its long term benefits.

The Eurogeosurveys ambition is to become the

recognised voice of European geoscience in

matters of policy formulation, regulatory practice

and problem solving.



Earth moving MaIN GEOlOGICal EvENtS IN EuROPE

SPaIN the El Hierro Island and the 2011 submarine eruption Volcanic oceanic islands are usually formed by the

construction and destruction of successive edifices.

The formation of rift zones where fissure eruptions

occur is common in such islands. Fissure eruptions

occur when magma propagates from a reservoir

to the surface through planar conduits called dykes.

The dykes propagation front is not linear but lobed,

with several fingers that moves up to the surface.

When sever al fingers reach the surface, they form

a fissure eruption in which several vents (one of

each related to a dyke finger) are aligned following

the dyke trend. The volcanic edifice usually grows

until it becomes unstable and partially collapses

forming landslides valleys.

El Hierro Island is a natural laboratory where these

processes can be deeply studied. It is the

westernmost and youngest of the Canary Islands,

being around 1.12 Ma old. Its geology consists on

two old volcanic shield edifices (Tiñor and

El Golfo- Las Playas), and three recent volcanic rifts

trending NE, S and W. Between the rift axes several

large scale landslides have occurred forming

El Golfo, El Julan and Las Playas valleys.

There are not clear evidences of historic subaerial

eruptions taking place in El Hierro. Some authors

suggest that an eruption took place in 1793 in the

Northwest. However, it is not well documented.

The submarine eruption located to the south of

La Restinga that took place on October 10th in the

submarine extension of the south rift is the only well

monitored historic eruption in El Hierro and the

Canary Islands. This eruption was preceded by three

months of seismic activity, ground deformation and

gas anomalies.

Initially a volcanic vent was located two kilometres

far from the south coast of the island, at a rough

depth of 150 m. The first products of the eruption

were observed three days later as floating stones,

although a big stain on the sea surface was the first

visual evidence of the eruption. Several times more,

new volcanic samples emerged from the submarine

volcano as basaltic lava balloons during the eruption

that lasted until March 5th, 2012.

Although it was a submarine eruption, it was similar

to the subaerial eruptions that have previously

occurred in El Hierro. These eruptions are fissure

type and are oriented following the rifts trending.

The length of these fissures ranges between tens

of metres to few kilometres. Subaerial fissures are

usually formed by less than 10 vents. Similarly,

the El Hierro 2011 submarine eruptive fissure is

more than 600 meters long and is formed by several

vents aligned along a NNW-SSE direction, following

the South rift trending.

The Spanish Geological Survey has published the

geological map of El Hierro at 1:25.000 scale, and

has been conducting research projects and a PhD

Thesis focus on geologic hazards since 2008.

Preliminary results include a geodatabase for

volcanic hazard analysis that incorporates

stratigraphical, petrological, geochronological and

volcano-structural data. Part of these data has been

used to develop a preliminary volcanic susceptibility

map in collaboration with the “Istituto Nazionale di

Geofisica e Vulcanologia” of Italy. This map shows

La Restinga as the area with highest probability of

hosting a future eruption, being in agreement with

the location of the 2011 eruption location. During the

volcanic unrest, the Spanish Geological Survey

issued a report on the rock falls that occurred in the

El Golfo valley that previously had caused the

eviction of some people and the closed the main

road access to the El Golfo area.

Studies in El Hierro have not only focused onland,

a geophysical and hydroacoustic exploration survey

was carried out offshore in November-December

2011 in the volcanic eruption area aboard the RV

“Sarmiento de Gamboa”. Different geophysical

techniques were used: multichannel seismic

reflection and wide angle reflection, gravity

measurements and parametric sounding, together

with high resolution multibeam bathymetry

mapping. The broad frequency range of the acoustic

systems used allows imaging the injection of

buoyant volcanic plumes driven by gas bubbles

exsolved from magma during the long lasting

eruption of the submarine volcano.


Earthquake in lorca (Murcia)

On May 11, 2011 at 18:47 (local time) a catastrophic

low-sized earthquake (Mw 5.1) took place in Lorca

(Murcia) south-eastern Spain. A few hours after the

event, a group of specialists in earthquake geology

from different institutions: Geological Survey of

Spain (IGME), Group of Active Tectonics,

Paleoseismicity and related risk (UCM), Universidad

Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) and the Universidad

Rey Juan Carlos de Madrid (URJC), travelled to the

epicentral area in order to compile all available field

data related with ground effects associated with

rupture and shaking, and damage of buildings.

The team used the instrumental data recorded by

the IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional) and

geological data from previous studies.

The preliminary study included a description of the

first geological data related to the possible geologic

source of the earthquake, the seismotectonic

characteristics of the seismic series, and the

earthquake effects, related to the damage of

buildings and the surface geological effects.

The main conclusions of the study pointed out that:

1. The Alhama-Murcia Fault (FAM) is the fault with

greater evidence of Quaternary activity in the

area, with evidence of paleoseismic activity

(M > 6.0) over the last 1000 years, associated with

thermal springs and a well-recognized surface

trace. There was destructive historical seismicity

located along the trace during the XVII, XVIII and

XIX centuries. FAM has a clear geomorphological

expression in this area and whose trace is parallel

to one of the nodal planes of focal mechanisms

obtained for the earthquakes of May 11, 2011.

The sinistral strike-slip movement of the fault is

consistent with the focal mechanism solution.

2. The high seismic intensity experienced by the

town of Lorca (intensity VII EMS-98 scale, data

IGN) associated with a magnitude 5.1 Mw, may

be due to the earthquake spread from the Sierra

de la Tercia (epicentral area) to the SW. The lack

of geological effects towards the east of the

epicentre supports this possible directionality

of propagation.

3. The wave propagation supports the directionality

of the FAM rupture spread from the epicentral

area, crossing the city of Lorca. This reason

associated with the shallowness of the

earthquake, would explain the high seismic

intensity and peak accelerations of 0.36 g

(IGN data) recorded in the accelerometer of the

old prison of Lorca (located in the downtown).

4. The increasing in static stress (Coulomb

Stress-Transfer Model) on the segments of the

Alhama-Murcia Fault (FAM) generated by the

main earthquake may have increased the

likelihood of earthquake occurrence in these

areas. However, it is not possible specify

temporary occurrence of these earthquakes.

5. The orientation of the principal axe of the strain

ellipsoid (ey), obtained from the archaeo-

seismological study is NW-SE, is consistent with

the regional tectonic stress field and focal

mechanism of the main earthquake and also with

the epicentral location.

6. The Archaeoseismological data (more than a

hundred values) suggest an origin of the

deformation associated with a nearby seismic

field, implying that most of the main earthquake

rupture occurred beneath the historic city of

Lorca because the faulting subsurface rupturing

runs below the Lorca village.

With these data and their inclusion in the

Environmental Seismic Intensity Scale ESI-

07, this preliminary geological report will improve

the information of historical earthquakes and

epicentral location and the knowledge of the seismic

process in Spain.

Italy

Catastrophic flashfloods in Cinque terre and lunigiana, north-western Italy (October 2011)

In the night between 24 and 25 October intense and

persistent rainfall affected north-western Italy and in

particular the Cinque Terre (Eastern Liguria) and

Lunigiana (NW Toscana) areas. The maximum

rainfall (472 mm in 6 hours) was recorded at

Brugnato (La Spezia).

This extreme rainfall event over a mountain area

caused the occurrence of several flashfloods that

Earth moving


killed 8 people, caused the evacuation of thousands

of inhabitants and extreme damages to numerous

settlements.

In the territorial municipalities of Aulla and Mulazzio

(Massa), the Magra river overflowed the embankments

and a 6 m high water flow (mixed with mud)

submerged the villages as well as farmed fields.

Huge mud-flows and debris-flows affected also

several villages in the Cinque Terre area (Vernazza,

Monterosso and Borghetto di Vara). About

300 landslides were surveyed only at Vernazza

and more than 170 landslides at Monte Rosso.

In particular at Vernazza, more than 2 millions of

cubic meters of floods have buried the historical

village (3-4 meters of mud and debris). These

villages were tipically located at the end of small

basins characterized by high slopes and very short

run-off times.Destructive flood in the Genoa urban area (4 November 2011)

On 4 November, very intense rainfall hit the area of

Genoa (about 400 mm fall between 9.30 and 14.30),

causing the overflowing of Rio Fereggiano and

Torrente Bisagno.

The flood was particularly evident in the Genoa

urban area where the effects were enhanced by

the occlusion of hydraulic sections in sectors were

the natural riverbed was completely buried. As a

consequence, a huge amount of mud and debris

was carried by the flood that crossed some quarters

of Genoa (e.g. Corso Sardegna). The Torrente

Bisagno flooded also downstream between the

Brignole station and the river mouth.

This flood caused 6 casualties, the evacuation of

more than 160 people and strong damages to

buildings and infrastructure (economic loss was

estimated equal to 652 millions €).

Earth moving

Vernazza (Cinque Terre, Liguria). Left: 3-4 meters of mud and debris had completely buried the first floor of the sediments. Right: an isolated building along the Vernazzola Stream was entirely covered by debris

Map of areas characterized by erosion (in blue) and deposition (in red) during the October 2011 event (source: www.protezionecivile.fvg.it)

Hyetograph and cumulate rainfall at the University of Genoa rainfall station


Other minor landslides and floods with relevant impact

In 2011, several other landslides and floods affecting

the Italian territory had a relevant impact in terms of

dead toll and damages to buildings and

infrastructures. Among them:

• 1-3 March: intense rainfall in Marche and Abruzzo

(about 270 mm in 24 hours) caused widespread

occurrence of flooding and landslides, killing

3 people

• 18 March: a large landslide (300 m3) between

Ceprano and Frosinone (Latium) has hit the

highway A1 “Milano - Napoli” (km 633) causing

one dead and two injuries

• 7 July: slope movement along the western coast

of the Como Lake (Lombardia) has interrupted a

primary road (SS340 Regina) and largely covered

the Brienno village with mud and debris. Some

buildings and a Romanic bridge were destroyed.

About one hundred people were evacuated

• 31 August: a large rockfall in high mountain area

(Mt. Pelmo, Veneto, about 2,900 m in elevation)

has killed two rescuers of the Dolomiti Bellunesi

Alpine Rescue;

• 7 October: in the Salerno province, a small village

(Teglia) was hit by a debris flow, that affected about

50 buildings. The families living there were evacuated;

• 20 October: very intense rainfall (about 130 mm in

two hours) in Roma metropolitan area has caused

widespread flooding that killed one person in a

underpass, caused large damages (about 2 M €)

and stopped the public transport for many hours;

• 22 November: intense and persistent rainfall in the

Messina and Reggio Calabria territorial provinces

(hour rainfall ranging between 60 and 100 mm),

promoted the occurrence of a debris flow the hit

Scarcelli, a small village near Saponara (Messina),

killing three people.

Earth moving

On 7 July 2011, a debris flow hit the Brienno Villlage on the western coast of the Como Lake (Lombardia)

Some effects caused by the Rio Ferreggiano flood in the Genoa urban area (Corso Sardegna and Brignole).(source: www.meteoweb.it)


POlaND

the first Polish report dedicated to assessment of environmental impact of shale gas exploration.

Does exploration for shale gas resources create risk

for natural environment? In 2011 that question was a

hot issue throughout the Europe, from England to

Bulgaria. The largest controversies were raised

around hydraulic fracturing showing quickly growing

demand for hard data on actual impact of such

treatments under local conditions. In Poland, first

treatments of that type were conducted in August

2011 on the in the Lebien LE-2H exploratory well

made by the Lane Energy Poland company of the

3Legs Resources Group in the Koszalin area, close

to the Baltic coast (NW Poland). The Polish

Geological Institute- National Research Institute

(PGI-NRI) used that opportunity to assess impact of

the treatments by monitoring environmental

conditions before (baseline data), during and after

the hydraulic fracturing. The research team led by

the PGI-NRI have found that the hydraulic fracturing

as a stimulating treatment which opens access to

shale gas reserves does not bear any long-standing

influence on the environment, providing that it is

appropriately performed, in accordance with the

best professional knowledge and all the legal

regulations and norms. Short-lasting influence (such

as noise level, heavy traffic of vehicles, waste from

technological fluids) may be minimized by the use of

appropriate procedures and issuing adequate

administrative decisions.

The results were compiled in the report

“Environmental Aspects of Hydraulic Fracturing

Treatment Performed on the Łebień LE-2H Well” in

November 2011 and placed at PGI-NRI website:

[www.pgi.gov.pl/pl/instytut-geologiczny-informacje-

prasowe/4091-raport-z-lebienia-materia-prasowe.html]

The experience gained from the performed studies

showed that it would be highly desirable to use the

gathered experience in monitoring the next sites

where shale gas prospection and searching works

will be conducted.

SlOvakIa

Emergency landslides in Slovakia in 2011

Slope failures, especially landslides represent one of

the most important geodynamic phenomena in the

SlovakRepublic. The 21 190 slope deformations

registered up to now cover 2 575.912 km2 which

correspond to 5.25% of the total area of Slovakian

territory. A lot of new slope failures evolved after

heavy rainfalls in the year 2010. Their total number

in the Eastern Slovakia achieved 577.

In the course of 2011, mayors of municipalities

reported 34 landslides to the Ministry of

Environment SR, or directly to the State Geological

Institute of Dionýz Štúr, which jeopardized, or even

damaged residential and other buildings,

Earth moving

Lebien LE-2H well. Line of pump aggregates ready for fracturing operations (photo PGI-NRI)

The Łebień LE-2H well site during gas tests (photo PGI-NRI)

The Łebień drill pad viewed from the east; Rekowo Lęborskie, June 2011 (photo PGI-NRI).


engineering networks and the population. In some

cases these were landslides documented in 2010,

with the activity re-occurring in the year 2011.

Site krupina (8)Landslide area is located within the residential area

of the town Krupina on the left bank of the Krupinica

River near the street Nad Kotlom. The landslide

originated at the turn of the months of May and

June in 2010 and posed a threat for several houses.

Its reactivation which occurred at the turn of 2010

and 2011, called for declaration of "emergency

situation".The State Geological Institute of Dionyz

Stur was entitled to realize engineering geological

investigation and emergency remedial measures,

which consisted of implementation of two stabilizing/

draining ribs.

Site vinohradynadváhom (19)Re-activated landslides in the Vinohrady nad Váhom

again are components of a wider landslide territory

between Hlohovec and Sereď. This 18 km long strip

of landslides is known especially thanks to the

extensive engineering geological survey in

connection with the projected Water Works Sereď

- Hlohovec.

During the April 2011 registration we have

concluded, the inappropriately targeted anthropogenic

activities were one of the main factors that

contribute to the destabilisation of the territory.

This was in particular the creation of illegal landfills in

the areas of head scarps of the potential slopefailures.

The residents of the village hadadopted the ill

practice of waste deposition in the vicinity of local

communication in order to prevent its destruction.

Moreover, in the territory of interest also intensive

construction of family houses has taken place.

The constructions themselves represent a surcharge

to the slope, attenuated by backfilling of the

depressions and other earthworks.

Earth moving

Remedial works: A - digging of the stabilizing/draining rib B - installation of drainage tube C - situation after remedy measures realization in June 2011.

Family double-house endangered by the landslide in Vinohrady nad Váhom - part Kamenica. A - recorded on 28th April 2011

B - recorded after Declaration of Emergency Situation, 22nd June 2011

Situation of newly-evolved landslides registered by SGIDS at the territory of Slovakia in 2011. I - Core Mountains Region, II - Region of Carpathian Flysch, III - Region of Neovolcanites, IV- Region of Neogene Tectonic Depressions, 1 to 21 - landslide sites

Landslides in Lipovany village (number 10 in the map)


Another cause is inappropriate or insufficient

drainage of surface and waste waters. In the local

part the public sewerage is missing, therefore

sewage and draining within the local part Kamenica

is dealt individually, usually by means of a cesspit, or

low-capacity biological treatmentplants.

Family double-house endangered by the landslide in

Vinohrady nad Váhom - part Kamenica. A -

recorded on 28th April 2011, B - recorded after

Declaration of Emergency Situation, 22nd June 2011

In a very short time in the most affected part of the

Kamenica landslide the works were launched aimed

at draining the slope under the supervision of SGIDS.

With the assistance of the Army of the SlovakRepublic

6 surface drainage ditches were manually excavated

through the inaccessible terrain reaching a total

length of 428 m and a depth of 0.5 m. Through these

ditches a substantial part of the waters in the

landslide territory was channelled out of the landslide

into the alluvial plain deposits of the VáhRiver.

The biggest problem was the rescue of the family

double-house, which is found directly on the head

scarp of the landslide. After the implementation of

the engineering geological survey there was

designed and implemented anchored micro-pile

wall. The groundwater table level was drawn down

by subhorizontal drainage borehole V-8 directly

below the double-house at a depth of about 7 m.

Earth moving

Remedial works aiming on the rescue of the family double-house No. 711 a 712 (construction of the anchored micro-pile wall)


Earth Observation (EO) Expert Group

1. Executive summary

EOEG provides a forum for EO experts in member

surveys to share knowledge and skills, elaborate

common methodologies and spread best practice.

It networks EGS participants in existing EGS

projects and initiatives concerning EO, particularly

those related to GEO, the intra-governmental

Group on Earth Observations (AEGOS, EGIDA,

EO-MINERS...), and to GMES, the EC and ESA

initiative on Global Monitoring for Environment

and Security (EVOSS, PanGeo, SubCoast,

Terrafirma...). This helps join the EGS EO

community together and thus positions EGS to

make stronger, EO-related contributions to policy

initiatives and FP bids in future. It should also

enable EGS members who are currently less

engaged in these EO programmes to start to

contribute and to get involved. A focus on EO

science is appropriate because of current European

opportunities and global activities in the topic, but

the EOEG also recognises that its primary mission

is to use EO as a tool to help EGS members deliver

their programmes across the geosciences.

2. Mission and vision

2.1 Mission

EOEG exists to increase the quality, efficiency and

cost-effectiveness of EGS members' science

delivery and to capitalise on European and

International Earth Observation science opportunities.

It will do this by ensuring that members:

• share their EO expertise and research

• utilise state-of-the-art in-situ, airborne and

satellite EO techniques and datasets

• pool their EO expertise, experience, resources

and facilities

EOEG will pursue specific opportunities related to:

• GEO, through the FP7 ENVIRONMENT Theme

• GMES, through the FP7 SPACE Theme

• other appropriate EO topics

2.2 vision

By fulfilling this mission, over the next 5 years,

EOEG will see that EGS:

• becomes the European centre of excellence for

geological applications of Earth Observation

• plays a significant role in helping the Group on

Earth Observations (GEO) create a Global Earth

Observing System of Systems (GEOSS)

• takes the lead in validating EO with in-situ data

• delivers geological research and geo-information

services in the EC Global Monitoring for

Environment and Security (GMES) initiative.

3. Scope and focus

The full scope of the EOEG is therefore the full

range of EO tools (optical, hyperspectral, thermal,

radar) from various platforms (satellite, airborne,

in-situ) applied to geological mapping, resource

assessment (oil, gas, geothermal energy, minerals

and groundwater), waste management (mine

pollution, nuclear, CCS, landfills) and geohazard

mitigation (earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides,

subsidence and flooding).

At the request of the Executive Committee, EOEG’s

initial focus has been on geohazard applications,

reflecting the initial focus of EO in GEO (Disasters

Societal Benefit Area, Geohazard Community of

Practice) and GMES (Land, Marine and Emergency

Response Core Services, Terrafirma, SubCoast,

EVOSS, Sentinel 1 SAR mission). Over time,

this is expected to evolve; the second, emerging

theme is resources, to support and contribute to

the EC’s Raw Materials Initiative (RMI), underpin

AEGOS, EO-MINERS, ImpactMIN and related

projects and capitalise on the emergence of

geo-resources as a higher profile application area

in GEO.

the shape of our business


4. strategic considerations

GEO has one overarching objective; to build the

Global Earth Observing System of Systems.

This includes component systems coming from

the geoscience community, including the Global

Seismic Network, the Global Geodetic Observing

System and various other satellite, airborne and

in-situ observing systems. It is therefore both a

duty upon and in the self-interest of the geological

survey community to engage and contribute to this

initiative. Along with IUGS, EGS is a Participating

Organisation in GEO and the EOEG Chair is

Co-Chair of one of the three GEO Implementation

Boards; the one concerning science and technology,

users and capacity building. In addition to these

international relationships, GEO offers a significant

funding opportunity for EO and geoscience projects

through the FP7 Environment Theme.

GMES is Europe’s main contribution to GEO and a

global observing system for the environmental

sciences in its own right. It is a flagship initiative of

both the European Space Agency and the EC.

It develops the European elements of the global

observing system and, as well as satelite sstems

delivered by the space agency, includes the

important in-situ elements that often fall within the

remit of geological surveys, related institutes and

their initiatives such as the European Plate

Observign System and EGS’s own EGDI.

The European geological surveys therefore need to

engage and contribute to shaping and delivering

this initiative and EGS has been at the forefront of

this effort in recent years, through both lobbying

and associated FP7 and ESA funded projects,

the result of a second strand of EO and geoscience

funding through the FP7 Space Theme.

EOEG members now have a strong portfolio of

GEO and GMES projects that address geohazards,

including co-Chairing GEO’s Geohazard Community

of Practice (GHCP). In an effort to capitalise on this,

the EOEG and associated partners in academia

developed a GHCP Roadmap, which is in the

process of being adopted by GEO. A small but

growing portfolio of FP7 projects underpins this

involvement (AEGOS, EGIDA, EO-MINERS).

In GMES, this activity includes the ESA-funded

GMES Service Element Terrafirma and a suite of

EC-funded GMES Downstream projects on

geohazards in the coastal zone (SubCoast, led by

TNO), landslides (DORIS, with ISPRA involvement),

volcanoes (EVOSS, with BGS involvement) and

urban geohazards (the new start, PanGEO, for

which EGS has federated the geological survey

input). The latter builds on the OneGeology

infrastructure, is the only EGS FP7 project to

feature every EGS member survey and is therefore

of great strategic value to EGS.

5. activity report

EOEG held no formal meeting in 2011, having

recently met in December 2010. The emphasis has

been placed on working within the FP7 projects

secured to address various GEO and GMES

objectives. Individual members have also engaged

with the EC on various topics, including GEO,

GMES and the Raw Material Initiaitive. In terms of

meetings, members came together at a range of

GEO, GMES and project meetings for informal

discussions. EOEG activities concerning the

PanGeo project were also reported in an EGS

Newsletter article.

EGS and members of EOEG attended the 2011 GEO

Plenary in Istanbul, with the Secretary General

speaking in the Plenary to raise the profile of EGS

and members’ GEO activities and contributions.

These included the African-European Geo-resources

Observation System (AEGOS), OneGeology, which

is the geological layer in GEO’s Global Datasets

Task, and EO-MINERS, our new GEO European

Project on EO and its contribution to teh European

Technology Platform on Minerals. EGS also

operated a booth in the large EC stand at the GEO

Exhibition, showcasing these projects and a number

of others, which further cemented our realtionship

with the EC FP7 Environment Theme. New this year,

EGS held a side meeting on EGS GEO projects, which

was well attended and at which several EOEG members

gave presentations on their GEO-related projects.

This achieved a high profile for EGS at the event.

The Ministerial was the culmination of considerable

EOEG activity through 2012. EOEG Members

attended the 5th GEO European Projects Workshop

in London in February 2011, hosted by UKGEO/

BGS, with the Chair of EOEG making presentations

on the subject of subsurface observations and on

minerals. The Chair then attended the GEO Work



Plan Symposium in Geneva in May 2011, where

we pressed home the case for minerals to have a

place in the GEO structure. This has also been

pursued through EGS Co-Chairing the GEO Science

& Technology Committee. The issue was followed

up by written submissions to the GEO Secretariat

by the EOEG Chairman that resulted in a successful

outcome reported in section 6.

On Geohazards, the EOEG Chairman and its

members contributed to the development of three

FP7 bids, co-ordinated by the European Plate

Observing System, to host Supersites (or natural

laboratories) as a European contribution to GEO’s

activities in this area. All three outline bids in this

two-stage process were invited to prepare full bids

at the end of 2011, for an early 2012 deadline.

This should provide another way for some

European surveys to become more involved in

GEO during 2012; in total, Euro18M is on offer and

upto three sites will be funded.

As noted above, EOEG, EGS and its members

have a strong portfolio of GMES projects funded by

both the European Space Agency and the EC FP7

SPACE Theme. These continued to be active in

2011. Particularly pleasing during 2011 was the

increase in joint activity and cross-working seen for

these projects. Terrafirma and SubCoast held a

joint meeting in June 2011, hosted by GEUS with

EEA in attendance. This will be the first of several

joint meetings; the latter half of 2011 was spent

planning a May 2012 conference of all relevant

GMES projects, reported under section 7.

6. Results and impacts

In GEO, EOEG activity supported by both the

AEGOS and EO-MINERS GEO FP7 projects led to

one significant result for the geosciences with a

high potential impact in the coming years. Several

years of lobbying activity and demonstration of the

science case led to the incorporation of minerals

within the GEO Work Plan for the first time.

Previously, no GEO Societal Benefit Area covered

mineral resources issues, with the closest one

being the Energy SBA. Whilst the latter did include

energy minerals, it did not include other mineral

resources. The new GEO Work Plan 2012-15

adopted by GEO Plenary in November 2011 now

has a Task under Energy, EN-01, called Energy

and Geo-resources Management that fully includes

minerals. Several EGS members are lead

contributors to this Task.

However, the outcome is better than that. EN-01

covers mineral exploration and exploitation issues.

A second Task, SB-05, has been established on

Human Impacts; this includes a component on

impacts of mining activity that maps directly onto

the EO-MINERS project. This component is likely

to be coordinated by BRGM. So, the profile of

geoscience in general, minerals in particular, EGS

and its members has never been higher in GEO.

Inclusion of minerals in the work plan is a first step

to additional FP funding from future EC calls.

7. future activities

Plan for EOEG activity in 2012

• Capture strategic considerations (section 4) in a

formal Position Paper (now in draft)

• Write EGS Newsletter article on EOEG activity

and Position Paper in first half of 2012

• Contribute to EGS Annual Meetings on 27th

February in Brussels

• Hold a large, joint meeting of DORIS, EVOSS,

SubCoast, PanGeo and Terrafirma under the

auspices of the European Space Agency in May

2012; the “International Forum on Satellite EO for

Geo-Hazard Risk Management”, 21st - 23rd May

2012, Santorini

• EO-MINERS, EOEG and the EGS Minerals Expert

Group will organize a Workshop on “Minerals and

GEO” in Ljubljana in July 2012, to capitalize on

the new GEO Work Plan

• Contribute to relevant Symposia at IGC34, with

strong participation from e.g. AEGOS

• Hold second EOEG meeting, later in 2012,

themed on potential new topics such as minerals

• Additional GEO and GMES FP7 opportunities

called in 2012 will be pursued as appropriate



Water Resources Expert Group


The Water Resources Expert Group focuses on

groundwater management and protection of

groundwater resources. Its main activities are the

support and advice to DG-ENV, the identification of

knowledge gaps for the EU research agenda and

the sharing of experiences of member states in

implementing EU Directives related to groundwater.

The activities in 2011 focused on specific advice on

the topic of climate changes on groundwater and

the 2013 review of the Groundwater Directive.


The focus of the Expert Group on Water Resources

is on groundwater management and protection in

general, and more specifically related to the

groundwater aspects of the Water Framework

Directive (WFD), the Groundwater Directive (GWD

2006) and the Common Implementation Strategy

(CIS) of both directives. The main activities are:

• Support and advise to DG-ENV on technical and

policy-related issues

• Indentify knowledge gaps for the EU research

agenda

• Sharing experiences between member

organizations in WFD and GWD implementation.

3. Scope and focus

The scope of the expert group on water resources

(EGWR) has been related to the groundwater

aspects of the water framework directive (WFD,

2000) and on the negotiations of the groundwater

directive (2006) and its subsequent implementation

through the common implementation strategy (CIS).

Between 2003 and 2006 Eurogeosurveys actively

contributed to discussions on the definition of the

draft groundwater directive and the implementation

of the water framework directive (WFD).

Eurogeosurveys representatives were involved in

support and advise to DG-ENV on technical and

policy-related issues in the expert advisor forum

and the EU working group C, which is part of the

common implementation strategy of the WFD.


1.1 Issues tackled by the WFD (2000) and GWD (2006)

1.2 The GWD and WFD involve an new paradigm in protection of groundwater, with increased emphasis on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and on the mutual influence of groundwater on surface waters.


Since 2006, after the GWD was enacted,

Eurogeosurveys has played an active role in the

overall discussions within Working Group C and in

the implementation process by leading and

participating in drafting groups for Guidances.

Moreover, the Expert group took initiatives in order

to influence the EU research agenda in order to

close knowledge gaps that were identified.

This resulted in two concept notes on Groundwater

research needs under FP7, one in 2007 and one in

2010, which were discussed intensively with EU

policy and scientific officers. In 2008 this lead to

a dedicated Groundwater Systems topic in the

second call of FPVII.

4. the European dimension

The EGWR is very active in the EU Working Group

C on Groundwater. Since 2006, when the GWD

was enacted, Eurogeosurveys has played an active

role in leading drafting groups, writing guidances

for the implementation of the GWD, contributing

and chairing and co-chairing drafting groups on

• guidance on groundwater status and trend

assessment no. 18 (chair/co-chair, 6 EGS

members contibuting, guidance endorsed 2009)

• guidance on groundwater monitoring (4 EGS

members, endorsed 2007)

• guidance on groundwater aspects of protected

areas (4 EGS members, endorsed 2008)

• guidance on direct and indirect inputs to

groundwater (2 EGS members, endorsed 2008).

These four guidances form the heart of the

common implementation strategy of the

Groundwater Directive.

The work in the period 2009-2012 focused on the

preparation of the official review of the GWD in

2013. EGWR members Rob Ward and Ariane Blum

(BRGM) have co-chaired this activity which leaded

to the EU Document “Recommendations for the

review of Annexes of the Groundwater Directive”.

Another important WGC activity was chaired by

EGWR Chair Hans Peter Broers, who organized a

EU workshop on ‘Climate Change Impacts on

Groundwater’ in Warsaw which aimed to bring

scientists and policy makers together on this topic.


1.3 Overview of the position of EU Working Group C in the Common Implementation Strategy for the WFD and GWD


5. activity report

Input to the review process of the Groundwater Directive

2011 Rob Ward, Ariane Blum

Meeting with bottled water industry to discuss the Eurogeosurveys Bottled Water book

21 Jan 2011 Hans Peter Broers, Luca Demichelli

Input for the Hungarian EU Presidency report Hans Peter Broers,

June 7th 2011 Hans Peter Broers, Luca Demichelli

Attending EU Working Group C meetings in Budapest and Warsaw

April, Oct 2011

Many members

Organisation of EU Workshop ‘Climate Change Impacts on Groundwater’, Warsaw

Oct 12th 2011 Hans Peter Broers, Klaus Hinsby, Ronald Kozel

Presentation Manifest Workshop CC & GW to DG-Research and DGENV

Nov 16th 2011

Hans Peter Broers, Klaus Hinsby, Ronald Kozel

Organisation of workshop on Groundwater Body Delineation, Berlin

Dec 16th 2011

Wilhelm Struckmeier et al.

Commenting the draft FPVII 2012 call to highlight groundwater

Dec 2011/Jan 2012

Hans Peter Broers, Klaus Hinsby, Rob Ward, Nathalie Dorfliger and others


• There is a great appreciation by the EU for the

support and advice of Eurogeosurveys, which is

illustrated by the fact EG Water members chair

two of the three EU activities in the WFD Common

Implementation Strategy in the field of Groundwater.

The DGResearch officials also showed much

appreciation for the Eurogeosurveys input for

future FP7 calls.

• The Manifesto of the CC&GW workshop was

endorsed by the Working Group C and pleas for

specific research on Climate Change Impacts on

Groundwater, especially focused on the indirect

secondary effects of CC. The Manifesto is

Attached to this document

• Groundwater is now specifically mentioned in

some of the draft calls of FPVII, for example the

calls on water management and emerging

pollutants.

7. future perspectives

Future groundwater resources management

requires sound knowledge of groundwater systems

and the Eurogeosurveys Water Resources Expert

Group identified a number of issues that should be

addressed in future research programs.

The groundwater research needs that we identified

are especially related to the implementation of

the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the

Groundwater Directive (GWD) but also related to

EU policy initiatives on ‘Water Scarcity and

Droughts’ and ‘Climate Change Adaptation and

Mitigation’. For example, the second and third

River Basin Management Plans for the WFD and

GWD are supposed to be fully climate-resilient by

2015. Moreover, different policy objectives may

have contradictory effects; implementing the EU

policy on renewable energy by introducing

subsurface thermal energy storage, the storage of

CO2 for example or the increased exploration of

unconventional fossil fuel reservoirs, might have

adverse effects on the protection of groundwater

systems, which asks for a balanced groundwater

management approach.

In its 2010 concept note, Eurogeosurveys

highlighted five priority areas for further research

in order to scientifically support the implementation

of the Water Framework Directive, the Groundwater

Directive: and EU policy initiatives on water scarcity

and droughts and climate change adaptation and

mitigation.



These include:

1. Developing predictive tools and monitoring

systems to evaluate the effects of subsurface

CO2 storage on groundwater systems and

groundwater receptors above storage facilities

2. Develop methodologies to understand, evaluate

and predict the impacts of climate change on

groundwater resources and interlinked surface

waters and ecosystems in order to eventually

define climate-robust set of measures

3. Developing tools to facilitate management

strategies for multiple uses of groundwater in

urban areas. predictive tools and monitoring

systems

4. Developing tools for relating response of

Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems to the

condition of groundwater systems, and to

improve assessment of climate change and

restoration/protection measures

5. Developing strategies to deal with the impacts

of emerging pollutants in groundwater

management and protection.

Some of these topics are now included in the

European research agenda, but many still require

attention. In supporting the European Commission

in these fields, Eurogeosurveys now chairs an ad

hoc activity for EU Working Group C on Groundwater

and Climate Change, which in 2012 will focus on

concrete recommendations for climate proof

groundwater management. EGWR members will

also join the 2012 USGS study tour on Shale gas

exploration to cover the topic of groundwater

protection.

The Working Group C will discuss its 2013-2015 in

March 2012, and Eurogeosurveys will proactively

highlight important topics and will take the lead in

organizing WGC tasks where convenient and

feasible.



Manifesto from the Workshop Climate Change Impacts on Groundwater

Eu Working Group C workshop October 12th, Warsaw

A workshop on Climate Change Impacts on

Groundwater” was held in Warsaw under the

umbrella of the CIS Working Group C on

Groundwater. The meeting was used to share

information and exchange views between member

states, stakeholders and scientists and aimed to

establish the knowledge base on groundwater

aspects of climate change as a basis for climate

resilient river basin management plans (RBMPs)

and to identify the needs for future work in climate

change impacts on groundwater, both from policy

and scientific perspectives. It was decided to move

forward in two complementary ways:

1. to support the policy process by making

concrete recommendations for 2nd round of

RBMPs on the basis of th e established

knowledge base, and

2. to promote further research based on the

inventory of knowledge gaps, which should

establish an improved understanding of climate

change impacts on groundwater, which may

eventually be applied in the 3rd or 4th RBMPs.

Important outcomes of the workshop were that

the impacts of climate change on groundwater are

not limited to water scarcity in southern European

countries, but also result in significantly changed

seasonal regimes of snowmelt, in wetter winters,

dryer summers and prolonged periods of droughts

in other parts of Europe. It also appeared that

secondary impacts of climate change, caused by

human adaptations in energy and water policies

have potentially large impacts on groundwater

resources. However, there is a lack in understanding

of how this will affect groundwater itself, as well as

the receptors of groundwater such as ecosystems,

surface waters and drinking water abstractions.

The EU Working Group C on Groundwater adopted

the following manifesto, advocating for action and

a plea for further research to establish an improved

understanding of climate change impacts on

groundwater, because groundwater is a precious

resource which is only slowly replenished and

which is of great importance to the European

society by providing drinking water, irrigation

water and ecosystem services.

Identified knowledge Gaps

Since 2006, the combination of WFD and GWD

involves a new paradigm in protection of

groundwater, with increased emphasis on aquatic

and terrestrial ecosystems and on the mutual

influence between groundwater and surface

waters. Up to now groundwater and surface

water research was often performed in ‘separate

worlds’ and really integrated research on

soil-groundwater-surface water relations, including

integrated modelling, monitoring and evaluation of

measures is scarce. Moreover, pressures on

groundwater systems tend to increase, partly as

a result of the effects of climate change and

associated human induced changes of surface and

subsurface water management. Especially,

secondary impacts of climate change, resulting

from human intervention in water systems, are

expected to have large short-term effects on

groundwater resources. Examples of secondary

impacts are:

• increasing groundwater abstractions especially

for irrigation due to longer dry periods and higher

water demand of crops leading to falling water

tables and salt water intrusion, especially in

periods of extreme hydrometeorological events

• changing land use practices, including an

increase in the production of energy crops, which

already led to increasing nitrogen concentrations

in groundwater due to increased use of fertilizers

in some areas in Europe. Negative effects on

pesticide concentrations and increased water

demands affecting water quality and quantity

• more intensive use of the groundwater bodies in

relation to energy policy, for example by a sharp

increase of aquifer thermal energy storage

facilities in Europe and the search for

unconventional fossil fuels which has potentially

large adverse effects of groundwater quality

• storage of CO2 in deep aquifers or gas fields for

CO2 mitigation, which may affect the quality of



groundwater resources and groundwater

receptors, depending on the local

hydrogeological situation.

Although climate change impacts on surface water

systems are relatively well studied in relation to

flooding risks and prolonged droughts, the primary

and secondary impacts of climate change on

groundwater systems are relatively unknown.

Only a number of very recent studies give some

information of the changes in groundwater

recharge rates and renewal, the fluxes towards

ecosystems and surface water receptors and

related changes in groundwater and surface water

quality. Very few of them include an evaluation of

societal changes in reaction to climate change

prognoses and consequences for biodiversity.

There is a clear need for further research in order

to better understand how climate change impacts

affect groundwater, in order to eventually

scientifically support the implementation of the

Water Framework Directive, the Groundwater

Directive and EU policy initiatives on ´Water

Scarcity and Droughts’ and ‘Climate Change

Adaptation and Mitigation with respect to

groundwater. A key research theme that we

identified is the need to: “Develop methodologies

to understand, evaluate and predict climate change

impacts on groundwater resources and interlinked

surface waters and ecosystems in order to

eventually define climate-robust set of measures”

The focus should be on both monitoring systems,

which support signalling the effects of primary and

secondary climate change impacts on groundwater

resources and on developing methodologies and

modelling tools to understand and predict the

effects of both types of impacts.

The methodologies should be able to assess the

effects of local and regional measures and to

produce scenario analyses, which help to select

effective sets of counter effective measures,

including scenarios for the conjunctive use of

groundwater and surface waters and the

assessment of favourable locations for artificial

recharge of groundwater. A concrete proposal for

EU funded research under the FPVII or FPVIII

umbrella is attached in the Appendix.

appendix: a concrete proposal for research under fPvII/fPvIIIunderstanding the Impacts of Climate Change on Quantity and Quality of Groundwater Resources

Introduction

The potential impacts of climate change on water

resources have long been recognised, but still

there has been comparatively little research

related to groundwater, although it represents the

major part of the exploited water resources in

many EU member states. Moreover, the main

focus of climate change research regarding

groundwater has been on quantifying the likely

primary impacts of changing precipitation and

temperature patterns on water quantity in small

localised catchments. However, other secondary

impacts including an increase in water demands

and changes in agricultural practices may have

even stronger effects on the sustainable

management of groundwater systems.

Global warming is likely to have substantial direct

and indirect impacts on both groundwater quantity

and quality across Europe. In Denmark and in

many other EU member states increasing winter

precipitation may result in increasing nutrient

leakage, and hence work against measures

planned in order to assure compliance with the

Water Framework and Groundwater Directives and

decrease the nutrient loads to associated aquatic

ecosystems (Andersen et al., 2006). In southern

Europe, where water resources are predominantly

groundwater based, global warming is likely to

reduce overall water availability with warmer and

drier summers and more extreme rainfall events

year round.

The EU workshop revealed that climate change is

expected to impact groundwater significantly in the

rest of Europe too. Even for moderate climates

relevant shifts in the length of the recharge season,

the snowmelt period and the occurrence of

prolonged droughts are predicted to occur, which

may well lead to an overall reduction of groundwater

recharge (Goderniaux et al. 2009) and water

scarcity at the end of the summer period (Huss et

al. 2010) or to increased transfer of nutrients from

groundwater towards lakes and estuaries

(Roosmalen et al. 2011).



Regarding the primary impacts of climate change

on groundwater, much is still unknown about:

• the effects of extreme hydrometeorological

events, including the propagation of floods and

meteorological droughts towards groundwater

• changes in temporal patterns of groundwater

recharge

• the impacts of the quality of groundwater renewal

• possible increased or altered risk for leaching and

transport of contaminants and nutrients and its

effects on groundwater ecology

• the impact on groundwater and stream water

and contaminant fluxes towards aquatic and

terrestrial ecosystems

• changes in patterns of groundwater-surface

water interactions which also affect the WFD and

GWD risk assessments related to the chemical

and quantitative status of surface water and

groundwater bodies.

However, the largest short term effects of climate

change might be due to human actions that react

on the actual and predicted changes in precipitation

and temperature patterns. Examples of such

secondary impacts are the increase of water

demands and abstractions of groundwater for

irrigation due to higher evaporation which may

lead to falling water tables and salt water intrusion

(Oude Essink, 2010). Worldwide there is a large

increasing trend in groundwater abstractions and

groundwater depletion (Wada et al. 2011) which

may amplify as a result of climate change.

Other secondary impacts are related to

adaptations of Europe’s energy policies, including

the increased production of energy crops which

may change groundwater quality by increasing use

of fertilizers and pesticides and increased water

needs, the storage of heat and CO2 and nuclear

waste and the search for unconventional fossil

fuels. Studies which try to understand the effects

of these adaptations are few.

Moreover, little is yet done on monitoring of the

long term effects of climate change in groundwater,

which makes it difficult to distinguish between

natural and manmade changes to groundwater

systems. For example, long term monitoring of

water tables, spring discharge and runoff is very

scarce. There is a need to systematically assess

historical monitoring data in order to understand

the response of the groundwater to climatological

changes in the past by developing techniques such

as hindcasting, but also to develop methods to

design improved and integrated monitoring and

modelling of groundwater and surface water.

Eventually, properly designed monitoring systems

should enable us to record future changes related

to primary and secondary effects of climate

change, for example by the monitoring of spring

discharges and groundwater recharge rates and

quality, by systematically applying groundwater

age tracers and dating techniques.

Research topic

Develop methodologies to understand, evaluate and predict the impacts of climate change on groundwater resources and interlinked surface waters and ecosystems

The focus of the proposed research should be on

Europe wide assessment of the primary and

secondary impacts of climate change on

groundwater resources and groundwater

receptors. This includes both the quantitative

aspects (e.g. changes in temporal and spatial

recharge patterns and increased water use), the

chemical aspects (e.g. changes in transformation

and degradation of chemicals, changing pathways

of pollutants and groundwater-surface water

interaction) and the ecological aspects (e.g. changes

in groundwater ecology and derivation of threshold

values to protect ecosystems). By assessing the

potential impacts, the research should also clarify

what consequences are expected for reference

conditions, such as baseline shifts which may

impact on groundwater.

The research should include an evaluation of

societal changes in reaction to climate change

prognoses, both related to water and energy

policies. It should develop methods to understand

the possible adverse effects of CCS practices,

thermal heat storage and the search for

unconventional fossil fuels on future groundwater

uses and ecosystem services. It should also

highlight the opportunities for using bio-indicators



in groundwater as an early warning and evaluation

technique to deduce the effects of extreme

hydrometeorological events on groundwater and

associated ecosystems.

The research should improve the predictive

assessments of climate change impacts.

This includes the development of fully coupled

soil-unsaturated zone-saturated zonesurface water

models capable of simulating long term behaviour

of hydrological systems, but with a very high

temporal resolution which enables us to see the

changes in seasonal patterns on water table

depths, water quality and fluxes towards surface

water and groundwater dependent ecosystems..

There is need to assess the uncertainty of the

predictions by integrating the newest research

results on contaminant fate and progress made in

climate research, using the results of project like

ENSEMBLES and PRUDENCE. The predictive

methodologies should be able to produce scenario

analyses, which help to select effective sets of

counter effective measures, including scenarios for

the conjunctive use of groundwater and surface

waters and the assessment of favourable locations

for artificial recharge of groundwater.

However, we should also invest in underpinning

research based on collection of field data, because

spatial heterogeneity in climatic, hydrogeological

and hydrogeochemical conditions leads to

uncertainties, which should be understood before

proper modelling can reveal realistic scenarios of

changes. The opportunities of Earth observation

methods, such as GRACE and HOBE, should also

be investigated in order to reduce uncertainty

and may help to extrapolate monitoring and

modelling results (link with GEO), and downscale

from global to local models. The research should

set the basis for a Europe wide system of

groundwater monitoring focused on long term

records of recharge rates, water table depths,

spring discharges and water quality, which will

enable future signalling of unexpected changes

and the evaluation of measures that aim to reduce

the effects of global and manmade changes.

Expected Impact

The understanding obtained through the proposed

research will help EU member states to properly

identify probable climate change impacts on

groundwater systems and help to focus measures

in the third and fourth River Basin Management

Plans. The research will help to identify primary

and secondary climate change impacts on water

demands and water supply over Europe, to

develop smart and integrated monitoring and

modelling programmes and to design tailor-made

programmes of adaptation measures to avoid or

counteract these impacts. The predictive models

that will be developed will enable to understand

the effects of local and regional measures and to

run robust scenario analyses, which will help to

select effective sets of adaptation measures.

Eventually the research will help to make the

RBMP climate proof and groundwater and surface

water management climate resilient.

References

- Andersen et al. 2006, Sc. Total Env. 365:223-237

- Goderniaux et al. 2009, J. of Hydr. 373:122-138

- Huss et al. 2007, Hydr. Process. 22:3888-3902

- Roosmalen, L. van et al. 2011, Vadose Zone J.

10:136-150

- Wada Y. et al. 2009, Geophys. Res. Letters 37:

L20402



Expert Group on CO2 storage


CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) can be a vital

technology in the mitigation of climate change over

the next few decades and a rapid implementation

is required to reduce CO2 emissions in time.

The acceptance and technical success of CCS relies

largely on the safe and permanent geological

storage of CO2. To achieve this objective, proper

legislation, objective evaluation of projects, and

expertise and quality data on the deeper

subsurface are required. The Geological Surveys

have the relevant data, expertise and objectivity,

facilitating their meaningful contribution to a

successful implementation of the emerging

technology.

The expert group EGS.CO2 directly groups the

expertise of 16 Geological Surveys and is the

official voice of the Geological Surveys of Europe

on CO2 Capture and Storage. Its mission is to

engage in a dialogue with the relevant European

institutes, and use its own expertise to interface

between European and national policy levels.

As such its agenda is closely linked to the

transposition, evolution and interpretation of the

CCS directive. EGS.CO2 offers a unique platform

to monitor national and European activities at first

hand and to take up the challenge to play a very

significant role in the future development, evolution

and deployment of CCS in Europe and beyond.

2. Scope and focus

Historically, Geological Surveys have fuelled the

thriving European economies by providing

knowledge about coal, oil and natural gas

resources in the continent and further afield.

In the process the Surveys have built up a profound

understanding of the Earth’s subsurface and have

become the caretakers of huge amounts of

geological information. EGS.CO2 wishes to ensure

that this expertise is applied to the correct, reliable

and flawless implementation of CCS, and on

storage projects in particular.

Societies throughout the world are engaged in a

largely cooperative race to decarbonise the global

economy. Europe stimulates this process and it is

demonstrating that a continent can successfully

set and meet emission and renewable technology

targets. CO2 Capture and geological Storage (CCS)

is projected to become an essential part of this

process in the near future. It has the potential to

reduce the overall cost of climate measures in very

low emission scenarios and offers the potential to

achieve even deeper and earlier CO2 reduction

targets. Decarbonisation of the power sector is

often cited, but CCS is also the only solution for

drastic emission cuts in sectors such as iron and

steel, cement, petrochemistry, etc. for which in

contrast to the power sector, no ‘renewable’

alternatives exist.

Geological storage of CO2 forms the key element in

the CCS scheme. CO2 needs to be stored

permanently in geological formations in order to

turn CCS into a technological success. In spite of

the complexity and uniqueness of each storage

project, society is not likely to accept failure of the

projects that seek to demonstrate the viability,

and safety and security of this technology.

EGS.CO2 recognises the ambitious climate goals

that society is faced with, and the benefits that

CCS offers in this respect. As such, CCS should be

considered as a necessary mid-term portfolio

option because of the way it facilitates meeting

substantial climate change targets. At the same

time it is sufficiently expensive to result in a

reduced use of fossil fuels in the long-term thus

facilitating a transition towards other less carbon

intense energy resources, including

renewable,sources.

However, EGS.CO2 is very well placed to see that

CCS is currently at a tipping point. A successful

demonstration of CCS projects in Europe, especially

of the geological aspects, will lead to wide-scale

deployment of this technology driven only by the

ETS price of CO2 when this attains the expected

and commercially viable levels. We envisage that

there will be a commensurate rapid increase in

demand for private, project related expertise, but

equally for governmental competence because

national Competent Authorities will become

responsible for approving, follow-up and aftercare

of storage sites, especially for safety control and

verification.



The Geological Surveys need to play their role to

prevent a potential vacuum in expertise vital to

servicing all of these requirements.

There is also the risk that the situation may tip in

the opposite direction. Geological Storage of CO2

holds very little direct risks to man or nature.

Nevertheless, the perception is such that even a

minor geotechnical failure may be perceived as

sufficient proof that the technique should not be

deployed on a large scale. The geological community,

led by the Geological Surveys, therefore carries the

responsibility to ascertain the highest possible level

of quality of the projects. Geological Surveys may

also use their environmental expertise to

implement the monitoring plans that need to detect

potential leakage at the earliest possible stage.

EGS.CO2 therefore promotes, depending on the

national context, the active participation of national

Surveys in such projects, or alternatively

encourages them to assume the role of the

attentive and objective observer. EGS.CO2 takes

upon itself the role of watchdog and communicator

with open channels to European and National

policy levels.

3. trends in 2011 and the response of EGS.CO

2

After 2010, which was a labor intensive year

focused on the review of the Guidance Documents

that assist the CCS directive, 2011 was largely a

year that was used to refocus the group. 2011 was

also a year which put CCS less optimal conditions,

with the economic crisis limiting investments and

resulting in a low ETS price, and the Fukoshima

incident which increased the risk aversion of the

general public, including that towards the relatively

unknown concept of geological storage. A result of

this drastically changed context is that fewer than

expected demonstration projects will be realized.

This trend has increased the importance of the

geological surveys in the development of CCS.

Industry, and in future possibly also other research

institutes, may reduce their efforts to take CCS

forward, which may endanger the realization of

climate targets. The new agenda of EGS.CO2

specifically targets at assisting CCS initiatives, and

especially those related to CO2 geological storage.

The 2011 annual meeting of EGS.CO2 was

organized using a new format which was positively

received by its members, and consisted of two

parts. During one day, a face to face meeting was

organized to which a limited number of partners

assisted for in-depth discussion of the meeting

agenda. On the following day, a skype debriefing

was organized, with a slide show acting as draft

meeting report, for those partners that could not

attend. This format ensured that the budget

restrictions for travelling do not affect the joined

actions of the group.


EGS.CO2 is working on a topic where numerous

actors are active, and its experts are typically

involved in several comparable groups (each with

its own, but nevertheless overlapping scope).

This requires a proper profile: EGS.CO2 puts

emphasis on issues typically important for Geological

Surveys. Further this requires a considered use of

efforts, especially where potential activities can, or

are already framed, in a context where funding is

available. EGS.CO2 therefore takes an observing,

but not necessarily passive approach, and will first

of all stimulate/support activities or point out

missing activities (catalyst, connecting the dots).

Only when required, will non-financed practical

work be initiated.

In view of networking activities, the annual meeting

decided on the following, which needs to be

formalised in 2012: ‘EGS.CO2 recognises the value

of CGS Europe (now as a project, in the future as

an association - expansion of the CO2GeoNet

membership), and chooses to support their

activities rather than duplicate them or compete in

any other way’, as well as listing the differences

between CGS Europe and an ad-hoc network of

geological surveys.

Regarding websites and communication, it was

agreed that other groups are better placed to take

specific actions regarding public communication,

although individual members are encouraged to

do so. On the other hand, communication to

government officials is retained on the action list.

EGS.CO2 considers it important that a web-portal

for data on CO2 geological storage is established.



After contacts with the leading surveys, it was to

take action in case the proposal CO2StoP would

not be approved. In mean time, this project has

been approved and is supported by

EuroGeoSurveys. Parallel activities such as those

in IEA-RoadMap are being followed.

This allows focussing on another priority topic,

which is referred to as basin-scale models. It is

essential that geology in general, and geological

reservoirs in specific, are being evaluated at basin

level instead of national level. These transboundary

issues will be initiated and brought to the attention.

As in 2011, EGS.CO2 will assist to the Information

Exchange Meetings of the European Commission.

On the other hand, the efforts to come to an

exchange of experience regarding legal issues

(transposition of the CCS directive, permitting

issues…) will be intensified.

Lastly, cross-over initiatives with other expert

groups within EuroGeoSurveys are foreseen,

with concrete plans to establish a common vision

on the potential for conflicts of interest for CCS and

geothermal projects.



Geochemistry Expert Group


The EuroGeoSurveys Geochemistry Expert Group

was very active during 2011 with (a) the final

editing and publication of the book “Mapping the

Chemical Environment of Urban Areas”, (b)

assessing the quality of new GEMAS analytical

results [total C and S, total organic carbon (TOC),

cation exchange capacity (CEC), XRF, pH, and

particle size distribution (PSD) analysis] and the

writing of the relevant report, (c) the release of

GEMAS national data sets for processing and

interpretation, and whole data sets to people

responsible for the interpretation of European wide

geochemical patterns on specific elements,

(d) presentation of project results at conferences,

symposia, seminars and workshops, (e) writing of

papers for publication in journals and books,

(g) writing of articles for the EuroGeoSurveys

newsletter and annual report, and (h) production of

PowerPoint material for the GEO (Group on Earth

Observations) Ministerial Summit.

The annual meeting of the Group was held in

October 2011, and was hosted by the Geological

Survey of Finland. Apart from discussions on

ongoing projects (GEMAS and URGE), there were

many interesting presentations on both projects,

but also food for thought with respect to the

interpretation of new FOREGS Geochemical Atlas

of Europe data on fluoride, chloride and bromide.

2. Introduction

The Geochemistry Expert Group has at present

56 official members. In addition, there are 43 associate

members from geological survey and non-survey

organizations that participate in the GEMAS and

URGE projects, which are scheduled to be

completed in 2013 and 2015, respectively, and

another 65 contributors to the Urban Geochemistry

Book project, which was completed in April 2011

with the publication of the book “Mapping the

Chemical Environment of Urban Areas” (Johnson

et al., 2010).


3.1. Mission

The mission of the EuroGeoSurveys Geochemistry

Expert Group is to provide high quality geochemical

data of near-surface materials, to develop

harmonised databases for multi-purpose use, and

to offer independent expert advice to the European

Commission.

To achieve this mission, systematic geochemical

data for the whole of Europe are generated by

harmonised methods of sampling of near-surface

materials (soil, stream or floodplain sediment,

water), sample preparation, chemical analysis,

quality control, data processing, and presentation.

The systematic geochemical information is

published in the form of geochemical atlases, which

are freely available, and can be used for (a) state

of the environment reports, (b) mineral exploration,

(c) agriculture, (d) forestry, (e) animal husbandry,

(f) geomedicine or medical geology, (g) determination

of natural background values for environmental

risk assessment, etc.

Why are Geochemical Atlases important? The answer is given by Darnley et al. (1995, p.X; [www.globalgeochemicalbaselines.eu/files/Blue_Book_GGD_IGCP259.pdf]): ‘Everything in and on the earth - mineral, animal and vegetable - is made from one, or generally some combination of, the 86 naturally occurring chemical elements. Everything that is grown, or made, depends upon the availability of the appropriate elements. The existence, quality, and survival of life depend upon the availability of elements in the correct proportions and combinations. Because natural processes and human activities are continuously modifying the chemical composition of our environment, it is important to determine the present abundance and spatial distribution of the elements across the Earth’s surface in a much more systematic manner than has been attempted hitherto’. Systematic geochemical mapping is considered, therefore, as the best available method to document changes in the levels of chemical elements in materials occurring at or below the Earth’s surface.

3.2. vision

The EuroGeoSurveys Geochemistry Expert Group’s

aim is to be regarded as the body that provides



high quality harmonised geochemical data of

near-surface materials to support European policy

and decision makers, but also to supply sound

background data to scientists for their research,

and to the public, in general, for education and

other purposes.

4. focus and scope

The focus of the EuroGeoSurveys Geochemistry

Expert Group is to produce high quality harmonised

geochemical data sets of near-surface materials

for multipurpose use. The scope is to bring under

the same umbrella applied geochemists from all

EGS member institutions, and to act as a forum for

the exchange of expertise and to work together in

order to deliver good quality professional products

and services to European Union countries.

Innovation can include, but is not limited to,

the following:

• To develop creative collaboration between EGS

member surveys in the field of applied geochemistry.

• To incorporate new innovative technologies in

applied geochemical investigations, e.g., stable

isotopes, Mid-InfraRed spectroscopy (MIR),

Mobile Metal Ion analysis (MMI), etc. in order to

improve and expand data interpretation and,

thus, improve the service to end-users.

• To introduce new outreach services for the

benefit of end-users.

• To test new ideas in order to improve products

and services.

• To continuous redefine the role of the Expert Group

to meet new challenges.

• To develop processes that encourage effective

organisational innovation.

• To find new ways of making geochemical data

sets more useful to end-users.

• To discover unmet end-user needs.

The EuroGeoSurveys Geochemistry Expert Group

publishes original research, reports on innovative

practices and case studies, and publishes books

and atlases. It also disseminates its work findings

and experience through participation in conferences,

seminars and workshops.

5. the european dimension

Table 1 summarises European Commission (EC)

Directives that require European wide harmonised

geochemical data. In the sections of the different

on-going projects during 2011, the relevant EC

Directives are given. It is noted that all projects are

INSPIRE compliant (EC, 2007).

Table 1. Summary of some European Commission

(EC) Directives driving the demand for

harmonised geochemical background data

across political borders (modified from

Johnson and Demetriades, 2011, Table 2.3,

p.22)


I EGS 2011 Annual Reportthe shape of our business

EC Water Framework Directive (WFD) (2000/60/EC)

This requires Member States to meet a good ecological status for water quality objectives (except where deviations from the standard are justified); and to identify basic and supplementary measures to deal with point source and diffuse pollution. The directive will be managed on the basis of River Basin Districts (one or more drainage catchments).

Geochemical background data for low order streams produced by the European Geochemical Atlas project can provide information about surface water quality for farmers and those who manage land. In addition, the data produced by the project on Ground water Geochemistry using bottled water as ‘proxy’ can be used to assess the quality of ground water, but also bottled water with respect to inorganic constituents. Regulatory bodies and administrators can use these data to determine guideline levels for elemental concentrations.

EC Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (IPPC) (2008/1/EC), it replaces Directive 96/61/EC

It has been formulated to implement the EC Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (96/61/EC). Its objective is to control pollution from industry.

Geochemical background data can be used by both industry and regulators to assess the impact of polluting industries on the environment. The geochemical background data provide a reference point against which changes can be measured.

EC Sewage Sludge Directive (86/278/EEC) This directive seeks to encourage the use of sewage sludge in agriculture, but regulates its use in order to protect the environment from its harmful effects.

Geochemical background data can be used to monitor and model the impact on the environment of sewage sludge.

Proposed EC Soil Directive Directive under consideration. The European Union included in the 6th Environmental Action Programme the ‘Thematic Strategy on Soil Protection’ that will lead in the future to an EU soil protection Directive.

Geological Surveys are the only organisations systematically sampling soil from urban areas, and can establish the urban geochemical background in order to assess the impact of human induced pollution. Geological Surveys are, in fact, the only organisations in Europe that have the necessary experience for carrying out continental scale geochemical mapping and monitoring projects.

EC Mine Waste Directive (2006/21/EC) This proposed directive is seen as a supplementary measure to the WFD to minimise the adverse effects on the environment, caused by waste from the extractive industries.

Geochemical background data can be used to monitor and model the impact on the environment of mine waste.

EC Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) This directive is concerned with the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora.

Climatic or anthropogenic changes to the geochemistry of the surface environment that may impact on fauna and flora can be monitored using geochemical background data of the surface environment.

EC Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC) The Landfill (England and Wales) Regulations of 2002, implement the EC Landfill Directive, which aims to prevent or reduce the negative environmental effects of landfill.

Geochemical data can be used to monitor and model the impact on the environment of landfills.

INSPIRE Directive (2007/2/EC) Establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Union for making available relevant, harmonised, and quality geographic information to support formulation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies and activities that have a direct or indirect impact on the environment.

Harmonised geochemical background data for the whole of Europe are needed in order to assess impacts on the environment.

REACH Directive (EC 1907/2006) [Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of CHemical substances] - The new law entered into force on 1 June 2007

The aim of REACH is to improve the protection of human health and the environment through the better and earlier identification of the intrinsic properties of chemical substances. There is a need to fill information gaps to ensure that industry is able to assess hazards and risks of the substances, and to identify and implement the risk management measures to protect humans and the environment.

Geochemical background data are needed to establish the variable geochemical background across Europe, and the local maximum threshold values, against which any future changes can be monitored.


5.1. agricultural and Grazing land soil geochemistry

The Agricultural and Grazing land soil geochemistry

project (GEMAS) fulfils requirements of the following

EU Directives, regulations, and communications:

(1) Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European

Parliament and of the Council of 18 December

2006 concerning the Registration, Evaluation,

Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals

(REACH), establishing a European Chemicals

Agency, amending Directive 1999/45/EC and

repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 793/93

and Commission Regulation (EC) No 1488/94

as well as Council Directive 76/769/EEC and

Commission Directives 91/155/EEC, 93/67/EEC,

93/105/EC and 2000/21/EC (EC, 2006a, 2007);

(2) Directive 2004/35/CE of the European

Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004

on environmental liability with regard to the

prevention and remedying of environmental

damage (EC, 2004);

(3) European Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 on

Classification, Labelling and Packaging of

Substances and Mixtures (CLP Regulation),

adopting in the EU the Globally Harmonised

System (GHS) (EC, 2008a), and

(4) Communication from the Commission to the

Council, the European Parliament, the European

Economic and Social Committee, and

the Committee of the Regions: Thematic

Strategy for Soil Protection (EC, 2006b).

The administration of REACH (Registration,

Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals),

the new European Chemicals Regulation adopted

in December 2006 (EC, 2006a, 2009), and the

pending EU Soil Protection Directive (Van Camp et

al., 2004; EC, 2006b), require additional knowledge

about “soil quality” at the European scale. REACH

specifies that industry must prove that it can

produce and use its substances safely. Risks, due

to the exposure to a substance during production

and use at the local, regional, and European scale,

all need to be assessed. In contrast, to human-

made organic substances that do not occur

naturally in the environment, all industries dealing

with natural resources will face in the near future a

number of specific questions:

Most of their “products” occur also naturally - the natural background variation needs to be established, in addition to a methodology to differentiate the industrial impact from the natural geogenic background.What is the “bioavailability” of metals and other chemical elements in soil?What is the long-term fate of metals and other chemical elements added to soil?

Besides fulfilling the conditions of EC policy

documents, it satisfies other EU international

commitments, such as (i) the United Nations

Strategic Approach to International Chemicals

Management (SAICM) (UNEP, 2006), and (ii) the

OECD Work on Investigation of High Production

Volume Chemicals (OECD, 2009).

5.2. European Ground water Geochemistry (EGG-Project)

The ground water geochemistry project, using

bottled water as “proxy”, fulfils conditions of the EC

Directive 2000/60/EC (EC, 2000), and its results

should assist the European Commission in its

legislative work on bottled waters with respect to

inorganic constituents, e.g.,

(1) Directive 65/65/EEC of 26 January 1965 on the

approximation of provisions laid down by law,

regulation or administrative action relating to

medicinal products (EC, 1965);

(2) Directive 80/777/EEC of 15 July 1980 on the

approximation of the laws of the Member States

relating to the exploitation and marketing of

natural mineral waters (EC, 1980a)

(3) Directive 80/778/EEC. Council Directive of 15 July

1980 relating to the quality of water intended for

human consumption (EC, 1980b)

(4) Directive 96/70/EC of the European Parliament

and of the Council of 28 October 1996 amending

Council Directive 80/777/EEC on the approximation

of the laws of the Member States relating to the

exploitation and marketing of natural mineral

waters (EC, 1996)



(5) Directive 98/83/EC of 3rd November 1998 on

the quality of water intended for human

consumption (EC, 1998)

(6) Directive 2003/40/EC/16-5-2003/ establishing

the list, concentration limits and labelling

requirements for the constituents of natural

mineral waters and the conditions for using

ozone-enriched air for the treatment of natural

mineral waters and spring waters (EC, 2003)

(7) Directive 2008/32/EC of the European

Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2008

amending Directive 2000/60/EC establishing a

framework for Community action in the field of

water policy, as regards the implementing

powers conferred on the Commission

(EC, 2008b).

Further, the information produced can also be used

in the national legislative procedure of European

Union member countries.

5.3. urban geochemistry

(1) Communication from the Commission to the

Council, the European Parliament, the European

Economic and Social Committee, and the

Committee of the Regions: Thematic Strategy

for Soil Protection (EC, 2006b)

(2) EC Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control

Directive (IPPC) (2008/1/EC) (EC, 2008c).

6. activity report

6.1. Continued work with the fOREGS data

• Alecos Demetriades (Hellas) is involved with

interpretation of new Au data. He will prepare a

publication that incorporates FOREGS and

GEMAS Au data and the GEMAS Pd, Pt data.

• Reijo Salminen (Finland) is working on the fluoride,

chloride and bromide data, and some interpretation

problems were discussed during the October

2011 Annual Group meeting in Espoo.

• Benedetto De Vivo (Italy) and the Italian

Universities team have been working on the new

data to model the effects of lower density sampling

and cost-benefit in geochemical surveys.

A manuscript has been submitted for publication

in the Journal of Geochemical Exploration.

• Maria João Batista (Portugal) is preparing a

manuscript on Sn data.

• Ignace Salpeteur (France) has published one

paper in French:

Salpeteur, I. & Maldan, F., 2011. Valeurs de

reference pour les teneurs en éléments traces

dans les sols et les limons d'inondation obtenues

dans le cadre du nouvel Atlas géochimique

européen (II) [French geochemical baseline

data for trace elements in top- and bottom-

soils and overbanks of the shield areas and

sediment covers: A low density survey in the

FOREGS Geochemical Atlas of Europe (II)].

Environnement, Risques and Santé, 10(4), 299-315.

• Clemens Reimann (Norway) and Manfred Birke

(Germany) will determine a way forward with the

perchlorate analyses performed on the topsoil

samples that had been received from the USGS.

It is noted that due to problems at the USGS

laboratories, not all samples were analysed.

However, enough results are available to plot

a map.

• Clemens Reimann reported that there is no

progress with MIR analysis on FOREGS samples,

but that all GEMAS samples were measured. It is

quite apparent that the FOREGS samples will not

be analysed, and arrangements should be made

for the return of the samples to the BGS sample

storage facilities.

• The Chinese have published an article about the

comparison of FOREGS results as analysed in

European and Chinese laboratories (Wensheng

Yao et al., 2011, Geoscience Frontiers 2).

6.2. European Ground water Geochemistry project (EGG)

A geochemical atlas presenting the results was

published in August 2010: Reimann, C. and Birke,

M. (Editors), 2010. Geochemistry of European

Bottled Water. Borntraeger Science Publishers,

Stuttgart, 268 pp. [www.schweizerbart.de/

publications/detail/artno/001201002#].



Papers on national interpretations and specific

themes were also published in a Special Issue of

the Journal of Geochemical Exploration, i.e., Birke,

M., Demetriades, A. and De Vivo, B. (Guest

Editors), 2010. Mineral Waters of Europe. Journal

of Geochemical Exploration, 107(3), 217-422.

Until the end of 2011, 910 copies of the

“Geochemistry of European Bottled Water” were

sold, The EGG project results were presented in 8

conferences and workshops, one paper was also

published and the EGG atlas received an unusually

high number (10 to date) of positive independent

external reviews in international and national

journals.

6.3. Geochemistry of agricultural and Grazing land soil (GEMaS)

The GEMAS project is running according to plan.

All analytical results have been received, and passed

quality control. The following quality control report

was written and is freely available from NGU’s

website: [www.ngu.no/upload/Publikasjoner/

Rapporter/2011/2011_043.pdf]

National data sets were made available to each

country for processing and interpretation, and

whole data sets to Group members that are

responsible for writing papers or book chapters on

specific elements for all Europe. SGS, a Toronto,

Canada, based commercial laboratory has

promised free mobile metal ion analysis (MMI) for

the Ap samples.

A number of papers have been written, but not yet

published (details shall be reported in the 2012

annual report). The GEMAS project results were

presented in 10 conferences and workshops

through more 28 oral presentations and 3 poster

sessions .

6.3.1. GEMaS project Website and Google Earth photo database

Paolo Valera (Italy) is working on GEMAS project

website, and. Edith Haslinger (Austria) on a

“GEMAS Google Earth photograph database”,

where it will be possible to click on the sample sites

and be able to download the field photographs

(Figure 1). The website will be hosted on the server

of the Geological Survey of Austria.

6.3.2. GEMaS project calendar

Following the success of the interactive pdf 2011

calender, Peter Hayoz (Switzerland) has produced a

very attractive “GEMAS Project Calendar for the

year 2012”, based on field photographs from the

project. The 2012 GEMAS project calendar was

printed, and the printing costs paid from the royalties

earned from the sales of the EGG Atlas. Peter has

also prepared an interactive pdf version. Copies of

the calendar were sent to all GEMAS participants

and the EuroGeoSurveys Brussels office.

6.4. urban Geochemistry

6.4.1. urban Geochemistry Book project

Chris Johnson, Alecos Demetriades, Juan Locutura

and Rolf Tore Ottesen have edited a book on

“Urban Geochemistry”, which was published by

Wiley-Blackwell, and first released in April 2011.


Figure 1. (a) Agricultural soil, Norway, and (b) Grazing land soil (Cyprus).


6.4.2. Specialist session on urban Geochemistry

EuroGeoSurveys sponsored with 200 Euro a

specialist session on “Mapping the Geochemical

Environment of Urban Areas” at the SEGH 2011

International Conference on Environment and

Health and 28th European Conference on

Environmental Geochemistry & Health, which was

held at Edge Hill University (Edge Hill, United

Kingdom) from the 11th to 14th April 2011

[www.edgehill.ac.uk/segh2011/specialistsessions/

mapping]. The conveners of the session were

Chris C. Johnson (United Kingdom) and Alecos

Demetriades (Hellas). The following oral

presentations were delivered:

• Ottesen, R.T. and Langedal, M., 2011. Urban

geochemistry and health in Norway in the period

1994-2011. Keynote presentation. SEGH 2011

Book of abstracts, p.1.

• Demetriades, A., Tassiou, S., Kaminari, M. and

Vassiliades, E., 2011. Urban and suburban

geochemical surveys in Hellas. SEGH 2011 Book

of abstracts, p.2.

• Pfleiderer, S., 2011. Urban geochemistry of Vienna,

Austria. SEGH 2011 Book of abstracts, p.2-3.

• Scheib, C., Everett, P., Flight, D., Green, K.,

Knights, K., Lister, T.R., Nice, A. and Scheib, A.,

2011. London Earth: The chemistry of the surface

environment in the UK’s most populous city.

SEGH 2011 Book of abstracts, p.3-4.

• Scanlon, R. and O’Connor, P., 2011. Dublin

SURGE (Soil Urban Geochemistry) project -

Baseline heavy metals and persistent organic

pollutants in Dublin topsoil. SEGH 2011 Book of

abstracts, p.5.

• Johnson, C.C. and Demetriades, A., 2011.

Mapping the chemical environment of urban

areas: Current issues and future developments.

SEGH 2011 Book of abstracts, p.6-7.

Arrangements were also made with the conference

organisers for EuroGeoSurveys to have a desk in

the main hall on which EGS promotional material

was displayed and disseminated to participants

(e.g., leaflets, bag, etc. - see Figure 3). As part of

the promotion of EGS publications, special

arrangements were made with the publishers of

both books “Mapping the Chemical Environment of

Urban Areas” (Wiley-Blackwell) and “Geochemistry

of European Bottled Water” (Borntraeger Science

Publishers) to send leaflets for inclusion in the

participant conference bags, and to offer the books

at reduced price.

Finally, since the SEGH conferences award prizes

to the best student oral and poster presentations

on urban geochemistry, Wiley-Blackwell provided

two copies of the Urban Geochemistry book for

this purpose. The profile of EuroGeoSurveys was

promoted well during the conference, and many

people learnt of its existence and published material.


Figure 2. Front and back cover of the book “Mapping the Chemical Environment of Urban Areas”, published by Wiley-Blackwell in April 2011. Note the EuroGeoSurveys logo.

Figure 3. EuroGeoSurveys desk at the SEGH 2011 International Conference on Environment and Health, Edge Hill University, Edge Hill, United Kingdom.


6.4.3. urban Geochemistry project (uRGE)

The URGE project’s objective is to compare the

urban geochemistry of several European cities

using the same sampling protocol and analytical

procedures. It has already started, and is led by

Rolf Tore Ottesen of NGU. More than 25 members

of the group volunteered to sample a city for the

project. The main problem, however, is financing

sample analyses. It was agreed to use a

commercial laboratory for the analytical work and

that each participating city/survey must cover the

analytical costs. Up to date the following cities

have been sampled: Acerra-Marigliano (Napoli),

Aschersleben, Dublin, Hämeenlinna, Idrija,

Karlstad, Kristiansand, London (transect), Napoli

and Sisak; Ajka (Hungary) Athens, Lisbon and a

Croatian city may follow in 2012.

This is an important project, because it is dealing

with the chemical environment of urban areas,

where most of us live and work. Geological

Surveys are the only institutions that can map

systematically urban areas, and in a harmonised

manner to produce comparable data sets across

Europe, and have the know-how to distinguish

between the natural and urban (anthropogenically

modified) geochemical background. Furthermore,

legislatively driven demand for geochemical data

from the urban environment is now an important

requirement in the challenge to produce healthier

and cleaner towns and cities. It is, therefore,

important that in 2012 further cities are added to

the project.

The following presentations on Urban Geochemistry

were delivered at the annual Geochemistry Expert

Group’s meeting, which was held at the premises

of the Geological Survey of Finland in Espoo from

the 5th to the 6th October 2011:

Urban Geochemistry Book project:

• Johnson, C.C., Demetriades, A., Ottesen, R.T.

and Locutura, J., 2011. Mapping the chemical

environment of urban areas: Status report.

URGE project:

• Glennon, M., Scanlon, R., O’Connor, P., Finne,

T.E., Andersson, M., Eggen, O., Jensen, H.K.B.

and Ottesen, R.T., 2011. Dublin SURGE Project:

Baseline survey of heavy metals and organic

contaminants in topsoil in the greater Dublin area.

• Tarvainen, T., 2011. The Finnish URGE town

Hämeenlinna.

• Birke, M. and Rauch, U., 2011. URGE Project:

Urban geochemical mapping of Aschersleben.

• Albanese S., Cosenza A., De Vivo B. and Lima

A., 2011. The geochemical atlas of the Acerra-

Marigliano suburban area (Napoli) in the

framework of the URGE project.

• Ottesen, R.T., 2011. Urban geochemistry in Europe:

Norwegian contribution City of Kristiansand.

• Flight, D. and Scheib, A., 2011. A geochemical

transect through Greater London: Precious

metals and URGE.

• Ottesen, R.T., 2011. Plans for the final URGE report.

• Gosar, M. and Špela, B., 2011. Introduction to

URGE project in Idrija.

One Geological Survey publication:

• Tarvainen, T., 2011. Hämeenlinnan

taajamageokemia (Urban geochemistry in

Hämeenlinna city). In Finnish with an English

abstract. Hämeenlinnan ympäristöjulkaisuja 17.

City of Hämeenlinna and Geological Survey of

Finland, 30 pp.

6.5. Material for EuroGeoSurveys publications and presentations

An overview of the EGS Geochemistry Expert

Group activities was written and published in the

2nd Issue of EuroGeoSurveys News (April 2011) -

see pages 10-16. Another report was written and

published in the EuroGeoSurveys 2010 Annual

Report (see pages 40-48). Finally, PowerPoint

material was produced for the GEO (Group on Earth

Observations) Ministerial Summit, which has held

in Beijing, China, from 3-5 November 2011.



6.6. 2011 annual meeting

The annual meeting of the Geochemistry Expert

Group was held from the 5th-6th October 2011 at

the amphitheatre of Geological Survey of Finland

(GTK) in Espoo, Helsinki, and on the 7th October at

Radisson Blu Hotel, Espoo. The GEMAS Executive

Committee held a meeting on the 4th October 2011

at GTK. Twenty-seven people attended the meeting.

The group received a very warm welcome to

Espoo by Dr. Keijo Nenonen, Director of Southern

Finland Office. The first two days were devoted to

group activities, including the URGE project.

The third day was totally devoted to national

presentations of GEMAS project results.

6.7. Participation in International projects

Members of the working group are collaborating in

a number of EU-funded research projects:

Maria Joao Batista (Portugal), Alecos Demetriades

(Hellas) and Juan Locutura (Spain) are participating

in the ProMine project (Nano-particle products

from new mineral resources in Europe -

[http://promine.gtk.fi]), which is financed by the 7th

Framework programme (2009-2013).

Alecos Demetriades (Hellas) is participating in the

GS Soil project (Assessment and strategic

development of INSPIRE compliant Geodata-

Services for European Soil Data - [www.gssoil.eu]),

which is a financed by the eContentplus

programme (2009-2012).

Clemens Reimann (Norway) has a “Norwegian

Financial Mechanism” project (Biogeochemistry of

the Czech Republic) with the Institute for Landscape

and Ornamental Gardening in Pruhonice.

6.8. 2012 annual meeting

The next meeting of the geochemistry group is

scheduled for early October 2012 in Lisbon. This is

an important meeting for the GEMAS project will

be finalised and the publication of the atlas planned.

The URGE project should also be in a stage to plan

its final reporting.


The EuroGeoSurveys Geochemistry Expert Group,

since its first mandate in 1985 by the Western

European Geological Survey Directors (WEGS),

and its subsequent by the Forum of European

Geological Surveys Directors (FOREGS), and

EuroGeoSurveys has produced an enormous

amount of results that have been published in

reports and publications. A list of products from

1989 to 2008 can be viewed at: [www.

globalgeochemicalbaselines.eu/publications.html].

Significant milestones are:

• 1998: Salminen, R., Tarvainen, T., Demetriades,

A., Duris, M., Fordyce, F.M., Gregorauskiene, V.,

Kahelin, H., Kivisilla, J., Klaver, G., Klein, P.,

Larson, J.O., Lis, J., Locutura, J., Marsina, K.,

Mjartanova, H., Mouvet, C., O’Connor, P., Odor,

L., Ottonello, G., Paukola, T., Plant, J.A.,

Reimann, C., Schermann, O., Siewers, U.,

Steenfelt, A., Van Der Sluys, J. & Williams, L.,

1998. FOREGS Geochemical Mapping Field

Manual. Geological Survey of Finland, Espoo,

Guide 47, 36 pp. The electronic version of the

field manual can be downloaded from:

[www.gtk.fi/foregs/geochem/fieldman.pdf].

The field manual is in the process of being

updated to include sampling instructions for

Karst, Desert, Tropical and Arctic terrains.

• 2005: Salminen, R. (Chief Editor), Batista, M.J.,

Bidovec, M., Demetriades, A., De Vivo, B.,

De Vos, W., Duris, M., Gilucis, A., Gregorauskiene,

V., Halamic, J., Heitzmann, P., Lima, A., Jordan,

G., Klaver, G., Klein, P., Lis, J., Locutura, J.,

Marsina, K., Mazreku, A., O’Connor, P.J., Olsson,

S.Å., Ottesen, R.T., Petersell, V., Plant, J.A.,

Reeder, S., Salpeteur, I., Sandström, H., Siewers,

U., Steenfelt, A. & Tarvainen, T., 2005. FOREGS

Geochemical Atlas of Europe, Part 1: Background

Information, Methodology and Maps. Geological

Survey of Finland, Espoo, 526 pp. Available

online at: [www.gtk.fi/publ/foregsatlas]

• 2005: The establishment of the Geochemical

Atlas of Europe Interactive Website [www.gtk.fi/

publ/foregsatlas] by the Geological Survey of

Finland, which was an innovative venture at the

time, and continues to be for the dissemination of

the data sets, maps, text, photographs, etc.



• 2006: De Vos, W., Tarvainen, T., Salminen, R.,

Reeder, S., De Vivo, B., Demetriades, A., Pirc, S.,

Batista, M.J., Marsina, K., Ottesen, R.T.,

O’Connor, P.J., Bidovec, M., Lima, A., Siewers,

U., Smith, B., Taylor, H., Shaw, R., Salpeteur, I.,

Gregorauskiene, V., Halamic, J., Slaninka, I., Lax,

K., Gravesen, P., Birke, M., Breward, N., Ander,

E.L., Jordan, G., Duris, M., Klein, P., Locutura, J.,

Bel-lan, A., Pasieczna, A., Lis, J., Mazreku, A.,

Gilucis, A., Heitzmann, P., Klaver, G. & Petersell,

V., 2006. Geochemical Atlas of Europe. Part 2 -

Interpretation of Geochemical Maps, Additional

Tables, Figures, Maps, and Related Publications.

Geological Survey of Finland, Espoo, 692 pp.

Available online at: [www.gtk.fi/publ/foregsatlas].

• 2006: Production of the Geochemical Atlas of

Europe CD, which includes the text of the two

parts of the Geochemical Atlas, all the

geochemical maps, field manual, and all the data

sets. Up to now more than 2500 original copies

have been disseminated world wide. In 2008,

the Executive Committee of the IUGS/IAGC

Global Geochemical Baselines Task Group

decided to produce a DVD to honour its first

chairperson, Dr. Arthur G. Darnley. The DVD

includes all the material of the Geochemical Atlas

of Europe CD, the book by Darnley et al. (1995),

and all publications concerned with continental

scale mapping from 1989 to 2008. The DVD was

first distributed at the 1st Symposium in honour

of Arthur Darnley, which was held during

the 33rd International Geological Congress in Oslo

(Norway) as a special session on the 9 August

2008 with the title “Geochemical Mapping from

the Global to the Local Scale: The Arthur Darnley

Symposium”. Since, then more than 1000 copies

of the DVD have been distributed world wide.

• 2008: EuroGeoSurveys Geochemistry Working

Group, 2008. EuroGeoSurveys Geochemical

mapping of agricultural and grazing land soil of

Europe (GEMAS) - Field manual. Geological

Survey of Norway, Trondheim, NGU Report

2008.038, 46 pp. Available online at:

[www.ngu.no/en-gb/hm/Publications/

Reports/2008/2008-038]

• 2009: Reimann C., Demetriades A., Eggen O.A.,

Filzmoser P. & the EuroGeoSurveys Geochemistry

Expert Group, 2009. The EuroGeoSurveys

geochemical mapping of agricultural and grazing

land soils project (GEMAS) - Evaluation of quality

control results of aqua regia extraction analysis.

Geological Survey of Norway, Trondheim, NGU

Report 2009.049, 94 pp. Available online at:

[www.ngu.no/en-gb/hm/Publications/

Reports/2009/2009-049]

• 2010: Reimann, C. and Birke, M. (Editors), 2010.

Geochemistry of European Bottled Water.

Borntraeger Science Publishers, Stuttgart,

268 pp. Available for purchase at:

[www.schweizerbart.de/publications/detail/

artno/001201002#]

• 2010: Birke, M., Demetriades, A. and De Vivo, B.

(Guest Editors), 2010. Mineral Waters of Europe.

Journal of Geochemical Exploration, Special

issue, 107(3), 217-422. Available for purchase at:

[www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-

geochemical-exploration/special-issues] and

[www.sciencedirect.com/science/

journal/03756742/107/3]

• 2011: Johnson, C.C., Demetriades, A., Locutura,

J. & Ottesen, R.T. (Editors), 2011. Mapping the

Chemical Environment of Urban Areas.

Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, UK, 618 pp. Available

for purchase at: [http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/

WileyTitle/productCd-0470747242.htm]

• 2011: Reimann, C., Demetriades, A., Eggen,

O.A., Peter Filzmoser, P. & the EuroGeoSurveys

Geochemistry Expert Group, 2011.

The EuroGeoSurveys GEochemical Mapping of

Agricultural and grazing land Soils project

(GEMAS) - Evaluation of quality control results of

total C and S, total organic carbon (TOC), cation

exchange capacity (CEC), XRF, pH, and particle

size distribution (PSD) analysis. Geological

Survey of Norway, Trondheim, NGU Report

2011.043, 90 pp. Available online at:

[www.ngu.no/upload/Publikasjoner/

Rapporter/2011/2011_043.pdf]

The material produced by the EGS Geochemistry

Expert Group had considerable impact not only in

Europe, but globally, because the results of the

geochemical atlases were produced for the first

time in a harmonised manner, beginning from

sampling, sample preparation, analysis, quality



control and map production. The most significant

innovation is the harmonisation of all procedures,

and, most importantly, the analysis of the same

suite of samples in the same laboratory, because

this is the only way to produce continent wide

harmonised results for decision makers,

researchers and the general public.


Future perspectives include (i) the publication of

the GEMAS atlas results in a book form by

mid-2013, (ii) publication of a number of papers

on GEMAS results during 2012 and 2013,

(iv) publication of second book on urban geochemistry

using URGE project results, (v) updating of

Geochemical Atlas of Europe and GEMAS

websites, and (vi) development of new projects,

such as lithogeochemistry of Europe, and update

of the FOREGS stream water geochemistry etc.

The GEMAS project got 33 references in peer-

reviewed journals, reports and books.

The Annual Report for 2012 was compiled and

edited by Alecos Demetriades with the assistance

of all EGS Geochemistry Expert Group and associate

members. The final version for submission to the

EGS office was approved by Clemens Reimann.

Moreover the EGS Geochemistry Expert Group

and associate members have attended more than

10 conferences and workshops giving 18 oral

presentations and presenting in 8 poster sessions.

Finally outcomes of the project included 10 publications

in peer-reviewed journals and 4 publications in

conference proceedings.

Trondheim, 3rd February, 2012

Dr. Clemens Reimann - Chairman,

EuroGeoSurveys Geochemistry Expert Group

E-mail: [email protected]



Mineral Resource Expert Expert Group


Mineral Resource Expert Group (MREG) is a forum

of experts and scientists of EGS members.

The main aim of the MREG is to coordinate EGS

members on the EU level with regard to the EU

projects related to minerals and to establish the

European Mineral Intelligence Network or other

form within the EGS members in the core. MREG

is supporting EU commission in its activities related

to Raw Materials Initiative (such as European

Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials) and is

also cooperating with the Member states through

ERAMIN network and the minerals industry.

The latter is done with an active involvement in the

European Technological Platform - Sustainable

Mineral Resources (ETP-SMR) where the EGS

office and MREG is acting as ETP SMR Secretariat.

All activities in 2011 were focused in the areas

mentioned above.

•


The mission of the EuroGeoSurveys Mineral

Resources Expert Group (EGS MREG) is to provide

the best available mineral expertise and information

based on the knowledge base of member geological

surveys, for policy, industry, communication and

education purposes on European level.

EuroGeoSurveys Mineral Resources Expert group

(EGS MREG) wishes to become the leading partner

within a European Mineral Information Network, or

other form of cooperation, that will be providing

tools and expertise to support the sustainable

minerals supply for Europe. Mineral information

provided by EGS MREG is based on globally

comparable standards of excellence for science

and expertise and these standards will be maintained.

The vision will be carried out collaboratively with

other organizations that have mineral information

and expertise, and with consumers of that

information.

3. Scope and focus

With the Communication on Raw Materials

Initiative (RMI) in 2008 minerals related topics

returned on the political and research agenda of

European Commission as well as in the Member

States. One of the outcomes is also an increased

number of calls for the minerals projects. Many

EGS members are involved in the implementation

of those projects, some of them act as project

coordinators (BRGM, TNO, GeoZS). This trend is to

continue in the 2012 and beyond and it is based on

the Communication on Raw Materials in February

2011 and an expected adoption of the European

Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials (EIP RM).

The RMI communications created a historic

opportunity to establish the European Mineral

Intelligence Network (eMINEnt) on European

Union level. eMINEnt would be built on existing

national / member states capacities and other

international ones.

The focus of MREG is on two main areas:

•

• Information about and coordination of EU

projects related to minerals among all members

of EGS, especially those related EIP RM,

•

• Establishing European Mineral Intelligence

Network or other form within the EGS members

in the core,

Main features that are supporting the main activity

areas of MREG program are:

•

• To strengthen the EGS MR EG group and

relations with other relevant bodies or institutions

by improved communication and coordination,

•

• To focus on priorities:

•

• Communication on Raw Materials Initiative -

RMI and supporting actions (such as European

Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials)

•

• EU minerals projects (past & ongoing)

•

• Cooperation with the ERAMIN network and the

European Technological Platform - Sustainable

Mineral Resources (ETP-SMR)

•




All MREG activities have an European dimension.

The Expert Group does not interfere on EGS

member state / geological survey level. MREG has

good contacts with the representatives of

European Commission (DG Enterprise, DG

Research and Innovation), as well as with the EU

mineral resources associations (Euromines,

UEPG, IMA-Europe). Chair of MREG is acting as

Executive Secretary of European Technological

Platform - Sustainable Mineral Resources

(ETP-SMR) Secretariat that is placed at EGS office.

5. activity report

The annual MREG meeting took place in May 2011

in Brussels. At the meeting major topics were

discussed and coordination among the MREG

members was improved.

The minerals projects (Promine, EuroGeoSource,

AEGOS, EOMINERS, SARMa) with the EGS

members were promoted at the EU Commission

level. MREG Chair made presentations also at the

EGS Strategic Workshop in Ljubljana (September

2011) and the EU Africa Conference in Brussels

(January 2012).

MREG Chair is/was a member of Advisory Board of

two projects and he attended project meetings:

• EUROGEOSOURCE - Budapest - March 2011

• AEGOS - Dakar - April 2011

Some MREG members attended the first ERAMIN

network meeting in November 2011 in Brussels,

and some a meeting of the exploration geology /

ore deposit geology scientists and experts in

Grenoble (October 2011) where an initiative (entitled

EODI) for the joint actions /research between public

institutions (academia, geological surveys,

institutes) and extractive industry was created.

The ETP SMR related activities involved several

meetings of the Steering Committee in Brussels

(September, November, December 2011 / January

2012) as well as the High Level Group meeting in

June and October 2011.

Some MREG members were acting as technical

assistance for the EU Commission at the EU -

Greenland workshop in Copenhagen (January

2012) where Greenland’s programme for mineral

exploration and infrastructure in Greenland was

presented.

•


All activities of the MREG have been supporting the

ongoing EU Commission efforts related to RMI,

especially at the drafting of the relevant documents

(from non-papers to proposals, tenders and calls).

The project proposals of members of MREG group

resulted in the proposed call for the minerals

supply network as Coordination Action. The MREG

minerals network proposal was delivered to the

Commission as a ETP SMR proposal for action

within one of the EIP RM work packages (WP 3).

Impacts of the last year activities of MREG are hard

to measure, because actions and related impacts

are not clearly linked. However, it should be

exposed that almost all minerals related activities

on EU level are influenced by at least one of MREG

member, if not as MREG or EGS.

•


The first half of the year 2012 adoption of Innovation

Partnership (IP) on raw materials is expected, and

this will trigger several activities of which some are

already in the preparation phase. One of major

ones is a formulation of Knowledge and Innovation

Community (KIC) on Raw Materials. In this period

few important conferences and meetings are

planned, among them Brussels MREG meeting in

March (in conjunction with ICTF), GUES planes to

organize the Minerals conference in frame of

Danish Presidency, ETP SMR Stakeholders Forum

will take place ..etc. Beside that several tenders are

expected from DG Enterprise as well as the FP 7

call in summer (NMP, Environment).

Most EU minerals projects with EGS members are

in the stage that can present some results, and

their importance and impacts are growing within

the EU minerals community. MREG members will

stay active within the ERAMIN project (network or

mineral funding member state research agencies)

in order to prepare joint (coordinated among



members states and EU Commission) minerals call.

MREG will stay active in the preparation of the

European Geological Infrastructure proposal with

its European Minerals Network (eMINEnt) proposal.

MREG and EGS office will run the ETP SMR

Secretariat throughout the whole year where a

further expansion of Secretariat is expected (a legal

entity, an increased amount and intensity of

activities).

Beside foreseen activities described above the

“regular” MREG activities need to happen as well.

These activities are: (1) communication among

MREG members, (2) coordination among ongoing

EU projects, (2) cooperation with other Expert

Groups / Task Forces (EOEG, ICTF ...), (4) active

cooperation with other organizations (cooperation

with USGS?) and activities (Raw Materials Group,

EU minerals related conferences, etc..).

Looking at the past and future report’s conclusion

should be:

there is a need for more capacity and synergy among the MREG members,

EGS Expert groups and EGS members!



Geoenergy Expert Group

This has been the second year with the

EuroGeoSurveys’ GeoEnergy Expert Group (EGS

GEEG). This Expert Group was generated under the

encouragement of the EU DG ENER and was first

thought only to be engaged with fossil fuels. Later

in 2010 it was decided that the task force also

should cover geothermal energy. The GeoEnergy

Expert Group consists of 22 representatives from

14 of the EuroGeoSurveys’ member organizations.

The EGS GEEG Mission and Vision statements are.

1. vision

The EGS GEEG wishes to become a leading partner

within a European fossil fuel and geothermal

information network that will provide expertise to

support the geoenergy supply for Europe. Geoenergy

information provided by EGS GEEG is based on

public available and accessible information and

data, which are of globally comparable standards

of excellence for science and expertise. The EGS’

geoenergy expertise will be provided for the

European Society. The vision will be carried out

collaboratively with other organizations that have

GeoEnergy information and expertise, and with

consumers of that information.

2. Mission

The EGS GEEG shall provide impartial, scientifically

robust information to advance the understanding of

fossil fuel energy and geothermal energy (geoenergy)

resources in Europe, to contribute to plans for a

secure energy future, to facilitate evaluation and

responsible use of energy resources, and to

analyse future geoenergy resources of Europe and

possibilities of their sustainable use.

The EGS GEEG research portfolio is responsive to

the EU Commission policies and priorities, either

established through legislative forms or not, internal

strategic planning, important and unanticipated

global events, customer surveys and needs,

and the guiding principles of objective and

impartial science.


The EGS GEEG was generated as a response to

a request from EU DG ENER. The request was

originally formed as a demand for an impartial

mapping and resource evaluation of the EU coal.

EGS decided that this request had merit for the

generation of a new Task Force - The EuroGeoSurveys

Fossil Fuels & Geothermal Energy Task Force.

The Task Force has within the last year developed

into an Expert Group - The EGS GEEG. As stated in

the vision the Task Force research portfolio will be

responsive to the EU Commission policies and

priorities, which will follow the guiding principles of

objective and impartial science.

4. activity report

Since May 2010 EGS GEEG has been a member of

the Berlin Forum Indigenous Fossil Fuels Working

Group under DG ENER.


Due to the work carried out in the Berlin Forum

Indigenous Fossil Fuels Working Group the EGS

GEEG is by the DG ENER considered as their

independent experts and advisors on geological

matters with regards to geoenergy.


Eu unconventional PlaysThe task force will try starting a pilot study on a

study of gas potential of the Lower Paleozoic

shales in the Baltic Basin together with USGS.

It includes on- and offshore areas in the following

countries: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland,

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kaliningrad (Russian

enclave), Poland and Germany. The main reason

for such a corporation is that while the European

geological surveys has the data and knowledge on

the specific shale stratigraphy, sedimentology, and

petrography etc., USGS has built up, through their

work in the US, a vast experience in assessing the

shale gas potential.

The overall goal with this pilot study is to develop

the pilot into a study that covers the entire Europe,

financed by the Horizon 2020.


Buchardt, Nielsen, Schovsbo, 1997


Shale Gas Definitions on EGS web pageDuring discussions with DG ENER and DG ENV it

has become evident for EGS GEEG that there is a

need for a web site, where the public can get

objective information and definitions with regards

to Shale Gas. The EGS GEEG is planning to introduce

these information’s on the EGS web-site covering

a wide range of shale gas related issues e.g.

Conventional/Unconventional reservoirs, Shale Gas

in Europe, Potential environmental hazards, Casing

zones and cement, Horizontal Wells, Hydraulic

Fracturing, Micro seismicity, Fracture fluid.


Fig. 2: Conventional/Unconventional reservoirs


Spatial Information Expert Group


The implementation phase of the INSPIRE Directive

is critical for the success of the initiative to build the

European Spatial Data Infrastructure. EGS has

been very active in the INSPIRE process since its

inception in 2002, and is fully involved in the working

groups created by the Commission to prepare the

implementation rules. The role of the Spatial

Information Expert Group (formerly INSPIRE AND

Geographic Information Expert Group) as a

coordinating and supporting structure is therefore

important to guarantee that the impact of the Directive

for the surveys will be positive and to ensure that it

will contribute to build the European Geological

Data Infrastructure (EGDI), which is one of the main

strategic objectives of EGS, on the foundation of

the OneGeology-Europe distributed infrastructure.

The Expert Group is a pool of expertise of EGS

members to define, design, develop and maintain

the EGDI through the direct contribution of the

Geological Surveys and the support of European

funded projects.


2. 1. Mission

The mission of the Spatial Information Expert

Group is to coordinate the efforts of the European

Geological Surveys to build the Geoscientific Spatial

Data Infrastructure, as a contribution to EGS

strategy. The Expert Group has a direct role to

contribute to the definition of the European policies

which aim at developing the European information

infrastructure (INSPIRE, SEIS, GMES). It is also a

place to share expertise between EGS members.

The current prime mission of the Spatial

Information Expert Group is to coordinate the

contribution of EuroGeoSurveys to the INSPIRE

implementation. In practical terms:

• to prepare the contribution of EGS to review the

INSPIRE implementing rules (IR), and to co-ordinate

with direct contributions from national surveys

experts involved in the Thematic Working Groups

• to share expertise between EGS members about

interoperability developments and implementation

• to prepare the maintenance of the INSPIRE

specifications and to co-ordinate relation

between EGS and standardization bodies

(IUGS/CGI, OGC,…).

As the other Expert Groups, the Spatial Information

Expert EG has also the mission to define and

propose projects that could be funded by the EC,

and could contribute to the global objectives of

EGS. In particular, the definition of the follow-up of

OneGeology-Europe to develop a common EGDI is

part of the current mission of the SIEG.

2. 2. vision

INSPIRE sets up a framework of data, technology,

policies, standards, and human resources,

necessary to facilitate the sharing and using of

spatial information. This broad and ambitious

objective has been recognized as strategic for the

Geological Surveys, giving the opportunity to

provide a better visibility, access and use to the

subsurface data, information and knowledge.

The development of the INSPIRE rules is therefore

very important to consider, as it will condition the

success and the efficiency of the implementation of

the European Spatial Data Infrastructure.

EGS has been involved in the design of the

Directive from 2003, and has been identified as a

very supportive and contributive community.

European projects, such as OneGeology-Europe

have demonstrated the capacity of EGS members

to develop and implement prototypes of INSPIRE

compliant infrastructures.

On a longer perspective, it is important to notice

the strong connection of INSPIRE with GMES and

with SEIS (Shared Environmental Information

System). SEIS aims at developing a comprehensive

European network of information services based

on the INSPIRE principles that could be used in

particular for reporting on environmental directives.

The maintenance of the INSPIRE specifications will

require a strong commitment from the communities,

and EGS will have to contribute.



Regarding the EGDI construction, it is important to

develop a shared vision of what will be this

infrastructure, how it will be managed, and how the

different contributions (both on the content and

technical dimensions) will be assembled in a

consistent manner. The capability of EGS to deliver

information services at the European scale to

respond to user needs will strongly depend on the

efficiency of this infrastructure.

3. Scope and focus

Spatial Information is really transverse in the

business of the Geological Surveys; it is an

important dimension of almost any information

managed by the surveys. Therefore, the SIEG has

strong connections will all the other EGS Expert

Groups that cover thematic areas, and which

contribute to the EGS information strategy in their

respective domain.

The SIEG focuses on the global consistency of the

way spatial information has to be defined, managed

and delivered to provide harmonised services at

the European scale. It also has to provide EGS with

a clear technical strategy to guarantee the adequacy

of the developments of its infrastructure in the

context of global spatial information infrastructures

(INSPIRE, GEOSS, SEIS, OneGeology…).


The INSPIRE process is divided into three phases

(the detailed roadmap is given in Annex):

• Preparatory phase (2004-2006)

• Transposition phase (2007-2009)

• Implementation phase (2009-2013).

The current phase of data specifications, which is

critical for the environmental information producers

(including the GSOs) will end in 2013. However,

the standardization process will not end and be

followed by an active maintenance activity that will

enhance and refine the harmonization of geospatial

information, and guarantee its consistency with the

requirements of the Environmental Reporting

obligations, and of the market needs.

The MOU signed between EGS and EEA formalizes

a part of the contribution of EGS to EU policy

through delivery of information services.

5. activity report

The SIEG had two physical meetings and a

teleconference in 2011:

• Brussels 30/01/2011 - 01/02/2011 - 25 participants,

objectives of the meeting :

- To share the information about the status of

development of the data specifications by TWGs

- To present an overview of the draft

specifications for the Geology, mineral

resources, energy, natural risk zones themes

- To collect the first comments and reactions on

this draft

- To organize the review, and testing of the

version that will be released in spring with the

contribution of the EGs and of the European

projects (Thermomap, Geoseas, Pangeo,

EuroGeoSource, Promine).

• Teleconference 09/05/2011

- Objective : follow-up on data specification

review process

• Edinburgh - 30/06/2011 - 20 participants (at the

occasion of the INSPIRE conference), , objectives

of the meeting :

- Define scope of EGS and projects contribution

to INSPIRE EC calls

- Identify contributions of GSOs and projects to

comments and testing of INSPIRE data

specifications for EGS related themes

- Identify leaders to coordinate the contributions

per theme

- Agree on an overall schedule for delivering the

EGS contribution.

Members of the SIEG were also invited to different

meetings:

• “EGS Strategy workshop” in Ljubljana : 02/09/2011



• “EGS Directors meeting” in Warsaw : 20-21/09/2011

• “GE-MR TWG comment review meeting” in

Barcelona : 8-10/11/2011

• “GEO Plenary” in Istanbul - 16-17/11/2011 :

presentation of SIEG activities and projects,

participation to EGS booth

• “Inspire Comment Resolution Workshop” in Ispra

on 05-07 /12/2011


6.1. Contribution to INSPIRE implementing rules

The main technical contribution has been related to

the INSPIRE data specification process. The EGS

experts (see list in annexe) have deeply contributed

to the TWGs work. It should be acknowledged that

the EGS experts have been the main contributors

for some data themes (including geology and

mineral resources), thus representing a significant

in kind contribution of EGS members to the

European process.

After the production of the V2.0 of the draft

specifications for annex II and III data themes, the

Commission issued two calls for reviewing and

testing these draft specifications.

The SIEG coordinated an EGS contribution to these

calls (EGS acting in its SDIC role).

Between July and end of October, 462 comments

were collected and consolidated from 15 geological

surveys (AUSTRIA, CZECH REPUBLIC,

DENMARK, FINLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY,

ITALY, POLAND, SPAIN, SWEDEN,

SWITZERLAND, THE NETHERLANDS, UK,

EMILIA ROMAGNA, CATALONIA).

This work has been conducted through the

coordination by different surveys for every data

theme relevant for EGS :

theme GSO CoordinatorGeology ISPRA Marco Pantaloni

Hydrogeology BGR Kristine Asch

Geophysics IGC Sara Figueras

Jordi Marturia

Natural Risk zones CZS Lucie Kondrova

Dana Capova

Mineral Resources SGU Lars-Kristian Stölen

Energy resources TNO Robert-Jan

VanLeeuwen

Coordinators of data specifications review per data

theme.

Contributions from the following projects were also

integrated: EuroGeoSource, Subcoast, Georg,

OneGeology-Europe, PanGeo, Promine,

Thermomap.

The GE-MR (Geology and Mineral Resources) TWG

received 1138 comments about Geology and 282

comments about Mineral Resources.

Every comment will receive a specific answer.

The Chai r of the SIEG was invited by the Commission

to the “Comment Resolution Workshop” in Ispra on

5-7 December 2011, EGS been invited to this

workshop as a major contributor to the process.

A draft V2.9 data specification is under preparation

by the TWGs and will be discussed soon with the

Commission before the final release of V3.0 in April.

6.2. EGDI development

After the decision of the EGS Directors to maintain

and develop the OneGeology-Europe infrastructure,

discussions about the content of its evolution and

the organization of the EGS data infrastructure was

discussed at different occasions (including the

January and June 2011 SIEG meetings).

Following the EGS meeting about strategy

(2nd September 2011 in Ljubljana), the SIEG was

asked to deliver a concept note to the Warsaw

General Meeting On 20-21 September. Given this

very short delay, a paper was prepared by a few

members of the SIEG and sent to the Directors and

to the SIEG members. It was the basis of the

discussion in Warsaw. The note proposed a work

plan, built as a project with work packages.

This document is a proposal to identify the different

objectives of development, and to structure the

work that has to be produced by the EGS members.

It addresses short term objectives which can be

achieved by a coordinated action of EGS (without



external funding) and more long term and ambitious

objectives that require specific external funding.

As a first opportunistic attempt to attract external

funding, the “EGDI-Scope” proposal has been setup

by some EGS members and the EGS Secretariat in

November 2011, in response to an FP7 Infrastructure

Call. The answer to this proposal is expected in

March 2012.

The governance of the global EGDI initiative still

has to be decided by the EGS Directors, and the

role of the SIEG clearly defined.

6.3. Related projects

SIEG has shared information about the

development of some major projects developed by

EGS partners, as potential contributors of the future

EGDI : OneGeology-Europe Promine, AEGOS,

PANGEO, EuroGeoSource, Emodnet, GeoSeas,

Thermomap, GeoRG.


The finalisation of INSPIRE data specifications will

still mobilize the activity of our TWGs experts mainly

until April 2012 where they will deliver the V3.

The process of development of the data

specifications has indicated that the specifications

that will come in the legislation (with an obligation

to implement) will probably be more limited than

originally planned. A large part of the specifications

will therefore be published as recommendations

(no obligation to implement). This will give at the

same time more flexibility, and more control by the

communities. This means that EGS will have a key

role to play in the future to maintain and develop

those “extended” specifications.

EGS will have also to define its contribution to

the coming call for experts for the maintenance

of INSPIRE. The EGS position will be prepared by

the SIEG.

Regarding EGDI, the SIEG will contribute according

to the coming decision of Directors at the General

Meeting in March 2012.

SIEG will contribute to the EGS / EPOS partnership

that aims at facilitating the interoperability between

the two geo-infrastructures.

The SIEG will work on the necessary coordination

of EGS proposals to the next EC calls (FP7, ICT-PSP)

regarding development and implementation of

spatial data.

A face to face meeting of the SIEG is planned on

28th February 2012.

SIEG members will participate to the following

conferences:

• Eurogeo 2012 Conference in Bologna (INSPIRE

session) - June 2012

• INSPIRE 2012 Conference in Istanbul - June 2012

• IGC in Brisbane.(Session dedicated to the

development of the European geological

infrastructure) - August 2012.



9. annexes

9.1. Detailed Roadmap of INSPIRE

adoption


Milestone date Article Description

15-May-2007 - Entry into force of INSPIRE Directive

15-Aug-2007 22§2 Establishment of the INSPIRE Committee

14-May-2008 5§4 Submission for opinion of the INSPIRE committee of IR for

the creation and updating of metadata

03-Dec-2008 5§4 Adoption of INSPIRE Metadata Regulation

19-Dec-2008 21(4) Submission for opinion of the INSPIRE committee of IR for

monitoring and reporting

19-Dec-2008 16 Submission for opinion of the INSPIRE committee of IR for

discovery and view services

15-May-2009 24§1 Provisions of Directive are brought into force in MS

05-Jun-2009 17(8) Submission for opinion of the INSPIRE committee of IR governing

the access rights of use to spatial data sets and services for

Community institutions and bodies

05-Jun-2009 21(4) Adoption of COMMISSION DECISION regarding INSPIRE

monitoring and reporting

19-Oct-2009 16 Adoption of INSPIRE Regulation on Network Services

(Discovery and View)

14-Dec-2009 9(a) Submission for opinion of the INSPIRE committee of Irs for the

interoperability of spatial data sets and services for Annex I spatial

data themes


download services


transformation services

29-Mar-2010 17(8) Adoption of Regulation as regards the access to spatial data sets

and services of the Member States by Community institutions and

bodies under harmonised conditions

17-Jun-2010 9(a) Submission for opinion of the INSPIRE committee of amendment to

Regulation for the interoperability of spatial data sets and services

for Annex I spatial data themes on code lists

23-Nov-2010 16 Adoption of amendment of Regulation (EC) No 976/2009 as regards

download services and transformation services

23-Nov-2010 9(a) Adoption INSPIRE regulation for the interoperability of spatial data

sets and services for Annex I spatial data themes

04-Feb-2011 9(a) Adoption INSPIRE amendment to Regulation for the interoperability

of spatial data sets and services for Annex I spatial data themes on

code lists

June 20121 16 Submission for opinion of the INSPIRE committee of IR for the

services allowing spatial data services to be invoked

October 20121 9(b) Submission for opinion of the INSPIRE committee of IRs for the

interoperability of spatial data sets and services for Annex II and III

spatial data themes

Implementation MAFI Ferenc Sikhegyi

Milestone date Article Description

15-May-2010 21§1 21§2 Implementation of provisions for monitoring and reporting

03-Dec-2010 6(a) Metadata available for spatial data sets and services corresponding

to Annex I and II

30-Jun-2011 15 The EC establishes and runs a geo-portal at Community level

19-Oct-2011 17(8) Implementation of Regulation as regards the access to spatial data

sets and services of the Member States by Community institutions

and bodies under harmonised conditions for new arrangements

09-Nov-2011 16 Discovery and view services operational


23-Nov-2012 7§3, 9(a) Implementation of Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010

of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the

European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability

of spatial data sets and services for Newly collected and

extensively restructured Annex I spatial data sets available

December 20121 16 Transformation services operational

December 20121 16 Download services operational

04-Feb-2013 7§3, 9(a) Implementation of Commission Regulation (EU) No 102/2011

of 4 February 2011 amending Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010

implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and

of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and

services for newly collected and extensively restructured spatial

data sets

19-Apr-2013 17(8) Implementation of Regulation as regards the access to spatial data

sets and services of the Member States by Community institutions

and bodies under harmonised conditions for existing arrangements

03-Dec-2013 6(b) Metadata available for spatial data corresponding to Annex III

December 20143 7§3, 9(b) Newly collected and extensively restructured Annex II and III

spatial data sets available

23-Nov-2017 7§3, 9(a) Implementation of Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010

of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the

European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability

of spatial data sets and services for other spatial data sets still in

use at the date of adoption

04-Feb-2018 7§3, 9(a) Implementation of Commission Regulation (EU) No 102/2011

of 4 February 2011 amending Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010

implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament

and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets

and services for other spatial data sets still in use at the date

of adoption

October 20191 7§3, 9(b) Other Annex II and III spatial data sets available in accordance with

IRs for Annex II and III 1 Date proposed by the commission3 Date depending on entry into force of measure


International Cooperation and Development task force (ICtf)


The need for improving the cooperation with the

African Geological Surveys was initially discussed

at the 66th EGS ExCom meeting in June 2010.

Soon the concept evolved into the proposal to

make European data on Africa available to

Organization of the African Geological Surveys

(OAGS) members. The idea was the outcome of

talks between EGS and several African surveys

Directors. After these talks, EGS has elaborated a

proposal which would make possible unlocking

geological data on Africa which are hold by individual

EGS members. This would lead to strengthening

cooperation with OAGS countries and form a good

platform for joint actions. As a further step

EuroGeoSurveys 70th Executive Committee Meeting

held 27th June 2011 in Orléans have established

International Cooperation and Development Task

Force (ICTF). The Chairmanship of this task force

was assigned to Marek Graniczny (PGI - NRI),

Membership of this task force is still open.


Reasons to establish ICTF:

• High potential of European geological surveys to

provide substantial information and expertise and

advice on current key issues

• European geological surveys have large public

archives of relevant geoscientific data which may

help African countries in policy making and

sustainable use of mineral and non-energy raw

materials, groundwater and geothermal energy

• European geological surveys may help OAGS

members in studies and assessing risk and

climate impact, especially those resulting from

ongoing “traditional” exploitation of mineral raw

materials and groundwater, that is the most

important challenges for the XXI century

• European geological surveys may also help

OAGS members in staff training

• Growing demand for mineral resources in

EU Member States and secure access to specific

mineral resources, the bulk of which is located

outside Europe, which opens a chance for

mutually beneficial cooperation

3. Scope and focus

As it was mentioned before, it was felt necessary

to propose the establishment of a Task Force on

Africa. Discussion on this subject was continued at

the successive EGS meetings , during which

several delegations proposed widening the mission

of that new Task Force on other continents, like

Latin and Southern America or even selected

countries in Asia.

T

he question is still open, however at present EGS

International Cooperation and Development Task

Force (ICTF), have an initial main focus on Africa.


Presently, ICTF includes 19 members from

14 countries. It means that it counts about 50%

of the all EGS member states. We do hope that

membership of ICTF will grow, taking under

consideration the fact that newly established task

force started action in the second half of 2011

(see member list - 8).

5. activity report

• Preparation of the paper on the draft scope of

the Task Force.

• Distribution of the draft scope among the members

of the ICTF

• Participation of Marek Graniczny and presentation

of the scope and vision of EGS and ICTF in AU

Conference of Ministers Responsible for Mineral

Resources Development Second Ordinary

Session - Building a sustainable future for Africa’s

extractive industry: From vision to action,

12 - 16 December, 2011 - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia




• Collection views and opinions of EG members on

the draft scope of work of ICTF, important for

compiling presentation for the Addis Ababa

conference.

• The resulting EGS ICTF presentation focused on

the role of geological surveys in implementing

the African Mining Vision (AMV) at the

background of organization, activities and

external relations of the EGS. The reasons and

aims and proposed actions of the newly

established EGS ICTF were emphasized to put

forward the question whether or not Africa needs

a strong organization of the African geological

Surveys (OAGS), capable to advise the African

Union (AU) as EGS does for the EU. The answer

should be positive and certainly implementation

of the AMV needs to give OAGS a central role.

Finally, five recommendations were presented:

A. African national geological surveys should be

capable to make their governments more

independent of the private sector and other

organizations in supervising exploration and

sustainable use of the natural resources

of Africa.

B. The African geoscience knowledge base

needs to be strengthened and the geological

surveys’ capabilities to make new geological

maps needs to be upgraded.

C. Improvement of geological mapping and

geoscience knowledge base would be

extremely beneficial for both Europe and

Africa, boosting development and enhancing

social welfare and natural environment

protection in Africa. However, it can be

successful only when developed in the frame

of a LARGE (many countries) joint OAGS/EGS

initiative, involving also the academic system

and the private sector.

D. Tools may include: help to comprise capacity

building through the foundation of a

decentralized specialization school and other

trainings for African geologists, as well as

acquisition of special software and

instruments and know-how.

E. Existing successful initiatives, like AEGOS,

must be exploited. AEGOS should be

continued, extended in geographical

coverage, and become one key component

of the proposed joint initiative led by African/

European geological surveys to improve the

geological mapping and geoscience

knowledge base of the African continent.

On Wednesday 14 December, the EGS delegate

took part in the discussion on programme

cluster 2 - Geological infrastructure. During the

discussion the EGS delegate emphasized the role

of EuroGeoSurveys as one of the organizations to

be included as a responsible body and main actor

of the action plan.

Speaking on geological mapping in Africa,

he indicated the necessity to carry out correlations

in the cross-border areas. His remarks were taken

into account and inserted in the table 2 - Action plan.



Expected accomplishment

Activities Time frame Monitoring indicatorsResponsible bodys

and main actors

Improved geological

and mining

information systems

to underpin

investment in

exploration and

mine development

Improve geological

mapping and

geoscience knowledge

base for boosting

other economic

sectors and enhancing

social development

and environment

protection

at national level• Enhance the capacity and role of national geological institutions;

• Improve resourcing of national geological survey institutions;

• Improve a geological information management system

• Increase regional mapping and exploration activities to upgrade

mineral inventories and geoscientific information base

• Reinforce and create synergy between the different geological and

mining related institutions (Ministries, Universities, Research

Centers, etc)

at sub-regional and regional levels• RECs to adopt and implement sub-regional mapping and mineral

inventory programmes including through the use of modern remote

sensing techniques;

• RECs to scale-up efforts to standardize geological information

management methods and approaches (e.g. stratigraphy, cadastre,

legends, etc)

• AUC to develop a continent-wide mapping and mineral inventory

programme with special attention on cross border areas in

coordination with the Organization of African Geological Surveys

(OAGS) and mobilize the necessary resources to implement it.

Reinforce and create synergy between the different geological and

mining related institutions (Ministries, Universities, Research

Centers, etc)

• Recognise and strengthen OAGS to make it relevant to the needs of

the continent

at the continental level• AUC to coordinate values geoscientific continental wide taking place

such as the Natural Resource Information Exchange (NRIE), AEGOS

and mining policy framework

MT

ST

ST

MT

ST

MT

MT

• Levels of improvement in geological knowledge and mineral

potential

• Numbers and types of functioning geo-scientific databases,

cadastres and infrastructure system.

• Number of consultations frameworks and Development of

joint projects

• Number of joint exploration programmes across member

States

• Types and format of harmonized geo-scientific data across

member States

MS

EU

EU Geo Services

Bilateral

RECs

AUC

UNCTAD

action Plan



In Addis Ababa, EGS delegate had a talk with

Lhacene Bitam, President of OAGS concerning

creation of the Pan - African geological mapping

project.

It was agreed that President Bitam will:

- open contact for EGS with individual OAGS

members through his secretariat in Pretoria

- contacts individual OAGS members to collect

information on actual needs and ideas

concerning compilation of maps jointly with

the EGS

- the collected information on needs and

interests of the respective geological surveys

will be used in compilation of a general scheme

of the project proposal.

The next stage shall include elaboration of the

project road map by the ICTF members.



Marine Geology Expert Group


The Marine Geology Expert Group includes

representatives from 22 of the EuroGeoSurveys

member organisations. In addition, associate

members from non-EGS member organisations

make a valuable contribution to the group’s

objectives (see section 9). During 2011, members

of the Marine Geology Expert Group (MGEG) have

continued to be active in several EC-funded

projects, both as groups of EGS members and as

individual participants. MGEG members are also

involved in discussions to develop new EC

proposals and ventures.

The main EC-funded project activity has been the

EMODNET-Geology Project. Several MGEG

members also participated in the Geo-Seas Project.

During 2011, several surveys have been involved

in the NAG-TEC (Northeast Atlantic Geoscience

Tectonostratigraphic Atlas) Project.


The Marine Geology Expert Group (MGEG) aims to

deliver high-quality information and advice to inform

decision-makers responsible for the European

seas, and to lead in issues of global importance.

The group established a long-term strategy in

2004, when a document was submitted to

EuroGeoSurveys titled ‘Geoscience for European

Ocean Management - Outlook for the Next Decade’

in which emphasis was placed on cross-cutting

issues such as sustainable use of natural resources,

climate change, habitat mapping, natural hazards

and long-term maintenance of databases.

The underpinning factor of this strategy was the

need to establish a system that provides the

European Community with the geological

knowledge required to inform decisions that affect

the marine environment. The group promotes the

view that marine geological information and

interpretations are a fundamental requirement for

all activities that take place in the European seas.

For example, the definition of marine habitats as

required by the EU Habitats and Birds Directives

requires a basic framework in which to assess the

importance of any habitat.

Although the group focuses on work carried out

within the national geological survey organisations,

it is essential that we continue to look outwards to

develop collaboration between marine geologists

and the marine biological, oceanographic/

hydrographic and chemistry communities, who

together form the main providers of scientific

information for the European marine community.

We also consider that it is essential for the group to

expand its geographical scope whenever possible,

as the issues that affect the European seas are not

constrained by national boundaries.

The need to maintain collaboration between the

marine departments of the surveys has never been

greater. At national level, most, if not all, EU

Member States are introducing policies that ensure

better integration of marine science. The drivers

towards these policies are mainly EU Action Plans

and Directives (see section 3), and it is important

that EU Member State Governments develop

strategies in the marine environment that are

underpinned by cross-border collaboration.

In order to respond to the EC’s demands for

geological information in the marine environment,

it is important that a high-level of marine geology

expertise and information is visible within

EuroGeoSurveys, based on full support at national

level and active collaboration with other scientific

disciplines.

3. Scope and focus

Marine geology has been a common theme within

the geological surveys of Europe for many years.

The Expert Group therefore has a long track-record

of co-operation in both science and integration of

information. In the last decade, the group has led

projects that have brought more than €8.5 million

of EC funds to help deliver integrated databases

(EUMARSIN, EUROSEISMIC and GeoSeas projects)

and interpreted geological maps (EMODNET-

Geology).

The focus of the group is to continue to look for

ways to collaborate in order to make marine

geological information and advice available



at a pan-European level. To meet this objective,

the group has focused on responding to EC-funding

calls and tender actions. The MGEG also recognises

the importance of participating in marine policy-

making at the EU level, which is done for example

through the Marine Observation and Data Expert

Group (MODEG - see section 5.2) established by

the EC to provide them with the scientific, technical

and operational expertise it needs to ensure that the

European Marine Observation and Data Network

(EMODNET - see section 3) best meets the needs

of its future users. The MGEG currently provides

three members to MODEG.

The group also recognises the need to establish a

long-term strategy that does not depend solely on

EC funding, but which fits with the overarching EC

strategy towards the use of the marine environment.

The group is therefore active in initiatives such as

the EuroGeoSurveys North Atlantic Group

(see section 4.2).


In 2007 the Commission presented its vision for

the Integrated Maritime Policy for the EU,

accompanied by an Action Plan [http://ec.europa.

eu/maritimeaffairs/pdf/ActionPaper/action_plan_

en.pdf] in which it set out the delivery of a new

vision for Europe’s oceans and seas based on the

consultation process that resulted from the Green

Paper on a Future Maritime Policy for the Union.

In this Action Plan, the Commission described a

new integrated governance framework for

maritime affairs that requires cross-cutting tools

to help policy makers and economic and

environmental actors to join up their policies,

interlink their activities and optimise the use of the

marine and coastal space in an environmentally

sustainable manner.

These tools, as set out in the Integrated Maritime

Policy Communication were to comprise:

the development of a more integrated network of

surveillance systems for European waters,

the development of maritime spatial planning,

assisted by a road map drawn up by the European

Commission, and an EU Marine Observation and

Data Network (EMODNET) to optimise and bring

coherence to the current fragmented initiatives

that gather data on oceans and seas. Following an

overwhelmingly positive response from stakeholders

to its proposal, the European Commission, in its

EU's Maritime Policy Blue Book, adopted in

October 2007 and welcomed by the European

Council in December 2007, undertook to take steps

towards EMODNET in order to improve availability

of high quality data. The Commission undertook to

prepare by 2009 an EU action plan to make

progress in this area on the basis of a road map.

It was proposed that the "proof of concept" of

EMODNET be tested through preparatory actions

that established portals for a number of maritime

basins for hydrographic, geological, biological and

chemical data as well as functional habitat maps.

As well as providing access to marine data of a

standard format and known quality and identify

gaps in coverage, the projects would identify the

main challenges in moving from a preparatory

ur-EMODNET programme to an operational

EMODNET. As a result of a tender action, a group

of surveys from the MGEG bid for and won the

contract to provide the geological information for

the EMODNET programme (see section 3).

An impact assessment will assess options for

moving towards a definitive EMODNET, both in the

intermediate period 2011-2013 and in the long

term after 2014. At the same time efforts will begin

to integrate other funding mechanisms. Given that

EMODNET is very much focused on a sea-basin

scale and given the impetus accorded to territorial

cohesion by the new Green Paper, discussions will

begin to determine whether cohesion funding could

support the initiative. Moves will begin to integrate

EMODNET with initiatives under the EU's Research

Infrastructure actions and the Common Fisheries

Policy Data Collection Regulation.

The ur-EMODNET has been operational

throughout 2010 and 2011, collecting feedback

from users on fitness for purpose and indicating

how the definitive EMODNET might be set up.

Should these prototypes prove to be successful,

efforts will be made to extend their geographic

range in order to cover all of the waters of EU

Member States for one or more sets of parameters

through Community instruments for territorial

cooperation. Preparatory actions are designed to

prepare proposals with a view to the adoption of

future actions. Based on the knowledge gathered



during this exploratory ur-EMODNET a strategy

will be developed for moving ahead.

Underpinning the EC’s integrated maritime policies

are a number of directives that require input of

geological information and knowledge. These

directives steer the work carried out at national

level within the marine departments of the European

geological surveys, and help the MGEG members

to align their work such that they are well-placed to

respond to EC strategy. These include:

• Environmental Impact Assessment Directive

(June 1985), Directive 85/337/EEC

• Habitats Directive (May 1992),

Directive 92/43/EEC

• Water Framework Directive (October 2000),

Directive 2000/60/EC

• Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive

(June 2001), Directive 2001/42/EC

• Roadmap for Maritime Spatial Planning

(November 2006), COM(2008) 791

• Marine Strategy Framework Directive

(Adopted June 2008), Directive 2008/56/EC

• Marine Knowledge 2020 Initiative (

September 2010) COM(2010) 461

• Marine Spatial Planning in the EU, COM(2010) 771

• Common Fisheries Policy of the European Union

5. activity report

5.1 EC-funded Projects

5.1.1 EMODNET-Geology

In response to the EU Green Paper on Future

Maritime Policy, the European Commission

initiated the European Marine Observation and

Data Network (EMODNET). The overall objective is

to create pilot studies that assemble fragmented

and inaccessible marine data into interoperable,

contiguous and publicly available datasets for

whole maritime basins.

The EMODNET-Geology project is one of five

preparatory action projects that, in addition to

marine geology, bring together information on

marine chemistry, marine biology, hydrography

and physical properties. Each project defines the

processes, technologies and approximate costs of

implementing a fully functioning European Marine

Observation and Data Network. For the

EMODNET-Geology project, the project partners

have compiled data layers for the Baltic Sea,

Greater North Sea and Celtic Sea.

The delivery of the EMODNET-Geology data layers

is through the OneGeology-Europe (1G-E) portal

(Figure 4.1). The maritime map layers are being

delivered using the IG-E portal to allow the delivery

of both onshore and offshore geological

information via a single portal.

The geology data available includes:

• sea-bed sediments (Figure 1)

• sea-floor geology (see Figure 2)

• boundaries and faults

• rates of coastal erosion or accumulation

• geological events (submarine slides, earthquakes

etc.)

• minerals

The project started in July 2009 and will end in July

2012. The EMODNET-Geology Final Report was

submitted to the EC to deadline in July 2011 and

was subsequently accepted. The final year of the

project has been the ‘maintenance’ phase during

which the final GIS data layers are being

developed. Advice about the ‘real’ EMODNET

project which will start in 2013-14 was provided by

the project partners in conjunction with members

of the Marine Observation and Data Expert Group

(MODEG). These recommendations include:

• expand areal coverage of the EMODnet-Geology

maps (to include the Bay of Biscay and Iberian

coast, Mediterranean, Black Sea, Norwegian

Sea, Barents Sea, North East Atlantic, Eastern

Gulf of Finland)



• highlight the significance of higher-resolution data

quality (particularly multibeam echosounder

bathymetry including backscatter)

• secure long-term updating of the geological maps

• improve the spatial resolution (sub-areas),

building on the existing work

• increase the resolution of classification, and

include different classification schemes for

different users of geological data (e.g. bespoke

particle-size analysis data for habitat mappers)

• to include coastal behavioural units in more detail

(cliffy coasts, sand dunes, estuaries etc..) and

incorporate temporal changes

• to compile maps of geomorphological features

• include processes related to geological data,

especially relevant to mobile sediments on the

sea floor and coastal units, and include time

series (4D, climate change)

• allow more dynamic updating of map layers

• include thematic maps for more users - i.e.

aggregate industry, renewable energy industry,

fisheries, defence, etc.

As the next phase of the project is expected to

expand into the regional seas not presently included

in the EMODNET-Geology project such as

the Atlantic and Mediterranean seas, partners from

the Mediterranean counties were invited to attend

the EMODNET-Geology Project meeting in Tallinn,

Estonia in November 2011 to hear about the project.

Project website: [www.emodnet-geology.eu]

5.1.2 Geo-Seas

Geo-Seas is implementing an e-infrastructure of

26 marine geological and geophysical data centres,

located in 17 European maritime countries (14 of

which are EGS Members). Users are enabled to

identify, locate and access pan-European,

harmonised and federated marine geological and

geophysical datasets and derived data products

held by the data centres through a single common

data portal.

The aims of Geo-Seas are aligned with European

directives and recent large-scale framework

programmes on global and European scales, such

as GEOSS and GMES, EMODNET and INSPIRE.

Geo-Seas is expanding the existing SeaDataNet

marine and ocean data management infrastructure

to handle marine geological and geophysical data,

data products and services, creating a joint

infrastructure covering both oceanographic and

marine geoscientific data.

Project website: www.geo-seas.eu

5.1.3 Other EC-funded projects

Members of the MGEG participate in a range of

EC-funded projects. These include:

• BLAST - Bringing Land and Sea Together.

BGS (UK). [www.blast-project.eu]


Figure 1. Sea-bed sediment substrate map of the EMODNET geology study area.

Figure 2. The EMODNET-Geology sea-bed geology layer in the OneGeology-Europe information portal.


• PERGAMON. IGME (Spain), GEUS (Denmark),

BGR (Germany), [www.cost-pergamon.eu/index.

html]

• FINMARINET. GTK (Finland). [http://en.gtk.fi/

research2/program/seafloor/finmarinet.html]

• INFLOW. GTK (Finland), VSEGEI (Russia), GEUS

(Denmark) [www.bonusportal.org]

• EMODNET-Hydrography. LNEG (Portugal), GSI

(Ireland). [www.emodnet-hydrography.eu]

• WRECK Protect. GEUS (Denmark).

[http://wreckprotect.eu/home]

5.2 Industry/survey partnerships

5.2.1 NAG-TEC (Tectonic Development of the

North-east Atlantic)

EGS members from Denmark (Project Co-ordinator),

the UK, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands,

Iceland and Ireland in collaboration with Jarðfeingi

(formed by the merger of the Faroese Geological

Survey and the Petroleum Administration in 2005)

have started to produce a geological Atlas and GIS

of the North-East Atlantic conjugate margins.

The project is co-funded by industry and survey

partners. [http://nagtec.org/NAGTEC]

5.2.2 North African Petroleum Geological Atlas

(NAPGA)

Members of the Southern Permian Basin Atlas

Project, led by TNO, are currently working on a

new Atlas project, the North African Petroleum

Geological Atlas (NAPGA). The plans to raise funds

from the hydrocarbons industry, including national

oil companies, have been delayed by the political

situation in many of the North African countries

that the Atlas would include. When conditions allow

the project to be re-initiated, it is hoped that

NAPGA will provide easy and inexpensive access

to the accumulated knowledge held by several

organisations on the basins of the area and to help

gain a better understanding of the geology of North

Africa. The aim is to publish a comprehensive and

systematic overview of the results of over

100 years of petroleum exploration and research

in the North African region, including Morocco,

Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, in both paper and

digital (GIS) format.

5.3 annual meeting 2011

The annual meeting of the MGEG was held in Tallin,

Estonia on November 24th - 25th 2011, following an

EMODNET-Geology project meeting.

The meeting was hosted by colleagues from the

Geological Survey of Estonia, gratefully supported

by Tarmo All of the Ministry of the Environment

(KESKKONNAMINISTEERIUM), at the Ministry’s

offices at Narva mnt 7a, Tallinn. The meeting was

attended by 27 members from 16 countries.

5.4 Meetings and presentations by the MGEG Chair/Secretary

EuroGeoSurveys, 26th National Delegates Forum,

Brussels February 28th - Presentation; Stevenson:

MGEG Annual Report 2010.

Marine Geology Expert Group article by Henry

Vallius and Alan Stevenson was published in the

‘Message from the Expert Groups’ section of the

EuroGeoSurveys Newsletter

Henry Vallius (GTK) and Alan Stevenson (BGS)

attended a workshop on Seabed Mapping

‘Knowledge for a better understanding and use

of the marine resources: the case for mapping

the seafloor’ at the European Parliament on

7th February. The meeting was organised by

MEP Maria do Céu Patrão Neves, member of the

Committee on Fisheries and was attended by EU

Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs

Maria Damanaki. Henry Vallius spoke to support

the Commissioner’s aim to survey the entire

sea-floor of Europe by 2020 and to assure her that

the European geological surveys would do what

they could to support this objective. A report of the

workshop can be found at: [www.patraoneves.eu/

news_v.asp?id=3216&site=10]

5.5 National Marine Geology Programmes

Each of the MGEG members continue to pursue a

wide range of activities. Some of these are

highlighted in the following section.



A more comprehensive list of MGEG partners’

activities is included in the minutes and reports of

the MGEG annual meeting, which are available

from the group’s Secretary ([email protected]).

• Belgium (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural

Sciences - Management Unit of the North

Sea Mathematical Models) - RBINS/MUMM

is responsible for the monitoring of all human

activities at sea with the main ‘marine geology’

activities relating to: (1) sand and gravel

extraction; (2) windfarms; and (3) dredging and

disposal of dredged material. A Special Issue on

Marine Sand and Gravel has been published.

MUMM is involved in Belgian Science Policy

Research projects addressing such as the

quantification of erosion and sedimentation and

tracing natural and anthropogenically induced

sediment dynamics. MUMM is responsible for

the implementation of the Marine Strategy

Framework Directive in Belgian waters related to

quantification of human pressures and mapping

physical damage to the sea floor.

• Croatia (Hrvatski geološki institut - Croatian

Geological Survey) - The Marine Geology

Programme of the Croatian Geological Survey

(HGI) consists of 10 geologists involved in

sedimentology, palynology, mineralogy and

tectonic studies. The survey works closely with

the Croatian Hydrographic Institute (HHI) who

have two research vessels, the Hidra and the

Palagruža. The HGI laboratories are equipped

with XRD mineralogy, laser granulometry and

magnetic susceptibility techniques as well as AAS

for analysis of the chemical composition of cores.

• Denmark (Geological Survey of Denmark

and Greenland) - GEUS activities in 2011 have

included a wide range of national and international

projects in Danish and Greenland waters focused

on climate change, habitat mapping and advisory

work in relation to offshore wind farms and

aggregates. In addition GEUS launched a new

marine seismic database. Research projects

include SEDIMICE (linking sediments with

ice-sheet response and glacier retreat in

Greenland); CLIMICE, which is a project under

the Marie Curie Action programme, which aims

to reconstruct late Holocene changes in sea ice

variability and regional sea surface temperatures

(SST) in the Labrador Sea; Pergamon (Permafrost

and Gas hydrate related methane release in the

Arctic and impact on climate change) and

Permagas to address central questions related to

the impact of ongoing global climate change on

permafrost and gas hydrates in and around

Greenland. Surveys have taken place to acquire

data for the Continental Shelf Project of the

Kingdom of Denmark. Habitat mapping has been

undertaken in the Inner Danish Waters for the

Nature Agency. GEUS also participate in a

number of EC-funded projects (see above).

• Estonia (Eesti Geoloogiakeskus - Geological

Survey of Estonia) - GSE have participated in

research into the geology around the possible

nuclear power plant area on Suur-Pakri Island

(Gulf of Finland, NW Estonia) and the Neugrund

impact structure area, and have participated in

the investigation of the impact of the gas pipeline

(Nord Stream) in the Gulf of Finland. Work

continued on the coastal monitoring sub-

programme that was established in 1994 for

observing, measuring and predicting possible

environmental changes in the Estonian coastline.

• Finland (Geologian tutkimuskeskus -

Geological Survey of Finland) - The activities

of the Marine Geology Group of GTK during 2011

were dominated by commissioned and co-

operative basis work/surveys and EU funded

projects (e.g. BONUS INFLOW). Marine

geological activities were coordinated through

two programs, the Seafloor Mapping Program

and Marine Geology and Global Change research

program. New data were collected as part of the

FINMARINET project in the Gulf of Finland, the

Archipelago Sea and in the Bothnian Sea. GTK

participated in the The Finnish Inventory

Programme for the Underwater Marine

Environment (VELMU) to study the diversity of

underwater marine biotopes and species. A new

vessel, the Gridi was delivered in November

2011. Airborne laser scanning was tested in the

Kvargen Archipelago. GTK staff are participating

in the scheduled IODP expedition to investigate

the paleoenvironmental evolution of the Baltic

through the last glacial cycle. The annual GeoHab

Conference was hosted at the GTK office in

Espoo from May 3rd-5th 2011, attended by more

than 130 scientists.



• France (Bureau de recherches géologiques

et minières) - The two permanent marine

geologists at BRGM have had extensive

collaboration with other national institutes

(e.g. Ifremer, SHOM, CNRS-INSU, and MNHN)

and more than 15 Universities. The Plateau

Continental Project is the most important project

aimed at improving geological knowledge of the

continental shelf and the onshore-offshore

transition. Two sub-projects are mapping the

geology of the Marseille and Vendée areas and a

third is mapping other areas of interest such as

the Bay of Seine-Caux in the Channel, Corsica,

French Antilles, and the Pyrenees-Bay of Biscay.

The National Marine Geology Database (BGM/

BSS-Mer) has been changed to allow on-line

requests through the BRGM ‘Infoterre’ portal.

Other projects include producing maps for

offshore windfarm sites; providing marine

geological data for a 3D model used for

geothermal resources and development of

Marine Strategy Framework descriptors.

• Germany (Bundesanstalt für

Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR)

- Federal Institute for Geosciences and

Natural Resources) - BGR’s marine activities

are concentrated in the Marine Resource

Exploration, Resource Geology, Polar Geology,

and Economic Geology of Energy Resources

sub-departments, which together form with other

units the Energy Resources, Mineral Resources

Department. In October 2010, DERA

(Deutsche Rohstoffagentur: German Mineral

Resources Agency) was founded, which is

Germany’s central information and consulting

platform for mineral and energy resources. In

2011, BGR were involved in projects such as

NEMESYS (off New Zealand), MIRROR (off

Morocco), INDEX 2011 (Indian Ocean) and

CASE13 (Leptev/East Siberian Sea). The

Geoscientific Potential of the German North Sea

(GPDN) project continued: the exploration and

development of the German North Sea (EEZ)

aiming to a sustainable development of the North

Sea maritime economic and natural area - a joint

project of BGR together with LBEG (State

Authority for Mining, Energy and Geology), and

BSH (Federal Maritime and Hydrographic

Agency) with additional partners from industry,

research institutes, and universities.

• Ireland (Geological Survey of Ireland) -

The INFOMAR programme is a joint venture

between the Geological Survey of Ireland and the

Marine Institute and is the successor to the Irish

National Seabed Survey (INSS). Covering some

125,000 km² of Ireland’s most productive and

commercially valuable inshore waters, INFOMAR

is producing integrated mapping products

covering the physical, chemical and biological

features of the seabed. [www.infomar.ie].

The value of such integrated mapping projects is

demonstrated by maps of the seabed of Irish

waters that combine shaded relief images of

bathymetric data collected by the INSS and

INFOMAR projects with data collected under

the Petroleum Affairs Division of Ireland and the

General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans

(GEBCO). Combining offshore and onshore

information forms the basis for seamless

geological interpretations and ‘The Real Map of

Ireland’ on land and sea.

• Italy (Institituto Superiore per la Protezione

e la Ricerca Ambientale: ISPRA) - The Italian

geological mapping project (CARG) has published

6 maps at 1:250 000 scale covering the entire

Adriatic Sea. All maps are available on-line at:

[www.isprambiente.gov.it/Media/carg/index.html].

The Marine Geology section of ISPRA has

contributed to the EUSeaMap project in the

Tyrrenhian Sea (part of the EMODNET project).

A number of teaching modules have been

developed to raise awareness of the role of

marine geology in environmental defence and

land management. The GeoHab 2013 Conference

will be hosted in Rome, which will help develop

links between Italian scientists involved in habitat

mapping.

• Lithuania (Nature Research Centre, Institute

of Geology and Geography) - As the Although

not official members of EuroGeoSurveys, the

NRC-IGG have a long history of collaboration

with the MGEG and participate in EMODNET and

Geo-Seas. In 2011, the institute has studied the

south-eastern Baltic Sea and Curonian Lagoon in

the context of climate change and anthropogenic

impact to sedimentation, recent morphogenetic

processes, and geodynamics. Pollution and



environmental conditions of the Klaipėda Sea

port waters have been monitored and monitoring

of the coastal zone for beach nourishment has

been carried out. International collaboration

includes the COPAF project studying coastal

change in the southern Baltic Sea.

• Netherlands (Geological Survey of the

Netherlands) - In 2011, the shallow-subsurface

coastal and marine expertise of TNO was

embedded in the Geomodelling Department part

of the Geological Survey of the Netherlands.

TNO and Deltares, which employs many people

from the former Coastal and Marine Group, have

established extensive collaboration, with

TNO-GSN being the contact group for

EuroGeoSurveys. TNO-GSN focuses on (applied)

mapping and data, developing state-of-the-art

methods with colleagues from deep-subsurface

geology; Deltares focuses on high-end consulting,

using data and expertise provided by TNO-GSN.

The primary activities have been 3D-seismic

mapping of the North Sea bed, the development

of an aggregate-resource portal for sand and

gravel, analysis of Wadden Sea sediment

dynamics, geo-archeology of the extraction pit

for the Rotterdam harbour extension.

Studies on coastal behavior have been conducted

in collaboration with Deltares, Leiden University

and Utrecht University, with an emphasis on

storm-surge and tsunami risk assessment, on the

link between shoreface and barrier coast, and on

coastal progradation in times of rapid sea-level

rise. Core and geophysical data are being entered

in the DINO data portal [www.dinoloket.nl].

• Norway (Norges Geologiske Undersøkelse

- Geological Survey of Norway) - NGU and

its partners, especially the Institute of Marine

Research (IMR) and the Norwegian Hydrographic

Service (SKSK) have continued to work for

increased activity in the MAREANO programme,

an integrated, large-scale programme for shelf

and slope investigations around Lofoten and in

the southern Barents Sea [www.mareano.no].

The programme, which started in 2005, includes

multibeam bathymetric mapping and sampling of

the seafloor to map geology, biology/habitats and

the environment. In 2011 the programme was

given extra financing to advance its activities in

Nordland VI and to expand its activities to the

eastern Norwegian sector along the new border

between Russia and Norway. Other work

includes contributions to the International Centre

for Geohazards (ICG); Safe Operations of Subsea

Systems (SOSS); the investigation of sandwaves

on the continental slope in the western Barents

Sea; and investigations into storage behaviour for

the International Carbon Capture and Storage

Research Centre

• Poland (Państwowy Instytut Geologiczny

- Polish Geological Institute) - The main

activities of the PGI’s Marine Geology team are

a) activity in the coastal zone b) documentation of

aggregate resources (sand for beach nourishment)

and c) mapping the seabed (detailed mapping of

the Pomeranian Bay). A major publication

‘Geochemistry of Baltic Sea Surface sediments’

was published in 2011. Poland became the 18th

member of the European Consortium for Ocean

Research Drilling (ECORD), the European partner

of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP).

PGI marine geology staff will provide the

program national office.

• Portugal (Laboratório Nacional de Energia

e Geologia) - A wide range of activities and

research have been developed during 2011 as

part the LNEG’s main research programme

INGMAR - Investigação em Geologia Marinha.

The total number of projects in execution during

2011 is 30, 14 of which funded by the National

Science Foundation (FCT): FREEZE, SCARPS,

SWIMGLO, HOLOCLIMA, MELT KP-5, INTER-

TRACE, CALIBERIA, MONA, CLIMHOL,

DEEPFORAMS, TAGUSDELTA, PANOCEAN,

LUSOMARBOL. Two funded by FCT through the

ESF EUROCORES programmes EUROMARC &

TOPO-EUROPE (AMOCINT; TOPOMED),

two European FP7 Project (GEOSEAS,

EMODNET Hydrography), one EU Portugal-

Galiza Cooperation (NATURA MINO-MINHO).

The group published 31 papers in international

journals in the ISI’ list and formed 2 new PhD

and 3 masters.



• Russia (A.P.Karpinsky Russian Geological

Research Institute) - The main activities of

the Department of Marine and Environmental

Geology of A.P.Karpinsky Russian Geological

Research Institute (VSEGEI) have been sea-bed

geological mapping; scientific projects;

environmental marine geology; searching for

marine mineral resources and coastal process

studies. In 2011, VSEGEI has undertaken a

complex study “State Monitoring of Geological

Environment of the White Sea, the Barents Sea

and the Baltic Sea and their coastal zone” and

‘Study of floating peat islands of the Narva

Reservoir and development of the recommendation

for the prevention of the environmental risk”.

Compilation of sea-bed sediment maps of the

southern Tatarsky Strait has begun - the series

also includes pre-Quaternary, Quaternary,

mineral resources and oil prognosis maps.

An investigation into the submarine terraces of

the eastern Gulf of Finland as indicators of the

sea level changes during the Late Pleistocene -

Holocene was completed.

• Spain (Instituto Geológico y Minero de

España) - The activities of the Marine Geology

Group have been focused on a) geological

mapping and marine databases (samples,

seismic profiles and maps); b) sedimentary

processes and depositional systems; c) fluid

escape features (mud volcanoes, pockmarks,

etc); d) gas hydrates, e) paleoceanography and

global change, f) geodynamic evolution and

tectonics and g) mineral deposits. These studies

are located in different geological contexts:

the Bay of Biscay, Gulf of Cadiz, Alboran Sea,

Canary Islands and Antarctica. Research on

these topics has been undertaken through

different marine projects funded by the IGME,

the National Scientific Research, Development

and Technologic Innovation Programme of the

Ministry of Science and Innovation and European

programmes and actions. Work continued on the

CONTOURIBER project to study the contourite

depositional systems generated by the

Mediterranean water masses along the continental

slope of Iberia. A new activity is the study of

marine mineral deposits, carried out so far on the

Galicia Margin, Gulf of Cadiz, Canary Islands and

Antarctica. The objectives are to map these

deposits and study the genetic model, and to

create a database of mineral deposits.

• Sweden (Sveriges geologiska undersökning

- Swedish Geological Survey) - The Swedish

Marine Geological Mapping Programme has

continued along the Blekinge Coast in northern

Hanö Bay and in the southern Kalmar Sound

between the Swedish mainland and the Öland

Island. The Programme was extended in 2011

with the middle part of Kalmar Sound. The aim

of the programme is to produce a map for

presentation at the scale 1:100 000; showing the

distribution of the sea-bed sediments and the

stratigraphy of the sea-bed area all the way from

the shoreline of the mainland to about 2 km off

the base-line. Research projects have included

the detection of fibres discharged from pulp-mills

in sediments; dioxin problems in the Baltic region;

the role of black carbon (soot particles) in Baltic

Sea sediments; environmental quality and status

of marine sediments. Commissioned projects

have investigated the dredging/dumping activities

in Karlshamn and Åhus harbours and windfarm

sites in Hanö Bay.

• United Kingdom (British Geological Survey)

- The BGS Marine Geology team continued to

develop the MAREMAP (Marine Environmental

Mapping) Programme in partnership with the

National Oceanography Centre (NOC), Scottish

Association for Marine Science (SAMS) plus

universities and other public marine organisations

such as the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

The aim is to provide a multidisciplinary approach

to improve understanding of the seabed, shallow

geology, habitats and heritage. A number of

surveys using the NERC research vessel the

James Cook and the BGS nearshore survey, the

White Ribbon have taken place during the year.

BGS contributed to three major reports in the

Humber, East Coast of England and the English

Channel funded by the Aggregate Levy

Sustainability Fund. BGS are co-ordinating the

EC-funded EMODNET-Geology and Geo-Seas

projects and are also active in the NAG-TEC

project, a collaboration between several

European geological surveys and the

hydrocarbon industry.




6.1 Emodnet

At the European strategic level, the main results

and impacts of the MGEG partners’ work has been

achieved within the EMODNET-Geology Project,

which has seen excellent co-operation between

some of the MGEG surveys. This is now a

well-established network that has all the tools for

future work in European marine spatial planning and

integrated maritime policy of the European Union.

The acceptance of the final EMODNET-Geology

Project report in July 2011 puts the geological

surveys in a good position to continue to deliver

the geological component of EMODNET. The final

meeting of the EMODNET Project Co-ordinators

and the MODEG (see below) will take place in

February 2012, following which the call for proposals

for the full EMODNET will be issued later in the

year. The February meeting will possibly include a

demonstration of the EMODNET portals to Maria

Damanaki, the European Commissioner for

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.

6.2 MODEG

Three staff from the MGEG currently serve on the

European Commission’s (DG MARE) Marine

Observation and Data Expert Group (MODEG) as

mandated by EuroGeoSurveys. Henry Vallius

(GTK) and Robert Gatliff (BGS) are serving their

second term on MODEG, while Terje Thorsnes

(NGU) joined MODEG in 2010. MODEG’s mission

is to provide the Commission with the scientific,

technical and operational expertise it needs to

ensure that the European Marine Observation and

Data Network (EMODNET) best meets the needs

of its future users. This is an influential group that

will help provide direct advice to the EC on their

requirements for geological information and

knowledge.

6.3 Geo-Seas

Geo-Seas is now in its final year. The project is

focused on supporting Europe’s capacity to locate

and access geological and geophysical datasets

from multiple data centres in common formats, to

Europe-wide standards and with the minimum of

effort. The project is compatible with the INSPIRE

Directive to create a European spatial information

infrastructure that delivers integrated spatial

information to users.

6.4 Other European and National Committee membership

Henry Vallius represents Finland on the European

Commission DG MARE Member State Expert

Group on Integrated Marine Policy (subgroup on

Marine Knowledge).

Alan Stevenson is Secretary/Treasurer of the

Marine Studies Group of the Geological Society of

London.


As stated above, the EMODNET-Geology Project

has delivered not only the final GIS data layers, but

also recommendations to the Commission for the

‘real’ EMODNET project which will start in 2013.

There will, however, be an interim period between

2011 and 2013 when some new actions will take

place. The next phase of the project is expected to

expand into the regional seas not presently

included in the EMODNET lots, which for the

EMODNET-Geology project would mean such

areas as the Atlantic and Mediterranean seas.

The future work is also likely to focus on geological

parameters and features that are not dealt with in

the ur-EMODNET lots.

Expansion of the EMODNET into areas not

presently included in the project will involve

geological surveys from those areas, which the

expert group will promote through the final report

of the EMODNET-Geology project and through the

MODEG of DG MARE of the European Commission.



Superficial Deposits (tf SD) Expert Group


The new Task Force on Superficial Deposits was

proposed to the EGS National Delegates and Expert

Group Chairs on February 28, 2011. During the

following EGS ExCom meeting, it was then decided

to renew the EGS Soils Expert Group as a Task

Force on Superficial Deposits (TF SD). The task force

was also discussed during the 31st EGS General

Meeting Sept. 2011. In January 2012, a terms of

reference was drafted by BGR, and communicated

to the members of this task force (update Febr. 2012).

The kick-off workshop will take place in the first

week of June 2012.

The Task Force still requires an official kick-off.

This will happen through an opening workshop, 1.5

days, between 6 and 8 June 2012, Hannover,

Germany. In preparation, the terms of reference

will be further developed. In addition, the inventory

of data sets based on One-Geology will be carried

further. A tight link with the soil mapping community

(European Soil Bureau Network) will be sought.

1.1 Rationale

With the decision to continue the work on soils

through a task force, EGS attempts to re-focus its

geoscientific capacity on soils, with less emphasis on

the political process of soil protection, and increased

emphasis on the structure and physical condition of

the top layer of the largely unconsolidated earth

surface. This task force seeks to describe the

lithological nature of this compartment: it is an

important information source for all surface-close

processes which affect the storage, filter, release and

transport of material down the soil and regolith profile.

In reality, soil and geology data bases are not

connected, and very often, there is a gap for which

information is completely lacking. Further details are

contained in the draft Terms of Reference (ToF).

Besides the work on a parent material data base

for Europe, this task force will also follow-up soil

research and soil use policy in Europe. This is

necessary in order to develop its aims and mission

in close connection with the stakeholders and users

of the task force’s results (see also Ch. 4 The

European Dimension).


Mission (see also Terms of Reference)

• to explore, compile and integrate existing

experiences and datasets on the distribution,

properties and weathering behaviour of exposed

rocks and superficial deposits.

• to semantically and spatially harmonise existing

parent material information as far as possible,

and integrate it towards a European-wide new

geological data layer: a soil parent material map

for Europe .

• to design and develop a database which

comprises the major mechanical and hydraulical

characteristics of the weathered geological

materials, for example in the field of landscape

evolution modelling.

vision

• to act as a connecting link between soil and

geology mappers.

• to make geology knowledge and data available to

the soil domain

• to attempt to filling an important data gap for the

below-ground modelling of the unsaturated zone

3. Scope and focus

The primary focus of this task force is to develop a

data base for superficial deposits in Europe.


Information and data about the surface-close

parent material (for soil development) is important

for many status and trend assessments of the

terrestrial environment. For example, depending

on the soil threat, various surface-lithology-

dependent soil parameters are mentioned in Annex

I of the draft soil directive (COM(2006) 232): soil

texture, clay content, soil density, hydraulic

properties. The delineation of priority areas for soil

protection, and the monitoring of the condition of



degraded and sensitive soils require such data in

an improved resolution. This information must be

made available as accurately as possible.

Other links between the Superficial Deposits’ Task

Force and European policy are quite in parallel to

the Geochemistry expert group (common agricultural

policy, renewable energies directive, nitrate directive,

cohesion policy). Issues reach as far as the

rehabilitation of industrial sites including mine

deposits and outwash. In particular, close cooperation

will be developed with European soil data centres,

in particular the European Topic Centre on Water

(ETC/W) and the European Soil Data Centre. Inside

EGS, there is a great opportunity and need for

cooperation through the EGDI-Scope proposal.

5. activity report

activities 2011

5.1.1 EMODNET-Geology

2011 was devoted to the formal EGS initiation

process.

Development of a concept note on soil research

needs from the perspective of geologists

(context: EU Horizon 2020 Programme) > Dez. 2011

This request is still pending.

Planning and activities 2012

Development of Terms of Reference > draft:

Jan. 2012 - update Febr. 2012

Kick-off workshop > 1.5 days, between 6 and 8 June

2012, Hannover, Germany

Cooperation with Geochemistry EG (evalutations

GEMAS) > ongoing



EGS 2011 Statistics

In this section you will find some interesting

statistical information on EuroGeoSurveys’

member organisations, such as staff numbers and

budget data, showing past trends as well as

specific details from 2011.

Staffing

EuroGeoSurveys represented a combined total of

over 15,000 staff in 2011. Chart 1 shows the

fluctuations of staff numbers within our members

over the past 10 years.

Chart 1 Total combined staff of all EGS Member organisations over the last 10 years. Data is not always available at the time of collection so the figures may be slightly higher than indicated.

In the early stages of the 2000s, our membership

consisted of a steady number of staff at around

9000 people. The large increase in numbers between

2005 and 2006 can be attributed to the incorporation

of Ukraine’s State Geological Survey and the National

Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Department of

Geosciences) as members. Since then there has

been a steady decline, most likely due to the

economic downturn in Europe, which continues

despite a small recovery of numbers in 2010.

For 2011, the total staff numbers of each member

survey can be seen in Chart 2. The number of

scientific staff within each survey is also shown.


Chart 2 Total staff for each EGS Member (in red), showing the proportion of permanent graduate researchers, scientists and engineers (in blue).

* Ukraine total staff = 7000 (4000 of which are graduate researchers, scientists and engineers)

** Bulgaria data unavailable at time of print


Budgets / funding

In 2011, the combined budgets of EGS Members

totalled over €800 million. As seen in Chart 3, a peak

of over €1 billion was reached in 2009 but there

followed a significant decrease to below 2006 levels

that could most likely be attributed to recent public

spending cuts throughout Europe.

Chart 3 Total combined budgets of all EGS Member organisations over the last 10 years. Data is not always available at the time of collection so the figures may be slightly higher than indicated.

The national geological surveys throughout Europe

receive funding from a number of different sources,

for example from government funding or EU research

funding. A breakdown of funding sources for each

EGS Member in 2011 can be seen in Chart 4. On one

end of the scale, Cyprus and Malta rely wholly on

governmental funding for their operations whereas

Albania, Estonia and Iceland are more dependent on

private business as a source of income.


Chart 4 Breakdown of funding sources for each EGS Member. Bulgaria and Ireland's data was not available.


Geological activities

Geological expertise can be called upon to address

a broad range of topics, from the more common

geological issues like geohazards to less obvious

areas such as how to deal with radioactive waste or

even tourism. Chart 5 shows the variety of activities

that EGS members are involved in.

Survey Governance

The national geological surveys that make up EGS

are all public bodies that are under the supervision

of various government ministries. The majority

of geological surveys are under the jurisdiction of

either the Ministry of Environment or the Ministry of

Research, Science & Technology, as seen in Chart 6.


Chart 5 Number of EGS members involved in various geological activities in 2011. Bulgaria and Germany's data was not available.

Chart 6 Distribution of EGS members under the supervision of various government ministries.


Integrating expertise

Introduction

PanGeo is a service proposed in response to

FP7 GMES Downstream Call 3 (released July

2009). The objective of PanGeo is to enable free

and open access to geohazard information in

support of GMES. This is being achieved by the

production of a Geohazard Data Layer supported

by a Geohazard Description for 52 of the largest

towns listed in the GMES Land Theme’s Urban

Atlas, and involves all 27 countries of the EU.

Upon user enquiry, a PanGeo web-portal will

automatically integrate the geohazard data with

the Urban Atlas to highlight the polygons

influenced. The datasets will be made discoverable,

accessible and useable via a distributed web-map

system as built and demonstrated by OneGeology

Europe [www.onegeology-europe.eu].

PanGeo is aiming to take a step in developing the

‘missing geological link’ for GMES by initiating a

pan-European geological service which will derive

and standardise geohazard information across an

initial subset of the Urban Atlas towns across

Europe.

The PanGeo service is aimed at six key users groups:

• Local Authority planners and regulators who are

concerned with managing development risk

• Civil Protection Agencies who use ‘preparedness’

information

• National geological surveys and geoscience

institutes who are obliged to collect geohazard

data for public benefit

• Policy-makers concerned with assessing and

comparing European geological risk, much as the

Urban Atlas data is used to compare the

landcover/use status of European towns

• Commercial business able to further exploit

PanGeo products, e.g. property conveyancing,

environmental reporting

• The public: Empowers citizens with information

about the geohazards in their area.

Products will be made by integrating: a) interpreted

InSAR terrain-motion data (derived from new

processing and existing products made in the ESA

GMES project Terrafirma), b) geological

information, and c) the landcover and landuse data

contained within the Urban Atlas. The integration

and interpretation, , will be made by the

corresponding national Geological Survey for the

towns concerned. PanGeo information will

represent hazard and exposure components that

contribute towards any future analysis of risk.

PanGeo adds significantvalue to the Urban Atlas

data produced as part of the GMES Land Theme’s

Geoland2 project.

The project is divided into 10 Work packages lead

by European Geological Surveys data providers

and other stakeholders with specific competence in

the various field .

WP 1 Project Management

WP 2 Local Authority Feedback

WP 3 Service Design & Validation

WP 4 Service Access

WP 5 Processing Agreements

WP 6 Component Data Provision

WP 7 Geological Survey Output

WP 8 Identify & Make Accessible Relevant

Datasets

WP 9 Promotion & Dissemination

WP 10 Sustainability Analysis

Description

For each PanGeo town, areas of ground instability

will be indicated by attributed vector polygons held

within the ‘Ground Stability Layer’ product.

The polygon will be supported by a detailed

‘Geohazard Description’ document that provides a

comprehensive interpretation for the geohazard

concerned.

Users of the PanGeo portal will be able to navigate

to the town of interest and upon clicking on a

Ground Stability Polygon the Geohazard Summary

information associated with that polygon will be

presented. The Ground Stability Layer and Urban


Atlas information will be presented in the portal in

such a way that users can make informed decisions

about which land use classes in their towns are

affected by ground stability issues. All data is fully

downloadable for use and further integration within

a user’s own geographic information system.

The Ground Stability Layer will attempt to map all

the areas of a town affected byground instability,

which can be caused by a number of natural and

anthropogenic processes or phenomena, e.g.

compressible ground, shrink-swell clays, ground

dissolution, collapsible ground, landslides, soil

creep, tectonic movements, underground

construction works, fluid extraction or injection, etc.

The areas of mapped ground instability can fall into

two categories:

1. Observed motion includes all types of direct or

indirect observation/measurement of ground

motion, e.g. satellite InSAR-based.

2. Potential motion includes all areas that the

geologists, using the available geological and

auxiliary data, have identified as having the

potential for ground motion.

Observed and potential motion are clearly

distinguished by the Ground Stability Layer attributes.

There is no minimum mapping unit for PanGeo,

however the PanGeo mapping scale aims to be

1:10 000 - the same as the Urban Atlas.

The size of the area for which PanGeo data will be

produced is largely down to the geological survey

responsible. The minimum area covered by the

Ground Stability Layer is defined by the extent of

the PSI data. The maximum possible area covered

by the Ground Stability Layer is defined by the

coverage of the Urban Atlas data for the town in

question. It is possible that the actual area covered

by the Ground Stability layer will fall somewhere

between the extent of the PSI and the Urban Atlas.

If so the interpreter should ensure that the area

covered conforms to a logical administration

boundaries; this will ensure the usefulness of the

product to the local authorities.

The interpretation of each Ground Stability polygon

will be assigned a measure of confidence within the

polygon attributes and Geohazard Summary.

This measure of confidence will be on a simple

four-level scale of Low, Medium, High or External

depending on the number of datasets used in the

interpretation and the confidence that the geologist

feels is appropriate.

1 towns to be processed


Count Country town 1 town 2

1 Austria Salzburg Vienna

2 Belgium Brussels Liege

3 Bulgaria Sofia Varna

4 Cyprus Lefkosia N/A

5 Czech Republic Prague Ostrava

6 Denmark Copenhagen Aalborg

7 Estonia Tallinn Tartu

8 Finland Helsinki Turku

9 France Lyon Toulouse

10 Germany Berlin Hannover

11 Greece Athens Larissa

12 Hungary Budapest Miskolc

13 Ireland Cork Dublin

14 Italy Palermo Rome

15 Latvia Riga Liepaja

16 Lithuania Vilnius Kaunas

17 Luxembourg Luxembourg N/A

18 Malta Valetta Gozo

19 Netherlands Amsterdam Rotterdam

20 Poland Warsaw Nowy Sacz

21 Portugal Lisbon Faro

22 Romania Bucurest Cluj-Napoca

23 Slovakia Kosice Presov

24 Slovenia Ljubljana Maribor

25 Spain Zaragoza Murcia

26 Sweden Stockholm Göteborg

27 UK Stoke London

Table 1: Town included in PanGeo. Two towns in each country except Luxembourg and Cyprus as these two countries each only have one Urban Atlas town (population > 100,000)


Ground Stability Layer attributes are complaint

with the Natural Risk Zones data specification of

INSPIRE. For each PanGeo town a Geohazard

Description document is written by the geological

survey. The Geohazard Description contains the

geological interpretation for each Ground Stability

Layer polygon. Clicking on the polygon in the portal

displays the corresponding section of the

Geohazard Description, thereby providing the user

with the interpretation of why ground instability has

occurred in that area. The Geohazard Description

is downloadable as a standalone document.

Options in the portal allow the Ground Stability

Layer to be automatically integrated with the

Urban Atlas data. Since the Urban Atlas gives

information on land cover types (exposure) and the

Ground Stability Layer provides information on

hazards the user, with the addition of vulnerability

data, could begin to make more informed and

systematic decisions on risk.

The Geohazard Description will include an

introductory section describing the geology of the

PanGeo town. IThe Geohazard Description will be a

multilingual document; typically it will be available

in the local language and English.

The architecture implemented for the PanGeo project

is based on the infrastructure of the OneGeology-

Europe project. Main requirements are to follow

existing standards (OGC web services) and to be

compliant to INSPIRE (view and download

services). Three main requirements are handled:

• Standards: the layers shall be implemented

according to OGC standard. This will allow the

PanGeo layers to be used in any OGC WMS

compliant software, such as several GIS tools,

and portals.

• INSPIRE: The INSPIRE view service is technically

implemented by an OGC WMS 1.3, this

specification requires the layers to be implemented

accordingly. Other INSPIRE rules (common data

model, INSPIRE tags, multilingualism) that are

not yet implemented by standard OGC WMS

software won’t be required this year. Nevertheless,

a solution is proposed for the partners willing to

implement the INSPIRE approach this year.

• OneGeology-Europe: the infrastructure and

Service-Oriented Architecture implemented by

the project OneGeology-Europe (1G-E) shall be

reused. The specification described here is very

similar to the one applied in the 1G-E project.

The datasets will be compiled by the geological

surveys, and hosted locally on their own servers.

This is the basis of a distributed architecture:

the PanGeo project is not compiling a central

database. A Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)

is a network of web services, allowing each partner

to implement and host their own web services

delivering their own data. The PanGeo portal then

consumes those web services.

The PanGeo map viewer always presents:

• The background layer , in this case ’Open Street

Map’

• The Urban Atlas layer

• The Onegeology-Europe (1M:M) geological map,

hidden (a simple click will allow the user to

display it)

• Markers on the map, representing the 52 towns.

Different colours of markers help the user to know

if the dataset is already implemented, or not.

- A click on a marker opens a window that

allows the user to focus on the town and load

the corresponding layer, or to open the

geohazard summary (if it exists as a

standalone document).



The PanGeo portal initially displays the markers for

each city handled by the project, together with the

boundaries of the cities according to Urban Atlas.

It is then possible to zoom in to a city, either by

clicking on the marker, or by using the “go to”

functionality which also lists the available cities.

Then, the detailed Urban Atlas map is displayed,

with the PanGeo polygons (when they are already

implemented).

Main options like “zoom in, zoom out, print, export

to view in Google Earth”, allow the user to view the

map and save it (export, print). A “search” tab

presents some others dataset coming from other

projects: OneGeology-Europe, ProMines, Emodnet.

The portal is available in 18 languages (translations

done for the OneGeology-Europe project).

Global statistics for the PanGeo service will be

provided on the Portal. These statistics will present

information on the types of geohazards across all

52 towns, the proportion of all PanGeo coverage

affected by geohazards.

Nano-particle products from new mineral

resources in Europe - [http://promine.gtk.fi]

Executive summary

• Total budget: € 17.39 million

• EU contribution € 11 million

• Project duration: 2009 - 2013

• Coordinator: Geological Survey of Finland

• Sponsor: European Commission FP7-NMP-2008-

LARGE-2

• Number of persons/Members involved:

28 partners from 11 European countries

161 person-years

In the period between the 30th to 36 months

ProMine entered the mature phase after the go/no

go decisions has been made and significant

achievements are emerging. This six month period

is marked by a concentrating effort to steer the

development towards three major milestones

placed at month 40. The three milestones are:

• Regional 3D presentation of all mineral belts and

integration of 2D and 3D predictivity results in

mineral potential maps and in the ProMine portal;

• Testing of six new products - namely rhenium,

schwertmannite, nanosilica for special concrete,

nanosilica in paper coating, bioleaching of mining

waste and metal recovery from AMD - by

end-users and

• Assessment of the impact of the products and

production methods developed. After evaluation

and eventual go/no go decisions, beyond the three

milestones, emphasis will be on the exploitation

and documentation of the results. The overall

progress of the ProMine project was 72% and

the project is on schedule. Major achievements in

the present six months period are:

• The prediction methods have been discussed

and analyzed in a special international workshop

“ProMine - Mineral Resources Potential Map”

organized by Nancy University in 12-14 March

2012 in Nancy and the first Pan-European

mineral resource potential maps have been

produced. Results are partly uploaded on the

ProMine portal.

• The first comprehensive European

Anthropogenic Database featuring the most

significant mining waste repositories has been

compiled and a tentative assessment of their

strategic element content has been calculated.

• The first 4D modeling of a mining district

(Skellefteå Mining District, Sweden) has been

finalized.

• Design of the pilots has been completed and

construction of the pilots of the six new products



started. One of them, biological extraction of

metals from acid mine waters (AMD) has already

awaken Europe-wide interest.

• A successful one day Mineral Marketplace was

organized in Wroclaw on the 25 April 2012 to

disseminate the ProMine results, and will be

repeated and expanded during the Final ProMine

Conference to be held in 2013.

ProMine continued to be in focus of interest of the

European Commission and the European mining

activities. It has influenced planning of future

project activities related to/and arising from the

Raw Material Initiative.

Description of the project objectives

The key objective of the ThermoMap project is to

provide an adequate, area-covering estimation of

the superficial geothermal potential of the nine

countries which are involved in this project (Austria,

Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary,

Iceland, Romania and United Kingdom) on a large

to medium scale. To achieve this objective

ThermoMap will develop a strategy to combine

already existing data sets in the partner countries

for an area-wide visualisation of shallow geothermic

resources by soil, climatological, topographical,

geological, groundwater and administrative data.

In principle, many research and development

activities in the field of geothermal energy have

been planned respectively implemented on a

national or international level. Particularly with

regard to the current discussion about the share

of renewable energies and the protection of

resources those activities will be enhancing and the

general acceptance of shallow geothermal energy

will be increasing in the next years. Currently,

geothermal investigations rather focus on the

vertical systems and drilling techniques. However,

regarding horizontal systems and technologies

applicable for the upper 10 meters below surface

only very rare information and data are available

within the shallow geothermal energy sector.

ThermoMap is in a position to contribute information

for this specific field of shallow geothermal energy.

The research into the superficial geothermal

potential for this project is divided into two parts:

The first part is the appraisal within 14 Test Areas

within the nine different partner countries for the

estimation on a large scale level subdivided into

three depth layers up to 10 meters.

The second part is the estimation of the superficial

geothermal potential for the whole partner country

illustrated by means of an Outline Map on a medium

scale level (1 : 250,000).

In general, the project is divided into three phases:

Firstly the data collection and data harmonisation,

secondly the set up of the model including

processing, analysis and visualisation of the geodata,

and finally the validation of the results (testing).



Workflow since project start

The ThermoMap project consists of three basic

phases shown in Figure 1.

Based on the already established Catalogue for

data requirements, arithmetic instructions and

derivation rules (D3.1) the Standardisation

Instruction Manual (D3.2) was developed.

The aim of D3.2 was to clearly reflect the standard

the collected data is to be harmonised on.

Furthermore, it was intended to give support in the

way of standardisation of the country specific data

sets for the calculation of the superficial geothermal

potential on a large to medium scale to all the data

providing partners. Therefore, rules and definitions

for the standardisation process have been

developed.

The first part describes the standardisation

procedure for the data sets and the way of

calculating the superficial geothermal potential for

the first 10 meters within the Test Areas on a

medium scale level for three depth layers. Each

data providing partner allocated at least one test

site for its country. In the second part of the manual

the way of standardisation of the data sets for the

whole data providing countries is described. The

method of calculating the superficial geothermal

potential is shown in detail on a large scale level.

Besides of the data sets’ standardisation the

manual presents the consolidation of the different

parameters and describes their functions for the

calculation of the superficial geothermal potential.

These types of calculation are depicted in specific

‘cooking recipes’ for the scope of the Test Area as

well as for the Outline Map. The reason for this


Figure 1: Graphical depiction of the three phases of the ThermoMap-project system chain

Data collection and harmonisation

• Setting up requirements for the data structure

• Acquisition and harmonisation of the data (sets)

• Definining parameterss for data processing

testing the results

• Transfer to the Test Areas (reality check)

• Validation using existing geothermal projects

• Surveys of potential user groups

Data processing, analysis and visualisation

• Conversion of the geodata

• Georeferencing

• Analysis of the geodata (sets)

• Presentation and visualisation

Pha

se I

Pha

se I

I

Pha

se I

II

feedback regarding the

requirements for data (structure)

feedback from users (surveys)


division is the fact that in regard to most of the

required parameters the data quality and quantity

is not yet adequate enough to estimate the

geothermal potential comprehensively for all

partner countries and all depth layers.

For the time being, the test sites are to be

considered as country-specific ‘data hotspots’

which can be extended and will grow in line with

the universal data harmonisations respectively

data generating. In the long term full area-covering

data availability would be appreciated on a large

scale level in the ideal case. On the contrary, the

Outline Map can be considered as a ‘cheese cover’

which covers the partner countries on a medium

scale level and allows approximating the superficial

geothermal potential roughly. A corresponding

development progress is shown in Figure 2.

To evaluate the demands of practical users

regarding the projected WebGIS User Interface an

online questio nnaire was developed (D3.3) and

sent to previously well-defined target groups and

its members via Internet-link. The evaluation of this

survey has been realised until end of 2011.

As a conclusion it can be stated that the

developing, releasing and evaluating of the

questionnaire led to the following main findings

which are integrated into the further R&D activities

of ThermoMap:

• A high level of acceptance for renewable and

sustainable energy forms:

Figure 3: Graphical evaluation of subitem / question 2.1 of the online questionnaire

• A high level of approval and also demand for a

specially developed estimation system for

superficial geothermal energy potentials in Europe:



Figure 2: System interrelation between Test Areas and the Outline Map

Data inputfrom national and international projects

Europe-wide Outline Map 1: 250,000

Individual Test Areas within the different partners countries 'scale is not predefined)




• At the same time a very low level of information

and access to related data


As a conclusion it can be stated that there is great

interest in the free and user-friendly ThermoMap

Internet application for estimating the very shallow

(≤ 10m) geothermal potential, based on the

received feedback from the target group members.

Furthermore, a Member Country data catalogue

(D3.4) was created at the end of the year 2011,

based on the standardisation (D3.2) of the required

data/-sets (D3.1). The harmonised country data

catalogues are a concluding document listing and

describing all required parameters, needed for the

estimation of the superficial geothermal potential

within the Test Areas and for the Outline Map

(1 : 250,000), and also the corresponding data

(sets), that are necessary for the GIS-

implementation within Work Package 4.

Within the second process component ‘Processing,

Analysis & Visualisation’ a Help Desk Forum (D4.1)

has been installed to support the data providing

partners in conversing the geodata required

in D3.1.

For the analysis of the geodata a detailed Training

Manual, as the key instrument for the

implementation of the WP3-specifications into

practice, has been developed by the WP4-leader

PLUS. This training manual will guide the data

providing partners in the coordinated analysis of

the geodata within their Test Areas as well as for

the Outline Map’s scope.

Results

During the set-up of the catalogue for the test

areas several parameters have been proven

themselves to be essential for the calculation of the

Heat Conductivity and the Heat Capacity.

Those parameters namely are the grain size

(texture class), the bulk density, the water content

and the temperature (air respectively soil

temperature).

For classifying the texture, the grain size triangle

according to the USDA-system is used (see Fig. 8).

Further data sources with regard to important soil

properties are for instance the WRB-classification

system (soil type), the ESDAC (meta)data set (soil

type and texture for the scope of the Outline Map)

and the Ad-hoc AG Boden (German soil survey

manual). In the end, the exemplary calculation of

Heat Conductivity and Capacity values as a

function of the evaluated parameters leads

to an overall table of all possible values

of the superficial geothermal potential.

These have to be processed and

illustrated within the specially

developed GI-system (WP4).


Figure 8: Grain size respectively texture triangle according to the USDA soil classification system the ThermoMap estimation is principally based on. The colouration reflects the main grain size groups sand (yellow coloured classes), loam (red coloured classes), silt (green coloured classes) and clay (blue coloured classes).


The analysis of the geodata will be performed in

a GIS environment (second phase of the project

-visualisation) and is facilitated by standardised

methods. The resulting geothermal potential will be

mapped on a local scale in test sites (third phase

of the project - testing) and on a medium scale for

all partner countries and it will be integrated in a

Web Service. With special regard to the general

discussion about the provision of renewable and

sustainable energies and the turning away from

conventional energy resources, the ThermoMap

project can deliver new impulses for a

decentralised, sustainable and low environmental

impacting energy supply of the future.

At the end, ThermoMap will provide different

user-groups with an interactive information tool

running in a web browser. Private users may check

the potential of their local environment, community

planning and administration authorities may test

the geothermal potential of their entire administrative

unit. Researchers participating in ThermoMap will

have access to the entire geodata pool, which

will be set up in Web Map Service (WMS),

Web Coverage Service (WCS) and Web Feature

Service (WFS).

The ThermoMap project addresses private users

who for example want to build or renovate a

house; it addresses community planning and

administration authorities, who want to display

new housing areas and want to inform about the

geothermal potential at the same time.


Name of the event / conference

Number of participant

Place Presenter kind/title of presentation Date

European Geosciences Union - General Assembly

10,725 (whole meeting)

Vienna / Austria David Bertermann (FAU) ThermoMap 04/04/2011

RHC-Platform Conference 50 Budapest / Hungary Javier Urchueguia (as represen-tative of EGEC)

Presentation of the Strategic Research Agenda, Geothermal Panel

05/05/ 2011

Vlaamse Confederatie Bouw - Vereniging Geothermie

- Brussels / Belgium Michiel Dusar (RBINS-GSB)

De Belgische Geologische Dienst en de ontwikkeling van geothermie in België

16/05/2011

Sustainability Live 2011 150 Birmingham / UK J. P. Busby (BSG - NERC) Ground source heat pumps- where does the energy come from?

26/05/2011

Ground Source Live (Geodrilling)

40 Peter-borough / UK Philippe Dumas (EGEC) Increasing deployment of ground source heat pumps in Europe

07/06/2011

Efficiency and Sustainability of superficial geothermal energy in Bavaria

21 Nuremberg / Germany David Bertermann (FAU) ThermoMap 20/07/2011

4th Warmtepomp symposium 120 Sint-Katelijne-Waver / Belgium

RBINS-GSB De ontwikkeling van geothermie in België

14/09/2011

Researchers’ Night in AFI Cotroceni-Complex

1,500 Bucharest/ Romania IGR Poster Presentation ThermoMap Project

23/09/2011

Research Show Room event at the ROMEXPO exhibition complex

3,000 Bucharest/ Romania IGR Dissemination Event 05-08/10/2011

’Long Night of the Sciences’ event

1,500 Erlangen/ Germany David Bertermann, Christian Bialas (both FAU), Andreas Zacherl (GBI), Mario Psyk (REHAU)

Dissemination Event including instructional films, stand-up displays, several technical models and specially made leaflets

22/10/2011

Geothermal Energy Congress of GtV Bundesverband Geothermie

50 Bochum/ Germany Mario Psyk (REHAU) Oral Presentation of the ThermoMap Project

16/11/2011

Meeting of the ‘AG Energieversorgung’ (Project Group Energy Supply) of the city of Erlangen, Germany

20 Erlangen/ Germany David Bertermann (FAU) Oral Presentation of the ThermoMap Project with focus on the German Test Area 1

30/11/2011

list of conferences


GEO-SEaS

Geo-Seas is an EU funded Framework 7 project

which has developed an e-infrastructure for the

delivery of marine geoscience data. This has been

achieved through the adoption and adaption of

existing tools and services developed by other

related EU projects within the marine domain.

The project has implemented a dedicated data

discovery and access service which currently

provides access to more than 77000 standardised

marine geological and geophysical data sets from

26 data centres in 17 European countries. The

Geo-Seas ‘portal’ [www.geo-seas.eu] allows users

to search for data using keyword or geographical

searches and to also view a number of data types

using a suite of visualisation tools that have been

provided as part of the functionality of the data

discovery and access service. These visualisation

tools include high-resolution seismic viewing

services, a lithological log viewing tool and

a 3D DTM viewer.

Geo-Seas is a three year project which started in

May 2009 and will end with a final conference to

showcase the results of the project to users on the

9 and 10 October 2012 at the University College

Cork, Ireland.

achievements of the South East Europe project 2009-2011

Summary

The Sustainable Aggregates Resource

Management (SARMa) project, implemented

between May 2009 and December 2011,

developed a common approach to the Sustainable

Aggregates Resource Management (SARM) and

the Sustainable Supply Mix (SSM) in 10 countries

in South East Europe. This is important since the

construction industry is heavily dependent on

supply of aggregates. This objective was promoted

by issuing three manuals for different target

groups. Manuals were printed in 9.500 copies in

11 languages of South East Europe region and in

English. The local authorities, industry and

communities were addressed in the first manual

tackling environmentally friendly quarrying, illegal

extraction and recycling. SARM and SSM for the

authorities at the regional, national and

transnational level were promoted in the second

manual, while the third one is Construction and

Demolition Waste Management Manual.

The project impact was detected in 12 improved

national, regional and local policies regulating

aggregates management and supply and in the

updated EC raw materials policy documents within

the Raw Materials Initiative, waste management

legislation.

Introduction

The project Sustainable Aggregates Resource

Management - SARMa was co-financed by the

South East Europe Transnational Cooperation

Programme. Lead partner was Geological Survey

of Slovenia, while Alianta d.o.o. project consulting

company was the external support for technical,

administrative and financial project management.

The project contributed with transnational

bottom-up approach to developing a common

approach to Sustainable Aggregates Resource

Management (SARM) and ensuring a Sustainable

Supply Mix (SSM) in 10 participating countries of

the South East Europe (SEE) region.

In the times of crisis of the construction industry,

it is crucial to promote the sustainable approach to

the management and supply of aggregates needed

for construction works. These objectives were

promoted by establishing cooperation between

Geological Surveys in participating countries with

various target groups at the local level (including

industry, policy level, and local communities),

regional and national policy level, and transnational

bodies related to the topic. Geological Surveys and

other expert organisations from 10 SEE countries

(Slovenia, Austria, Greece, Hungary, Italy,

Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia and

Albania) were involved in the project.


St Polten SARMa meeting in June 211


The messages of sustainable aggregates management

and supply were promoted by issuing three manuals

for different target groups. At the local level,

the main findings for local authorities, industry

representatives and communities are presented in

the manual “How to achieve aggregates resource

efficiency in local communities”, emphasizing

environmentally friendly quarrying, illegal extraction

and recycling. At the regional, national and transnational

level, the recommendations are presented in the

Manual on SARM and SSM aimed mostly at

decision-making authorities. On the way to a more

sustainable society, a Construction and Demolition

Waste Management Manual was created illustrating

activities related to the inert waste recycling.

The Geological Surveys and universities held the

crucial role in sharing the developed recommendations

in the SEE area. The messages were directly

promoted to 1.300 representatives of public

authorities and 2.100 representatives of the industry,

at the 19 different capacity building events with

over 1.100 participants and with other activities.

With articles over 900.000 people were reached.

The transnational approach of cooperation between

project partners successfully resulted in increased

awareness, knowledge and capacity of at least

180 employees of the involved partner organisations.

The sustainability of the project outcomes is

assured since the partner organisations incorporated

the methods and recommendations in the business

activities at the level of public authorities directly or

at the level of expert support to these authorities.

Project’s achievements

The project impact is noticeable at the level of

national, regional and local public authorities where

different policies regulating aggregates

management and supply from the economic or

environmental perspectives are being developed

or improved. There are proposals for follow-up

projects further increasing capacity of the public

authorities and enhancing the involvement of

stakeholders in these processes. The project

contributed to the improvement of the EC Raw

Materials Initiative, waste management legislation.

The two main project objectives were successfully

accomplished, the bottom-up transnational

approach of 10 SEE countries/regions contributed

to develop a common approach to Sustainable

Aggregates Resource Management (SARM) in

SEE and to ensure a Sustainable Supply Mix (SSM)

in SEE. The existing approaches of partners were

compared and harmonised approaches to SARM

and SSM were developed, leading to a common

understanding of aggregates based on EU

directives and guidelines, and in parallel the

knowledge and capacity of partners and target

groups was increased. The developed approaches

are applicable to other SEE countries and regions

as well as at the EU level.

The project contributed to the SEE Programme

overall objectives by integrating environmental,

social and economic aspects of sustainability with

respect to aggregates management and supply,

capacity building, and fostering transnational

territorial cooperation among local, regional,

national and transnational authorities. Specifically,

the project contributed to increasing the resource

efficiency by promoting a harmonised approach;

by impacting the pronounced public authorities

regulating aggregates management, and also by

increasing the capacity and knowledge of

stakeholders for more environmentally friendly

quarrying, more social dialogue, more recycling etc.

Success factors based in upgrading the expertise

and sharing experience of partners and their active

role, support from the EU level, the SEE

programme bodies and active lead partner

Geological Survey of Slovenia. Partners confirmed

that extensive transfer of knowledge, experience

and good practice was established between all

participating partners and other organisations

actively involved in the project implementation.

Additionally, significant increase of knowledge was

noticed within the partner organisations since at

least 180 individuals gained from the knowledge

and methodologies developed in the project.

Impact on the target groups

The main target groups benefitting from the project are:

• Expert level (surveys, institutes, universities):

high impact by upgrading the existing methods of

work by participating directly in the project or by

accessing the manuals, other project materials

and participating at the workshops


Reclaimed gravel pit in Croatia 2011

SARMa visit to gravel pit Lendava (Slovenia) 2011


• Local, regional and national public

authorities - civil servants, planners and

practitioners involved in aggregates

management: the impact was very high by

presenting them tailored methodologies and

recommendations in the manuals and increasing

knowledge by participating at the workshops

• Private sector: moderate impact by providing

them recommendations in the manuals,

providing them LCA methodology and scheme,

involving them in national workshops; impact

was smaller at the SMEs since they are lacking

capacity to participate at workshops and

incorporating upgraded knowledge

• Civil society and general public: moderate

impact with workshops and other promotional

activities (website, SSM quiz, articles, memory

game).

In partner organisations the upgraded knowledge

was incorporated in their regular operations, being

at the level of public authorities where the findings

are influencing the development or improvement of

current policies and regulations; or at the level of

expert institutions, resulting in increased

knowledge of several employees.

Territorially, the most significant impact was achieved

at the regional and national level with the mentioned

impact on regional and national policies. Some

impact was also achieved at the local level (e.g. in

Italy Parma Province, in Greece Pella prefecture).

The impact was significant at the transnational

level, harmonising the approach in SEE countries,

there was high interest for project results in other

EU countries, and the results were promoted at

the EU level (e.g. during Hungarian and Polish

presidency), through networks of partners

(especially LP) and the Advisory Board (industry -

UEPG association). The interest was also showed

outside EU (USA, Australia).

The project was building on the results of some

projects that were run in parallel in partner

organisations (territorial cooperation, FP7).

Emphasis was put on presenting the achievements

at the EU level in the shaping of the minerals policy

(Raw Materials Initiative), waste management

legislation. The project was evaluated by three

external experts from UK, Germany and Ireland -

representative of UEPG, assuring the transferability

of results and taking the broader European

perspective in account. There was significant

interest for the project also in other EU countries

where representatives of partners were presenting

the outcomes.

Implications

The SARMa Project has implications for raw

materials supply within SEE and beyond. The EU

realizes the importance of sustainable supply of

raw materials and has launched several

Communications (last February 2011) under the

Raw Materials Initiative (RMI). SARMa directly

adds to the second pillar of RMI (supply from EU

sources - national minerals policies, minerals

planning policies, knowledge base). SARMa also

will facilitate the achievement of the Waste

Directive recycling goal for Construction and

Demolition Wastes. The project is also important

because there is an increasing need to discuss

and implement sustainable policies for both the

management and extraction of aggregates and

other mineral resources, as well as the regulatory

framework guiding the exploitation of mineral

wealth.

The project had a significant impact on territorial

cohesion of 10 SEE countries in the tackled field by

harmonising their approach to aggregates

management and related policies, and to

transferring efficiently the related EU guidelines to

the national or regional level. These policies are

also contributing to the environmental dimension

by promoting the environmentally friendly

quarrying, promoting recycling and preventing

illegal quarrying. These activities are contributing

to the social dialogue with affected stakeholders.

Economic activities of private sector operators

(large and small ones) are influenced by promoting

the positive sides of more socially and

environmentally acceptable quarrying activities,

leading to positive impacts for the society.


Regional SARMa workshop 2011 in Eddessa, Greece


african-European Georesources Observation System

www.aegos-project.org

Context and objectives

The sustainable use of resources of geological

origin such as minerals and non-energy raw

materials, groundwater and geothermal energy

requires knowledge based on data, information

and expertise. In Africa, it is a key issue for

development of the African countries. In the near

future, it is likely to play an ever increasing role

due to the world’s growing population and the

rising demand for natural resources, raw materials,

better infrastructures and services in Africa.

Collectively, the European geological survey

organisations have a unique archive of public

Africa-related geoscientific data sets that need to

be shared with their African partners. Over the last

decades, a large amount of geoscientific data and

information has been acquired by African surveys

and authorities, in some cases with the

collaboration of European counterparts. Identifying

and providing access to geology-related data and

knowledge underpins sustainable public policy-

making across the various levels of governance.

Objectives

AEGOS aims at designing and setting up a

pan-African Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) of

public, interoperable geological and geology-

related data as well as user-oriented products and

services to foster and strengthen the sustainable

use of georesources in Africa. The human resources

being a key component of AEGOS infrastructure,

common strategies are elaborated for capacity

building and training programmes. This continental

observation system will provide support to a wide

range of end users: policy-makers at all geographic

levels, development agencies, private sector

actors, geoscientific communities and civil society.

AEGOS will be a one-stop information point to

locate geoscientific data and knowledge.

A web-enabled multilingual portal will facilitate a

controlled access to a network of databases

distributed over both continents. AEGOS was a

sub-task of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO)

Work Plan 2009-2011. Being the contribution of

geoscience to the Global Earth Observation

System of Systems (GEOSS), it complies as much

as possible with the GEOSS data sharing principles

through the AEGOS Charter of Partnership. More

than metadata and maps, this pan-African SDI will

propose a facilitated access to added-value

georesources data sets through interoperable

services and user-oriented products.

Project outcomes

AEGOS has been planned in three phases: design,

implementation and self-sustainable operations.

As a preparatory stage for building a continent-

wide distributed information system on Africa’s

georesources, the final results of this project

(AEGOS design) are both technical and organisational

terms of reference with a view to actually

implementing and operating a permanent

infrastructure in the subsequent phases:

• assessment of the existing situation, gap analysis

and requirement identification about technical

infrastructure, information systems, human

resources and skills;

• choice of standards and methodologies to specify

the AEGOS metadata profile, the AEGOS SDI

modelling and common data models; proposal

for a system architecture, technical element

functional design and a strategy with operational

procedures to develop and implement the SDI

hardware and software components;

• definition of user-oriented products and services

based on innovation, transdisciplinarity and

transborder data processing/modelling to

produce predictability and governance maps;

demonstration of feasibility through two test beds

on Senegal and Ghana data sets;



• identification of the necessary steps and

elements for turning the AEGOS SDI into an

AEGOS Research Infrastructure, hence offering

not only access to georesources but added-value

services; identification of the conditions for

alignment with the GEOSS Common Infrastructure

as a pre-requirement to further establish AEGOS

as a fully interoperable and interdisciplinary

GEOSS node;

• design of an organisational framework for the

performance of training courses; specification of

a comprehensive training curriculum based on a

multi-stage scheme (basic, foundation and

expert) including modules (15) with specific topics

(24), goals and content;

• recognition of georesources in GEOSS and

inclusion of minerals in a new GEO Task EN-01

“Energy and Geo-Resources Management”,

adopted by GEO’s Member States and

Participating Organisations at the GEO-VII

Plenary (Work Plan 2012-2015); and

• preparation of a charter of partnership presenting

the organisational framework, general conditions

and the necessary commitments of the participants

(data providers, end users) as part of the future

AEGOS partnership network involved in a

self-sustainable AEGOS organisation.

The AEGOS Project is recognised in the European

Commission’s Communication COM(2011)-25 as

bringing “the EU’s and Africa’s geo-surveys

together to improve the level and quality of

resource data available for Africa”. AEGOS Project

is in line with the Africa-EU partnership on raw

materials, as part of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy

(JAES) Action Plan, under which the cooperation is

organised around three broad areas, including

“Geological Knowledge and Skills”. In order to

translate the visions into actions, the African,

Caribbean and Pacific Group of States recently

published the “Framework of Action for the

development of mineral resources sector in the

ACP countries” (September 2011), and the African

Union published the “Action Plan for implementing

the African Mining Vision 2050” (December 2011).

Both action plans formally state that AEGOS SDI

should be operationalised in the short term in order

to establish improved geological and mineral

information systems which underpin investment in

exploration and mine development.

Project details

AEGOS was co-funded as a Support Action of the

7th European Union’s Research and Technology

Development Framework Programme (FP7).

Coordinated by BRGM (French Geological Survey),

it involved 23 European and African partners over

36 months from December 2008 to November

2011. The AEGOS consortium included national

and regional institutions, i.e. geological surveys

(seven African and nine European), two African

regional organisations (UEMOA and SEAMIC), two

African universities, and the Institute on

Environment and Sustainability (IES) at the

European Union Joint Research Centre. Additionally,

six other organisations contributed to the project

as subcontractors: geological surveys (two African

and two European), a British university and

EUMETSAT.

The project governance structure involved the

contribution of an advisory board. This consulting

body was composed of external invited experts

representing international organisations which

have actual and possible links with the African SDIs

and will benefit from the AEGOS infrastructure:

ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of

States); AUC (African Union Commission -

Department of Science and Technology);

EuroGeoSurveys (Association of the Geological

Surveys of Europe); GEO (Group on Earth

Observations); GSAf (Geological Society of Africa);

ICSU/ROA (International Council for Science/

Regional Office for Africa); OAGS (Organisation of

African Geological Surveys); UNESCO - IHP

(International Hydrological Programme); UNECA

(United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

- ICT, Science and Technology Division).

The total project budget was €2.42 million, with

1.93 million being provided by the 7th RTD

Framework Programme.

Significant conferences attended

• Johannesburg, 12-15 January 2011: 23rd

Colloquium of African Geology (CAG23)



• Cape Town, 7-10 February, Indaba Mining 2011

• London, 8-9 February, 5th GEO European

Projects workshop (GEPW-5)

• Brussels, 29 March 2011: EuroGeosurveys

Directors’ Workshop

• Dakar, 20 April 2011: Post-PASMI Regional

Workshop: Geology and mineral resources of

Senegal

• Addis Ababa, 2-5 May 2011: CODIST-II Second

Committee on Development Information Science

and Technology - Innovation for industrial

development (UN Economic Commission for

Africa)

• Geneva, 4-6 May 2011: GEO 2012-2015 Work

Plan Symposium “Capacity Building” and

“Science and Technology” committee sessions

• Bonn, 9-11 May: 1st GEO/EGIDA Workshop

“Connecting GEOSS and its stakeholders in

Science and Technology”

• Brussels, 20 May 2011: African, Caribbean and

Pacific Group of States Secretariat: “Framework

of action for the development of mineral

resources sector in ACP countries”

• Windhoek, 30 May-1 June 2011: 26th annual

conference of the Geoscience Information

Consortium (GIC26)

• Paris, 3-8 July 2011: 25th International

Cartographic Conference (ICC 25)

• Windhoek, 29 August 2011: Organisation of

African Geological Surveys Annual Meeting

• Tunis, 3-4 November 2011: World Bank

workshop “Leveraging natural resources wealth

for diversified development”

• Istanbul, 16-18 November 2011: Group on Earth

Observation, GEO-VIII Plenary Session and

Exhibition, with EuroGeoSurveys and European

Commission DG for Research and Innovation

• Addis Ababa, 12-16 December 2011: 2nd African

Union Conference of Ministers Responsible for

Mineral Resources Development

1. Introduction

Population growth and increasing land use intensity

lead to growing demands and exploitation of

natural resources. Soils are among the most

important and most endangered natural resource

entities. In order to plan and implement sustainable

soil management practices and to facilitate the

rational exploitation of the resource, more detailed

information on the occurrence of soils, its particular

characteristics, potential risks, and hazards is

needed. Soil conservation and its sustainable use

are implemented through political initiatives such

as the Common Agricultural Policy, Nitrate

Directive, Soil Thematic Strategy, and other

programmes. The draft Soil Directive for instance

also addresses consistent soil information at a

target scale of 1:250.000 for reporting

requirements across Europe.

Within the INSPIRE directive (INfrastructure for

SPatial InfoRmation in Europe), soils are explicitly

addressed as an individual theme and besides that,

soil-related environmental, agricultural and forestry

aspects are also denoted. Activities taking place in

INSPIRE are very often accompanied by research

and development. In the case of INSPIRE and soil,

the GS Soil project has been implemented under



the DG Information Society & Media eContentplus

programme. It aims at establishing a European

network to improve the access to spatial soil data

using principles, standards and definitions not

having been developed at the starting point of GS

Soil. The project considers aspects of data

organisation, data harmonisation as well as

semantic and technical interoperability in order to

produce seamless geospatial information on soil

based on a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI).

In order to cope with these needs for soil

information, an increasing amount of data about

soils must be made accessible and shared across

disciplines, such as climate, land use and

environmental observation. The exchanged data

must be interoperable so that data users can

process and combine soil information with digital

information from neighbouring disciplines.

Guidance on harmonisation is needed so that

information from different sources can be

understood, compared and interpreted across

administrative borders.

It has been recognised that an easy cross-border

access to data is the key to design successful

politics, especially environmental policies and

activities. Today electronic maps are a basic

concept for planning and decision making in all

areas of environmental politics. The availability and

accessibility of environmental information held by

or held for public authorities and business are

getting more and more important. On the one

hand, an increased access and visual

representation of environmental information for the

public is essential for attracting greater awareness

of environmental matters. A free exchange of

views and more effective participation by the public

in environmental decision-making is taking place.

On the other hand, detailed knowledge and

information about the environment are required to

ensure that the environmental policy-making of the

European community considers regional and local

differences while discovering the European picture.

The GS Soil project can be seen as best practice

example providing an overview of the GS Soil

activities and results for the practical

implementation of a European Spatial Data

Infrastructure for soil information. Thus, designed

for the users, "soil" arrived in the INSPIRE reality!

The results of the GS Soil network can be regarded

as a significant step forward in increasing the

accessibility of soil relevant information and

enabling government taking decisions.

2. Main objectives and results

The project GS Soil aimed at establishing a

European network to improve the access to spatial

soil data for public sector bodies, private

companies and citizens. The project considered

aspects of data organization, data harmonisation

as well as semantic and technical interoperability in

order to produce seamless geospatial soil

information and to improve the data access for a

wider community of different user groups. The

structural specification for the description and

harmonisation of spatial soil data within Europe as

well as the operation of a corresponding Spatial

Data Infrastructure (SDI) were main objectives of

the GS Soil consortium. Technical and syntactic

interoperability have been ensured by the use of

open standards such as published by the Open

Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and the INSPIRE

Specifications on Network Services. As a result,

soil data providers offer their data via OGC

compliant Web Feature Services (WFS) or Web

Map Services (WMS), ensuring that the GS portal

and other client systems are capable of accessing

and displaying the distributed data.

A generic application schema for soil data serves

as a backbone for data interoperability. Using a

number of international OGC and other standards

the partners established and operated a network of

services for spatial datasets and metadata. This

network includes distributed services for data

transformation, discovery, view and best practice

for download, and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).

The central result of the project is the GS Soil

portal. European soil data from heterogeneous

sources are bundled here and best practice expertise

is exposed. In order to ensure transnational

usability of the portal and related services, aspects

of multilingualism and data interpretation were

considered thoroughly. In this respect, the

harmonisation of metadata and the definition of

terms and conditions have been addressed with

supporting tools and explanatory documents.



During the lifetime of the project, partners

extensively supported the implementation of the

INSPIRE requirements on basis of available

experience in selected European countries and

regions on different organisational levels. This

ensures that users are now able to discover, view

and download soil data across Europe. Please feel

free to have a look to our technical developments

on [www.gssoil-portal.eu]. We also invite you to

have an in depth review on all the details of the

brochure topics in the specific publicly available

deliverables.

3. Gs soil project facts

The project was co-funded by the European

Community programme eContentplus with 4.1 M €

(total project volume 5.1 M €). It is a programme

from the European Commission DG Information

Society and Media with the objective to make

digital content in Europe more accessible, usable

and exploitable. GS Soil is thereby allocated to the

area of geographic information. It focuses on the

aggregation of existing national datasets into

seamless cross-border datasets, which will serve

for new information services and products, in

particular with a view to reducing barriers related

to one or more of the specific themes mentioned in

annexes I-III of the INSPIRE Directive. The focus of

GS Soil is thereby set on soil and soil related data.

In the eContentplus programme, GS Soil is defined

as a Best Practice Network (BPN) for Geographic

Information.


Figure 3: Project structure of GS Soil

title assessment and strategic development of INSPIRE compliant Geodata-services for European Soil Data

Duration June 2009 - May 2012 (36 month)

Funding The project has received financial resources from the European

eContentplus Programme, EC DG Information Society and Media

Budget total 5.1 Mio €

Partners 34

Countries in the network 18

IT Partners 12

Soil Partners (data providers) 22

Involved persons > 120

Thematic working groups (WG) WG 2 "Content Provision Framework"

WG 3 "Data Management and Metadata"

WG 4 "Harmonisation and Semantic Interoperability"

WG 5 "GS SOIL Portal and integrated network"

WG 6 "Evaluation and Sustainability"

Coordination

Dissemination

Country coverage in the network 18


4. Needs for soil data

The project identified the demanding needs and

analysed that soil and soil related data contain

important information about the spatial distribution

of country's soil types and other soil properties

such as horizon depth, pH value, soil texture,

organic matter content etc. Thus, physical, chemical

and biological soil properties provide information

on soil fertility for agricultural production, for

determination of taxes for landowners or for

environmental studies. The latter are more and

more demanded in a world where overexploitation

of resources play an important role. In this respect,

soil maps are for instance used for decision-making

processes such as the evaluation of priority areas

for agricultural production or spatial planning

purposes. These applications have increased the

demand of soil data tremendously in the past

decades. As a consequence, the web access of soil

information became important due to the

increasing intensity of international data exchange

and transnational data exploitation at European

level requiring the assessment, interpretation and

harmonisation of national data sets following the

INSPIRE principles.

5. Preparing soil data for inspire

The identification of the cross-national need for soil

data and the inventory of existing datasets across

Europe showed that exchanging soil data is a very

big challenge. Soil is a spatially continuous

phenomenon, its description, classification,

and visualisation can take place in many different

ways and has developed quite differently in the

European countries during the last century.

The same applies to all those procedures with

which soil materials, their composition and physical

properties are analysed in the laboratory. For some

properties, several closely related parameters exist

that nonetheless differ in their values and their

meaning. Many quantitative values are given in

classes instead of single values, considering their

high spatial or temporal variability. Class definitions

are often diverse between countries and adapted

to the entire value range found within their

boundaries, or to the aims of the individual soil

investigation.

The identification of a common core structure of

soil data seemed to be a reasonable approach to

achieve a technical interoperability between such

diverse data. This essentially means finding those

objects, which are described to characterise soil in

the different systems. For the parameters, the need

for object (or parameter-related) metadata is obvious,

and a way to handle semi-quantitative values.

The already on-going effort of an ISO working

group of the ISO Technical Committee 190 Soil

Quality to produce a general approach for the

digital exchange of soil-related data was taken up

by the project. GS Soil contributed to the further

development to the present committee draft of ISO

25258 delivered in January 2011. In principle,

it is based on a non-extensible catalogue of objects

and rules of how to define attribute parameters for

these objects. Parameter definitions according to

these rules include, for instance, code lists with

relevant explanations for each code and class

definitions of classified numerical values. With it,

data users get all necessary information for the sound

interpretation and use of the pedological data.

The application schema for soil data, definitions,

and the work on soil theme-specific metadata was

provided to the INSPIRE Thematic Working Group

Soil, which took up several concepts and ideas.

The GS Soil elaborations on metadata directly fed

in the INSPIRE data specifications soil. In addition,

GS Soil tested the INSPIRE data specifications soil

version 2.0 as a "spatial data interest community"

with data from several partners and commented

on the data model and the accompanying text.

6. Gs soil test cases

The study of soils in their landscape context to

develop an understanding of the geography of soil

types and properties in Europe has a long history.

Soil observation, classification and data collection

methods have developed independently in each

soil survey area. Concepts to describe soil profiles

and their relation to the landscape were mainly

developed prior to the onset of the digital era and

are a conceptual data model formulation which is

truly computing-platform-independent.

The harmonisation case studies in GS Soil (“test

cases”) comprised the three broad types shown in

the figure attached



Figure 15: Test case groups

The test cases investigated four ‘pillars’ of

harmonisation:

• Matching local soil profile data to internationally

accepted nomenclature (FAO Guidelines for

Profile Description)

• Translation of local soil classification as

represented by soil profile and map legends to

the World Reference Base (WRB)

• Translation of actual soil profiles linked to map

polygons

• Translation of derived profiles with summary

properties

• Translation of map legends using expert

knowledge

• Reference terminology for describing the content

of soil maps

• Aggregation and dis-aggregation of map legend

and content

A cross-tabulation presents the diversity and

representativity of these pillars in the GS Soil test

cases:


Single country

Adjoining areas of two countries

Complete WRB coverage of adjacent countries


There were some general harmonisation threads

running through most test cases, in particular:

• Testing the compatibility of local soil profile

observation methods with the FAO Guidelines

for ‘Profile Description (FAO, 2006)

• The translation of local soil profiles and/or local

map legends to World Reference Base (WRB).

• In few countries, the comparisons of map

complexity in similar geomorphic areas was

conducted as a basis to compare the resolution

of soil maps. This work was supplemented by

calculating map indexes for two pilot projects of

the European Soil Bureau Network (ESBN), the

German-CZ Sheet Chemnitz, and the Polish-

German-CZ Odre Basin map.

The results clearly demonstrate that data which

are technically interoperable (as required under the

INSPIRE Directive) are not comparable beyond

country borders unless the information content is

harmonized. The GS Soil test cases provide

valuable insights into methods and work load to

implement harmonization.

7. the gs soil portal

The GS Soil portal is a central access point for

end-users to standardised, interoperable and

INSPIRE compliant European soil information and

delivery website for the finale GS Soil project

products.. Via the GS Soil portal, all distributed soil

information and data from websites and from

viewing services to metadata catalogues are

available and accessible at one location. The GS

Soil map viewer visualises spatial soil data as OGC

and INSPIRE compliant mapping services (WMS

and WFS). Iterative cycles adopting the relevant

INSPIRE Implementing Rules (Network Services

and related) and on the basis of the InGrid software

designed for the German Environment Information

Portal (PortalU) has been applied towards the final

GS Soil portal which is available in 13 languages.

The most important features of the GS Soil portal is

the advanced search function to provide access to

metadata, soil related websites and publications,

dissemination of final project products and best

practice examples and the map viewer with direct

access to WMS and WFS.

8. Consortium

Partner Institutions:

1 Coordination Center PortalU at the Lower Saxon

Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate

Protection, Germany

2 Federal Research and Training Center for Forest,

Natural Hazards and Landscape, Austria

3 Environment Agency Austria, Austria

4 Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety,

Austria

5 Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, Centre for

Geoinformatics, Austria

6 Vlaamse Overheid -

Departement Leefmilieu,

Natuur en Energie, Belgium

7 Infologica Ltd., Bulgaria

8 Institute of Soil Science Nikola

Poushkarov, Bulgaria

9 Czech Environmental Information

Agency, Czech Republic

10 Masaryk University, Czech

Republic



11 Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural

Resources, Germany

12 con terra GmbH, Germany

13 Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics

Research, Germany

14 wemove digital solutions GmbH, Germany

15 University of Aarhus, Denmark

16 Spanish National Research Council, Spain

17 MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Finland

18 Alsace Region, France

19 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

20 Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration ,

Greece

21 Hellenic Agricultural Organisation - Demeter,

Greece

22 National Food Chain Safety Office, Hungary

23 Center for Agricultural Research, Hungarian

Academy of Sciences, Hungary

24 Szent Istvan University, Hungary

25 University of Miskolc, Dept. of Physical

Geography and Environmental Sciences,

Hungary

26 Irish Agriculture and Food Development

Authority, Ireland

27 Warsaw University of Technology, Poland

28 EDISOFT s. a, Portugal

29 National Institute for Biological Recourses,

Portugal

30 National Research and Development Institute

for Soil Science Agricultural Chemistry and

Environment, Romania

31 Soil Science and Conservation Research

Institute, Slovakia

32 Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute, United Kingdom

33 Agricultural Institute of Slovenia, Slovenia

34 The James Hutton Institute, United Kingdom

9. Papers

1 ANSORGE, C.; TULIPAN, M.; KLUG, H.; HUBER,

S. (2011): GS Soil: interoperable. EU-Bodendaten

- fit für INSPIRE? In: eGovernment Review,

Issue 7, p. 22-23.

2 FEIDEN, K., BARITZ, R., KLUG, H. (2011): A ‘one

stop shop’ for European soil data. In: International

Innovation Report, Issue May 2011.

3 FEIDEN, K., KIRCHENBAUER, V., KRUSE, F.:

The GS SOIL contribution to INSPIRE. GI_Forum

Proceedings 2011:

[www.gi-forum.org/index.php?option=com_

content&view=article&id=94&Itemid=92]

(2012-05-08)

4 FEIDEN, K., KRUSE, F., REZNIK, T., KUBICEK,

P., SCHENTZ, H., EBERHARDT, E., BARITZ, R.

(2011): Best Practice Network GS SOIL -

Promoting Access to European, Interoperable

and INSPIRE Compliant Soil Information. In: J.

Hřebíček, G. Schimak, and R. Denzer (Eds.):

ISESS 2011, IFIP AICT 359, pp. 226-234, 2011.

5 FEIDEN, K. (2011): The GS SOIL Portal: Making

interoperable, INSPIRE compliant soil data better

accessible. GeoConnexion International: Geodata

for Agriculture, May 2011, Volume 10, Issue 5.

6 KERCHEVA, M.; TEOHAROV, M.; SHISHKOV, T.;

GEORGIEV, B.; ROUSSEVA, SV.; KOLEV, N.;

FILCHEVA, E.; ILIEVA, R.; KRASTEVA, V.;

HRISTOV, B.; DIMITROV, E.; LUBENOVA, I.;

MITREVA, Z. (2011): Challenges for soil data

dissemination in GS soil project In: Atanasov et

al. (eds) Proceedings of International conference

“100 years Bulgarian soil science”, Publ. PSSE,

p. 200-204.

7 KIRCHENBAUER, V., FEIDEN, K., KRUSE, F.:



Das GS SOIL Portal - vom Prototypen zur

endgültigen Portalversion. In: Strobl, J., Blaschke,

T., Griesebner, G. (Hrsg.): Angewandte

Geoinformatik 2011: Wichmann Verlag, Heidelberg,

p. 722-727.

8 SHISHKOV, T. (2011): Implication of the World

Reference Base and Soil Taxonomy within the

framework of Bulgarian Soil classification In:

Atanasov et al. (eds) Proceedings of International

conference “100 years Bulgarian soil science”,

Publ. PSSE, p. 103-106.

9 VALCHEVA, ZH. (2011): Establishing of INSPIRE

compliant spatial data infrastructure for improved

access to European soil data In: Atanasov et al.

(eds) Proceedings of International conference


p. 205-207.

10 ZHIVKOV, D.; GEORGIEV, B., KRASTEVA, V.,

MITREVA, Z. (2011): Guidelines for updating and

use of soil map of Bulgaria In: Atanasov et al.

(eds) Proceedings of International conference


p. 208-215.

Earth Observation for Monitoring and Observing Environmental and Societal Impacts of Mineral Resources Exploration and Exploitation

• EU programme: FP7 - theme 6 environment

- Call 2009

• Funding: 3.1 M€ (overall budget 4.1 M€)

• Project reference: 244242

• Duration: 01/02/2012 - 31/01/2013 (9-month

extension under application)

• Coordinator: Stephane Chevrel, BRGM, member

of EOEG

• Consortium: 14 partners from 8 countries,

4 surveys from EuroGeoSurveys

1. Introduction

In 2007, the European Commission Vice President,

responsible for Industry policy declared that

“European industries need predictability in the flow

of raw materials and stable prices to remain

competitive. We are committed to improve the

conditions of access to raw materials, be within

Europe or by creating a level playing field in accessing

such material from abroad”. During the G8 Summit

on June 2007, a Declaration on “Responsibility for

raw materials, transparency and sustainable

growth” was adopted. The need to address the

sustainable development of the extractive industry

and the reduction of its environmental footprint

was addressed by several national and international

initiatives, both from the private and institutional

sectors. The European Technology Platform on

Sustainable Mineral Resources (ETP-SMR) goal is

to “modernise and reshape one of the fundamental

pillars of the European economy and society”.

Since these, a lot of initiatives arise in Europe and

Raw material now became of highest priority in EU

policy, with the Raw Material Initiative the European

Industrial Partnership on raw materials and the

Resource Efficient Europe flagship initiative.

2. Project objective and structure

The social acceptability of a mining project, from

exploration to closure, is among the major key

issues to be dealt with.

The overall aim of EO-MINERS is to bring into play

EO-based methods and tools to facilitate and

improve interaction between the mineral extractive

industry and the society in view of its sustainable

development while improving its societal acceptability.

EO-MINERS scientific and technical objectives

hence are to: i) assess policy requirements at

macro (public) and micro (mining companies) levels

and define environmental, socio-economic, societal

and sustainable development criteria and indicators



to be possibly dealt using Earth Observation (EO);

ii) use existing EO knowledge and carry out new

developments on demonstration sites to demonstrate

the capabilities of integrated EO-based methods

and tools in monitoring, managing and contributing

reducing the environmental and societal footprints

of the extractive industry during all phases of a

mining project and iii) contribute making available

reliable and objective information about affected

ecosystems, populations and societies, to serve as

a basis for a sound “trialogue” between industrialists,

governmental organisations and stakeholder.

EO-MINERS is designed into five technical work

packages closely related each other and

corresponding to the three scientific and technical

objectives:

• WP1, entitled “Policy Analysis and Indicator

Identification”, aims to identify the information

requirements from policy for the selection of

appropriate Earth Observation techniques and

the formulation of protocols and standards in

subsequent work packages. WP1 will produce an

analysis of policies related to the environmental

and social footprint of mineral industries. Policies

from three stakeholder categories will be under

study: companies, public authorities and civil

society.

• WP3, entitled "EO application and development

over demonstration sites" will contribute to

develop high level EO-based data products

applicable to the different stages of mining

activities within the life cycle of mining operations.

Those products will allow to observe, to monitor

and to quantify social and environmental impacts

caused by mining activities over the selected

demonstration sites and aiming to understand

their “footprint”. As satellite based remote sensing

focuses more on a regional - and sometimes up

to a national - scale, airborne remote sensing

maintains the opportunity to record mineral

extraction sites with high resolution (geometrically

and thematically).

• WP4, entitled "EO Integration, Products and

Systems" and intend to contribute to the

development of generic EO data integration

schemes, EO products and EO-driven environmental

modelling scenarios adapted to various

situations, whose reliability and objectivity cannot

be disputed by all parties involved in any stage of

a mining project. Such products aim to characterise

affected ecosystems, populations and societies

and become an indisputable basis for a sound

“trialogue” between industrialists, governmental

organisations and stakeholders. WP4 also

addresses GEO and GEOSS process and tasks,

by using these outputs to define core elements of

an environmental observing system and

examining how this system fits in GEO and

contributes to building GEOSS.

• Developments carried out in WP3 and WP4 rely

on data that fully comply with protocols and

standards, e.g., data calibration, data validation

and data quality assurance, from upstream

(data acquisition phase) to downstream (the

added-value EO-based product delivery phase)

as well as through the processing chain

(algorithms). WP2, entitled "Protocols and

Standards for EO products will take care of robust

and reliable standards and protocols that guarantee

the repeatability of the methods deployed.

• WP5 is dedicated to "Communication,

dissemination, capacity building and exploitation".

The workpackage concentrates on developing

means for a sound “trialogue” (definition:

“An interchange and discussion of ideas among

three groups having different origins, philosophies,

principles, etc.”) between the three main groups

involved, the industry, governmental organisations

and other stakeholders (e.g. NGOs). This “trialogue”

will assist towards the reconciliation of interests

in order to reach common agreement upon

actions to deal with environmental and social

impacts of mining activities.

The methodological developments are carried out

over three demonstration sites to cover the variety

of mineral deposits, environmental issues, and

legal constraints. In particular aspects to be

covered are:

• heavily exploited sites (Mpumalanga coal field,

South Africa)

• sites in densely populated areas (lignite open pit

at Sokolov, Czech Republic)



• highly mining-dependent economy in an end-of-life

mining context (Makmal gold mine and

processing plant, Kyrgyzstan)

3. Project outcomes

An extensive review of policies relevant of

environmental and societal impact of the mining

industry, at international, national regional and local

(demonstration site) levels has been carried out

that led to the definition of relevant indicators to

best monitor these impacts, and corresponding EO

monitoring tools and techniques, where available.

A literature review and extensive collection of local

data enabled the definition of a site conceptual

model for each of the three demonstration sites

that describes the environmental and societal

concerns of the local mine activity.

Extensive EO data have been acquired to monitor

these impacts, including hyperspectral airborne

surveys (2009, 2010 and 2011 in Czech Republic),

Worldview_II stereopairs, (South Africa,

Kyrgyzstan), spectroradiometric field reference

measurement (all 3 sites), Landsat time series

(South Africa), SRTM and ASTER DEMs, field

sampling for chemical and mineralogical analyses,

etc. All data have been processed developing

standardized work flows to ensure quality and

representativeness of the different data sets.

4. Current product development

Indicators for assessing and monitoring

environmental and societal impact of extractive

industry were derived from an expert approach,

from a stakeholder approach and from the site

conceptual models mentioned above. A list of

some 60 indicators has eventually been issued,

of which more than a half can be either directly or

indirectly addressed using EO techniques.

Mineral and vegetation maps have been produced

from VNIR - SWIR - TIR imaging spectroscopy,

with focus on Acid Mine Drainage minerals and

vegetation health status related to mining activities.

Time series enable change detection analysis

relevant of mining activities from hyperspectral

images.

Relation between mineral maps and surface

drainage maps derived from DEMs will highlight

possible contamination pathways.

Interpretation of Landsat TM time series between

1989, 2002 and 2010 enabled to monitor and map

urban sprawling in relation with the development of

mining activities in the Mpumalanga province of

South Africa

Together with the AEGOS project, EO-MINERS has

been actively involved in the reconnaissance of

minerals and georesources in GEO-GEOSS and

contributes as Task leads to EN-01 (Energy and

Georesources management) and SB-05 (Impact of

Human Activities) Societal Benefit areas.


Number of indicators


1. Summary of project objectives

EuroGeoSource is a three year project funded by

the ICT PSP Call, theme 6.2 Geographic information

That started in April 2010 and will end in April

2013. The project has a budget of 2.5 million EUR

divided over 11 work packages (see figure 1) and

the project consortium consists of 11 geological

surveys, 2 commercial companies and one university.

The main objective of the project is to develop an

information and policy support system for sustainable

supply of energy and mineral resources in Europe

(EuroGeoSource). The system will allow users to

identify, access, use and reuse aggregated

geographical information on geo-energy and

mineral resources, covering at least ten European

countries. The multilingual system will provide

basic services for the visualization and overlay of

the information layers obtained from distributed

sources, as well as more advanced spatial and

temporal analysis on the data. The implemented

solutions will be in accordance with OGC

specifications and compliant with INSPIRE. The

developed web services will enable the creation of

value-added services (such as demand-supply

modeling) by third parties.

EuroGeoSource is aimed at users from the EC

(including the EC Directorate-General for Energy

and Transport, EuroStat, the EC JRC Institute for

Energy), commercial parties (oil gas and mining

companies, investment companies), geological

surveys, research institutes and universities, and

(inter-)national geo-energy and mining authorities.

2. Work performed since the beginning of the project

We have send out 1040 potential users of the

future EuroGeoSource portal and invited them to

give us their opinion on desired content and

functionality via an internet questionnaire.

We analysed the 187 returned answers statistically

and composed a list of user requirements (WP2).

Furthermore, an inventory of the current situation

regarding data and information on energy and

minerals in the participating countries (WP3) has

been made via an internal questionnaire.

Based on this inventory we collected the existing

standards, data types and data models used for

hydrocarbon and mineral resources from the

participating data holders and identified relevant

existing data models within the scope of the

EuroGeoSource project. From this we selected a

set of available key attributes (WP4) that met the

user requirements and organized them in a data

model. The attributes were mapped on the draft

versions (2.0) of the INSPIRE guidelines (TWG

Geology and Mineral resources and TWG for


Figure 1: project structure(left hand side) and consortium partners (right hand side)


Energy) and on the EarthResourceML Data

Exchange Model where appropriate. INSPIRE does

however not address all EuroGeoSource needs,

therefore extensions have been added. At the

same time simplifications have been made when

the INSPIRE model was too complex.

The EuroGeoSource project is registered as a

Spatial Data Interest Communities (SDICs) and has

been participating in public consultation and testing

of the drafts of the INSPIRE ANNEX II and III data

specifications for Energy Reources, Mineral

Resources and Geology.

For the quantification of the resources the United

Nations Framework Classification (UNFC) for

Energy and Mineral Resources has been adopted.

To make the supply of data to the EuroGeoSource

project easy, a relational data model has been

designed and implemented (WP5) that supports

the storage of all information relevant to the

project. A OGC/INSPIRE compliant download

service has been implemented to deliver the data

stored in the relational data model. The implementation

of both the relational database and the download

service is described in detail in a cookbook.

With regard to the non-harmonized spatial data

content an new inventory of relevant datasets that

are available at the partners has been carried out,

together with relevant services already published

elsewhere. Many of these services are already

integrated in the EuroGeoSource portal.

The first prototype of the Web application has been

updated using remarks and feedback from the first

public workshop in Rotterdam (March 2011),

stakeholders, the advisory committee and project

members, resulting in a second prototype (WP6).

This prototype has been built on OSS software:

OpenLayer combined with MapQuery as client

software. MapQuery has specifically been created

to support the required EuroGeoSource functionality.

On the server site different OSS components

process and supply data to the client. The second

prototype includes the Southern Permian Basin

Atlas comprising of almost one hundred different

layers, and WMS services form project partners.

A cloud system has been setup and the mentioned

layers are tiled and cached in this cloud system to

guarantee a fast and responsive client interface.

The implemented services also supply data to an

Android prototype which has been developed.

Based on the prototype, the real EuroGeoSource

system has been developed (WP8). Administrative

areas data for most partners has been loaded into

the central node database, and an OGC Web

Feature Service (WFS) for geonames has been set

up to access this information. Several OGC Web

Map Services (WMS) have been added to the Web

applications. The requirements for the multi-lingual

functionalities are finalised (WP7) and the data

structure to implement it has been designed and

built, together with a translation web service.

The actual filling of the translation functionality with

the translated terms will be completed in the last

year of the project.

The 2nd workshop (Rotterdam, March 2012)

brought representatives from international,

European and Member State level, as well as

stakeholders from international and EU levels

together, to discuss the results of the project so far

and guide the finalisation of the project. As such

the workshops built an international collaborative

framework to discuss data harmonization and

interoperability issues related to mineral and

energy resources.

The website is used as a communication tool, with

continuous updates following the project progress

and suggestions of the partners. Furthermore a

EuroGeoSource newsletter and flyers have been

made (WP11).

Main results achieved so far

The analysis of the results of the internet

questionnaire showed that there is a lack of data

accessibility due to differences in format, lack of

harmonization and uncertainty on update

frequency. Potential users see the EuroGeoSource

portal therefore as a real necessity. This conclusion

is backed by the results of the inventory of data

availability and involved organizations within the

consortium. The internet questionnaire led to a

number of conclusions on the content, expected

use, scope and functionality of the portal. Different

user groups had different wishes on type and detail

of the information that should be present at the

portal, and also had different views on desired

functionality. All user groups agreed that the portal



has to be compatible with other already existing

datasets (OpenStreetMap, OneGeology, Corine

Land cover 2000...) and that the data is compliant

with the INSPIRE directive. Finally the want the

portal to work with a map viewer, using a GIS

interface and have a downloading option for

personalised search results. The respondents

showed a primary interest in non metallic resources,

secondly on energetic resources and finally on

metallic resources. The EuroGeoSource portal will

serve data on all tree types of resources.

The inventory of the current situation regarding

data on energy and mineral resources within the

members of the consortium shows that the content

and structure of the data differs substantially in

each country. Access and use is further complicated

by the fact that the data can be acquired in several

different institutions and at different levels of

processing. None of the countries possesses a

system that could be regarded as an example for

setting up the harmonised database of the

EuroGeoSource project, not even on a meta

database level.

The attributes on mineral and energy data that the

project selected as key attributes are shown in

figure 2. The consortium chose to use the UNFC

(The United Nations Framework Classification for

Fossil Energy and Mineral Resources) classification

system because it covers both minerals and

energetic resources. This system is already in use

in three of the participating countries, the reserves

calculated in the other countries will be mapped as

close as possible. From discussions at several

meetings outside the project on the use of UNFC

we learned that this system is gaining in popularity,

and countries are taking steps to implement it in

their own environment.

The compliance of the data

model to INSPIRE is monitored

by the direct participation of

consortium members in the TWG

Geology and Mineral resources

and the TWG for Energy. Furthermore EuroGeoSource

is registered as an SDIC within INSPIRE,

volunteering to act as a pilot project and offering

our expertise.

The simplifications we used and the extensions

made are discussed with the Thematic working

groups in detail, showing the tension between the

free availability of data desired by INSPIRE and

national laws providing to share this information

publically.

EuroGEoSoruce as a project has provided a solution

for this by creating an energy of minerals producing

country to be able to public information on a

country level instead of the’ mine’ level in INSPIRE.

An infrastructure has successfully been created

that enables the project partners to implement

download services for harmonized energy and

mineral resources data. The services are operational

at five project partners. All partners will come on

line during the final year of the project.


GENERAL DATA OF SITE DATA OF LOCATION ADMINISTRATIVE DATA

INSPIRE ID of site (M&E)Coordinates: longitude, latitude (M&E)

Licence ID (M&E)

Local ID (M&E) Depth below surface (M&E) Type of license (M&E)

Name of site (M&E) Water depth (M&E) Name of licensee / operator (M&E)

Name of site (M&E) Geographical location (M&E) Duration of licence (M&E)

Type of resource (M&E) Country name (M&E) Areal extent of license (M&E)

Year of discovery (M&E)

Status of site (M&E)

References (M&E)

Remarks (M&E)

ECONOMIC DATA ADDITIONAL DATA ADDITIONAL DATA

Classification (M&E)Geological characteristics regional / of field (M&E)

Main type of field (E)

In situ ore / substance reserves (M&E)

Age of host rock / Reservoir rock age (M&E)

Status (E)

Production (M)Host rock type / Reservoir rock type (M&E)

Nr of oil producting wells (E)

Period of Production (M) Mineral deposit type (M) Nr of gas productiong wells (E)

Dimension of the deposit (M) Primary comodities (M) Nr of gas injecting wells (E)

Mining methods (M) Secondary comodities (M) Nr of oil / gas producting wells (E)

Oil initially in Place (E) Main ore minerals / substance (M) Nr of water injecting wells (E)

Gas initially in Place (E) Secondary ore minerals / substance (M) Nr of water / gas injecting wells (E)

Cumulative oil production (E) Nr of CO2 injecting wells (E)

Cumulative gas production (E) Hydrothermal alteration (M) Nr of producing / injecting wells (E)

Cumulative water production (E) Morphology of the deposit (M) Areal extent of field delimitation (E)

Cumulative gas injection (E) Regional deposit structure (M) Reservoir depth (E)

Cumulative water injection (E) Dating method of mineralisation (M) Production strategy (E)

Remaining Oil reserves (E) Age of mineralisation (M) Installations (E)

Remaining Gas reserves (E)

Year of reporting (E)

Figure 2: Set of key economic attributes for minerals (M) and energy (E) resource or both (M&E).


The tools needed to build this infrastructure, and

the detailed cookbook describing how to

implement is, will shortly be available for any other

data provider not participating in EuroGeoSource.

The results of WP2, WP3 and WP4 have been used

as input for WP6 to design the first prototype of the

EuroGeoSource portal which has been updated

using remarks and feedback from the first

workshop, stakeholders, the advisory committee

and project members, resulting in a second

prototype containing a multi-lingual user interface.

The architecture of the system uses cloud

computing to fulfil basic (non-) functional

requirements (see figure 3). This facilitates and

speeds up the EuroGeoSource tiling service,

Diagram service and advances query options

(search index).

In addition to the desktop prototype (figure 4),

we developed an Android prototype as well

(Figure 5). The Android client opens up a whole

new user perspective, and the implementation in

the cloud guaranties smooth performance of the

EuroGeoSource system, even on a 3G network.

These prototypes as well as presentations of the

work done were presented at the 2nd public

workshop, held in Rotterdam. Next to this public

workshop the EuroGeoSource project has been

presented at international conferences and for main

user groups, achieving awareness and

dissemination of results.


Figure3: EGS architecture with (1) data/service provider, (2) central EGS implemented in the cloud and (3) service consumer.

Figure 4: Second prototype showing the overview of the Southern Permian Basin Atlas maps and the Bathymetry as a map in the portal.


Collaborative framework

On important task within the project is to build a

collaborative framework between the major

players in the energy and mineral resources

sectors of the EU economy. This framework will be

built by organizing three workshops during the

execution of the project. The first of these

workshops was organised on the 10th of March

2011 in Budapest Hungary.

Almost 100 attendants listened to representatives

from the project, experts from OECD, DG

Enterprise and Industry (Unit 3), EESC, JRC,

Euromines, OGP, Academia (University of Luleå)

and a Representative from the Mining Authority

from Portugal. In the audience the workshop had

participants from Geological Surveys, Academia,

Mining and Oil Industries, representatives from

Promine, consulting companies, EU strategy/policy

entities and representatives of the

EuroGeoSource’s advisory board.

The second workshop was organised on the 8th of

March 2012 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Almost

80 participants listened to presentations from the

Ministry of Environment and Infrastructure of

Netherlands, Hungarian Office of Mining and

Geology, DG Enterprise and Industry, JRC, INSPIRE,

UNECE, Energistics, CETEM, Brazil, the Mineral

Resources Expert Group within EuroGeoSurveys,

Promine and of course representatives from the

EuroGeoSource project itself. The workshop ended

with a panel discussion.

The workshops allowed the project team to get

some very valuable inputs, both from the invited

experts speakers and the participants. The general

feedback was very positive. In addition, the

workshops are an important communication tool

for dialogue between the potential community of

users and the project team with the consequent

added value to the future project developments.

Expected final results and their potential impact and use

In the coming year the portal will be tested and

updated. We expect that the portal will be an example

of the next step in functionality for distributed web

GIS information systems. The collaborative network

will be extended. The visibility of the project will be

strengthened by our presence at the 7th EUREGEO

congress in Bologna, The Inspire 2012 congress in

Istanbul and the 34th IGC meeting in Brisbane.


Figure 5: Main screen of Android Prototype App (left hand side) and the selection of layers (right hand side).


Furthermore we will transform the final workshop

in Copenhagen into an International congress to

improve the impact of the project results.

More information and feedback on the project

Our website gives the latest information on the

progress of the project and has had about 260

unique visitors each month from more then 24

countries worldwide. Any visitor can view and

download all public deliverables and presentations

there. The effect of our public workshops in March

2011 (270 visitors) and march 2012 (360) visitors.

The final presentation of the project results will be

on the 12 th of March 2013 in Brussels.


Figure 6: User statistics of the project website. Number off unique visitors (green) and visited pages (blue) per month (left graph) and cumulative (right graph)since the start of the project.


(Re)Search for common Geothermal Energy in Central Europe - tRaNSENERGy

1. Introduction

The carrying medium of geothermal energy is

thermal groundwater that subsurface flow paths

are linked to geological structures cross-cutting

state borders. Thermal water extraction from the

same transboundary geothermal reservoir at a

national level without cross-border harmonized

management strategies may cause negative

impacts, such as drops in pressure and temperature,

which might influence the bordering countries.

The sustainable utilization of transboundary

geothermal reservoirs therefore should count on

joint management strategies of neighboring

countries. This need was recognized by four

Central European countries (Hungary, Slovenia,

Austria and Slovakia) which share transboundary

geothermal energy resources in the western part

of the Pannonian basin. The national geological

surveys (Magyar Földtani és Geofizikai Intézet -

Hungary (lead partner), Geološki zavod Slovenije -

Slovenia, Geologische Bundesanstalt - Austria,

Štátny geologický ústav Dionýza Štúra - Slovakia)

carry out together the project TRANSENERGY in

the frame of the Central Europe Program, which

will provide implementation tools and

recommendations for the sustainable use of

geothermal energy in the region.

2. Project objective and structure

Worldwide there is a growing need on the

enhanced use of renewable energies due to the

increasing energy demand of the globe, restricted

reserves of fossil fuels and considerations related

to anthropogenic emission of carbon-dioxide

affecting the climate system of the Earth.

The Pannonian basin, in Central Europe lies on a

characteristic positive geothermal anomaly, with

heat flow up to 110-130 mW/m2 and geothermal

gradient of about 45 °C/km, about 1.5 times bigger

than the continental average. The large hydro-

geothermal reservoirs which store deep circulating

thermal groundwaters are shared by Hungary lying

in the central part of the Pannonian basin, and its

neighboring countries.

Thermal water extraction from the same trans-

boundary geothermal reservoir at a national level

without cross-border harmonized management

strategies may cause negative impacts (depletion

or overexploitation) leading to economic and

political tensions between countries. Therefore

only the establishment of a joint, multi-national

management system may handle the assessment

of geothermal potentials and give guidelines for

a balanced fluid/heat production.

TRANENERGY’s final goal is to provide a user

friendly, web-based decision supporting tool, which

will show all relevant information on the potential,

vulnerability and sustainability of the geothermal

systems in the investigated transboundary regions,

which have been selected because of already

existing utilization conflicts and their extreme

sensitivity for any further intervention by different

management policies in the neighboring countries.

The Slovenian - Austrian - Hungarian cross border

pilot area (Bad Radkersburg - Hodoš) includes

territories of the Styrian and Mura-Zala basins

where thermal groundwaters are widely utilized.

However unharmonized management strategies

between the different utilization schemes (direct

heat and balneology) led to unnecessarily

excessive use of thermal waters, also including

transboundary conflicts between Austria and

Slovenia. A similar cross-border utilization conflict

exists in the Lutzmannsburg - Zsira pilot area.

The abstraction of thermal water for a recently built

large spa in Lutzmannsburg (Austria) next to the

border resulted in a continuously decreasing

groundwater level on the Hungarian side.

The northern part of the Vienna basin is one of

the most important hydrocarbon exploitation areas

in Central Europe, therefore an ideal site to study

links and potential conflicts between the multi-

purpose utilization of the same reservoirs, in

collaboration with Austria and Slovakia.



The Danube Basin pilot area provides excellent

opportunities to establish closer links with

groundwater management issues at international

level, as in this region aggregated groundwater

bodies, also storing large amount of thermal water

have been already delineated at ICPDR level.

The Komarno-Sturovo pilot area is a typical karstic

transboundary aquifer shared by Slovakia and

Hungary. The Hungarian part of this area was

seriously affected by karstwater withdrawal due to

bauxite and coal mining in the 1980-90’s, when the

depression of karstwater level led to the drying of

many lukewarm springs. After mines were closed

and withdrawal finished, the rehabilitation started

in the region.

In the overview of existing geothermal energy

utilization in the TRANSENERGY region altogether

172 geothermal energy users were identified that

are condensed along some densely exploited

areas, especially near the state borders. Altogether

17 different ways of utilization types were

recognized, of which bathing and swimming is the

most abundant in all 4 countries, however space

heating is noteworthy in Slovenia and Slovakia.

Re-injection of the water utilized for energetic

purposes is minimal. Various aspects of existing

thermal water utilization are displayed on

12 thematic maps.

A main challenge in such projects is to handle

heterogeneous data, often with different availability

due to national policies, as well as diverse quantity

and quality. Data harmonization and integration

from the four countries is one of the main

achievements of TRANSENERGY which provides a

common platform for the different geological,

hydrogeological and geothermal models serving

the basis of further evaluations. The partner

geological surveys, as responsible organizations for

the collection, evaluation and storage of national

geoscientific data had a key role in the successful

performance of this task. The joint, multi-lingual

database contains harmonized datasets from 1686

boreholes, out of which data from 1041 boreholes

(115 AT, 128 SLO, 742 HU and 56 SK) are available

for the public at the project website.

The geological models show the depth and

geological buildup (based on a harmonized legend)

of 8 subsurface horizons which are the key input

for the hydrogeological and geothermal models.

Altogether 16 geothermal maps show temperature

distributions and various evaluations of geothermal

potential of the entire project area. Hydrogeological

models display the potential fields and main

flowpaths of the regional thermal groundwater

system crossing state borders, as well as preliminary

scenario analyses on the transboundary effects of

thermal water abstractions in the countries.

All above mentioned maps and models and many

other outputs are available at the project website:

http://transenergy-eu.geologie.ac.at either as

downloadable reports, or interactive web-maps.

Targeted stakeholders of the TRANSENERGY

project are authorities and investors, who will get a

regional evaluation of geothermal resources of the

region. Development agencies, potential investors

and present thermal water users will be able to

identify their advantages and disadvantages in

comparison to other regions/users and gain more

sensible information on possible future development

on selected sites.

Project name: Transboundary geothermal

energy resources of Slovenia, Austria,

Hungary and Slovakia - TRANSENERGY

Website: http://transenergy-eu.geologie.ac.at

Contact: Annamária Nádor, project leader

Geological and Geophysical Institute of Hungary

H-1143 Budapest, Stefánia 14.

[email protected]

ERDF fund: 2 354 3868 euro

Duration: April 2010-March 2013 (36 months)



publicationsMÁfI (Hungarian Survey) had two major

publications:

• Bárdossy, György: The Nyirád-east bauxite deposit.

• Földvári, Mária: Handbook of thermogravimetric

system of minerals and its use in geological

practice.

Czech Geological Survey.

• Kotková J. - O´Brien P. J.- Ziemann M. A. (2011a):

Diamond and coesite discovered in Saxony-type

granulite: Solution to the Variscan garnet

peridotite enigma. - Geology 39, 7, 667-670.

ISSN 0091-7613. DOI 10.1130/G31971.1.

• Novák M. - Zemanová L. - Voldřichová P.

- Štěpánová M. - Adamová M. - Pacherová P. -

Komárek A. - Krachler M. - Přechová E. (2011):

Experimental Evidence for Mobility/Immobility of

Metals in Peat. - Environmental Science &

Technology 45, 17, 7180-7187. ISSN 0013-936X.

DOI 10.1021/es201086v.

• Oulehle F. - Evans C. D.- Hofmeister J. - Krejčí R.

- Tahovská K. - Persson T. - Cudlín P. - Hruška J.

(2011): Major changes in forest carbon and

nitrogen cycling caused by declining sulphur

deposition. - Global Change Biology 17, 10,

3115-3129. ISSN 1354-1013. DOI

10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02468.x.

Belgian Geological Survey

• Baeteman, C., Waller, M., Kiden, P. 2011

Reconstructing middle to late Holocene sea-level

change: A methodological review with particular

reference to 'A new Holocene sea-level curve

for the southern North Sea' as presented by

K.-E. Behre. Boreas 40, 4 557-572

• Burlet, C., Vanbrabant, Y., Goethals, H., Thys, T.,

Dupin, L. 2011 Raman spectroscopy as a tool to

characterize heterogenite (CoO.OH) (Katanga

Province, Democratic Republic of Congo)

Spectrochimicaacta Part A: Molecular and

biomolecular spectroscopy 80 138-147

• Welkenhuysen, K., Piessens, K., Baele, J.-M.,

Laenen, B., Dusar, M. 2011 CO2 storage

opportunities in Belgium Energy Procedia 4

4913-4920

lithuanian Geological Survey,

• Lietuvos požeminio vandens monitoringas

2005-2010 metais ir kiti hidrogeologiniai darbai

straipsnių rinkinys / J. Arustienė, J. Giedraitienė ...

et al.; ats. red. K. Kadūnas; Lietuvos geologijos

tarnyba. - Vilnius: LGT, 2011. - 158, [1] p.: iliustr.

(Groundwater monitoring in Lithuania 2005-2010

and other hydrogeological works)

• Lietuvos geologijos tarnybos 2010 metų veiklos

rezultatai: [metinė ataskaita] = Lithuanian

Geological Survey: Annual Report 2010 / ats. red.

J. Satkūnas; Lietuvos geologijos tarnyba. -

Vilnius, 2011. - 121, [1] p.: iliustr. - Liet., angl. -

ISSN 1392-7272 (Lithuanian Geological Survey:

Annual Report 2010)

• Klimato kaita Klaipėdos mieste ir rajone: poveikis,

kaina ir prisitaikymas / Autorių kolektyvas. -

Vilnius: Vilniaus universitetas, 2012. - 120 p.

(Evaluation of climate change in Klaipėda city and

district: Impacts, Costs and Adaptation)

Polish Geological Institute - National Research Institute - PGI-NRI

• Hesselbo Stephen P., PIEŃKOWSKI GRZEGORZ;

Stepwise atmospheric carbon isotope excursion

during the early jurassic oceanic anoxic event;

Earth and Planetary Science Letters; 2011, Vol.

301, nr 1-2, s. 365-372

• Zhang, T., TRELA, W., Jiang S.Y., Nielsen J.K.,

& Shen, Y., 2011. Major oceanic redox condition

change correlated with the rebound of marine

animal diversity during the Late Ordovician.

Geology, 39: 675-678

• SZEWCZYK JAN, NAWROCKI JERZY; Deep-

seated relict permafrost in northeastern Poland;

Boreas; 2011, Vol. 40, nr 3, s. 385-388

• García-Veigas Javier, Cendón Dioni I., Pueyo

Juan J., PERYT TADEUSZ MAREK; Zechstein

saline brines in Poland, evidence of overturned

anoxic ocean during the Late Permian mass


extinction event; Chemical Geology; 2011, Vol.

290,nr 3-4, s. 189-201

• SŁOWAKIEWICZ MIROSŁAW, MIKOŁAJEWSKI

ZBIGNIEW; Upper Permian Main Dolomite

microbial carbonates as potential source rocks for

hydrocarbons (W Poland); Marine and Petroleum

Geology; 2011, Vol. 28, nr 8, s. 1572-1591

British Geological Surveys

• Booth, K.A.; Brayson, J. 2011 Geology, landscape

and human interactions : examples from the Isle

of Wight. Proceedings of the Geologists'

Association, 122 (5). 938-948. 10.1016/j.

pgeola.2011.01.004 (This is one of the papers in

the recent PGA volume dedicated to the work of

BGS on this island.)

• Jones, L.D.; Terrington, R.. 2011 Modelling

volume change potential in the London clay.

Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and

Hydrogeology, 44 (1). 109-122. 10.1144/1470-

9236/08-112 (This paper was runner up in the

Natural Hazards category of the Lloyds Science

of Risk Price run by Lloyds [www.lloyds.com/

The-Market/Tools-and-Resources/Research/

Exposure-Management/Emerging-risks/~/media/

Files/The%20Market/Tools%20and%20resources/

Exposure%20management/Science%20of%20

Risk/2011/repeated%20sor%20booklet.pdf])

• Johnson, Christopher C.; Demetriades, Alecos;

Locutura, Juan; Ottesen, Rolf Tore, eds. 2011

Mapping the chemical environment of urban

areas. Wiley, 640pp. (Chris Johnson was the chief

editor of this book, which contains a number of BGS

contributions, and seems to fit well with EGS.)

Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration - IGME

• Luis Carcavilla Urquí y Jaime Palacio Suárez-

Valgrande - GEOSITES. Aportación española al

patrimonio geológico mundial edited by: Instituto

Geológico y Minero de España, pages: 231, ISBN

9788478408559

publications


SIGME is the first Spanish Public Research Institution that acquires a paleontological site

IGME has purchased 25Ha of the land containing

the Palaentological Site of Fonelas P-1 in Granada.

The site hosts thousand of fossil bones of

exceptionally preserved mammals representing a

continental ecosystem of 2 million years ago.

The site of Fonelas, in the Guadix-Baza basin, hosts

fossils of big mammals completely new in Europe.

Such remains of organic origin have been found in

the dry meander of a riverbed which was a feeding

through for hyenas. This kind of fossils can be

usually found in places such as on the edge of

lakes. However, in this case it seems like if hyenas

had moved animal rests which died in the flooded

sands to this abandoned channel. This would

explain the wide variety of animal species

preserved, many unknown for scientists. Apart

from hyenas, river wild boars, giraffes, wolf

ancestors and sabre-toothed felines used to live in

the Andalusian savannah 1.8 million years ago.

The findings in the deposit seem to imply a

modification on the keys of the transit from the

Pliocene to the Pleistocene. According to the scientific

team of researchers’ data, the faunal dispersion of

man ancestors from Africa to Eurasia would be

more westerly than supposed. In the site of Granada,

there have not yet appeared hominid remains but

there are animal remains similar to those of the

sites of Dmanisi (Georgia) where there were

hominid remains dating from that prehistoric

period, the oldest found in Europe. The interpretation

of the fossils, which has revealed the existence of

this savannah located at the foot of Sierra Nevada,

has been directed by Alfonso Arribas Herrera, from

the Geological Survey of Spain. The experts do not

dismiss, in the course of these works in Fonelas,

which will be pursued in the next years, the finding

of hominid remains which would be revolutionary.

The objective of the purchase is to preserve such

paleontological heritage and the group of rocks

containing the scientific information regarding the

geological and environmental history of the Guadix

Basin during the Lower Pleistocene (between 2,5

and 0,8 Ma), as well as facilitating its systematic

excavation and permanent research and preserving

such vast heritage in situ in the deposit itself.

IGME plans to develop a pioneering facility in the site

(the Paleontological Station Valle del Rio Fardes)

which will host a variety of research, popularization

and educations activities related with earth sciences.

there’s more

GEOAportación española al

patrimonio geológico mundial

SITES

GEO

SITES

PR

OY

EC

TO

Apor

taci

ón e

spa

ñol

a a

l pa

trim

onio

geo

lógi

co m

un

dia

l

La historia de nuestro Planeta se

deduce a partir de lugares que han

guardado en sus rocas un registro

excepcional de los acontecimientos

del pasado.

España, país que destaca por su

geodiversidad, guarda algunas

de estas joyas geológicas que son

referencia para la comunidad científica

internacional. En este libro se describe

el significado e importancia de estos

privilegiados enclaves españoles que

forman parte del patrimonio geológico

mundial.

Este libro divulgativo está escrito para

personas que, sin necesidad de tener

conocimientos geológicos, tengan

curiosidad por conocer los tesoros de

la rica geología española, a lo largo

de sus más de 600 millones de años

de historia.

EL PROYECTO GLOBAL GEOSITESA finales de los años 90 la Unión Internacional de las Ciencias Geo-lógicas (IUGS), con el co-patrocinio de la UNESCO, puso en marchauna ambiciosa iniciativa global para acometer un inventario mundialde patrimonio geológico: el proyecto Global Geosites.

En España, ha sido el Instituto Geológico y Minero de España(IGME) el organismo encargado de desarrollar el proyecto GlobalGeosites. Durante más de diez años, expertos del IGME han des-arrollado el proyecto, contando con la colaboración más de 70 in-vestigadores de numerosas universidades y centros de investigación.En total, fueron identificados 142 lugares de interés geológico derelevancia internacional que son descritos en este libro, y que cons-tituyen la aportación española al patrimonio geológico mundial.

Luis Carcavilla Urquí (Castellón de la Plana, Comunidad Valen-ciana) estudió Ciencias Geológicas en la Universidad Complutensede Madrid. Se doctoró en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid conuna tesis sobre la gestión del patrimonio geológico y la geodiversi-dad. Es I Investigador Titular del Instituto Geológico y Minero de Es-paña (IGME). Ha publicado numerosos artículos científicos y dedivulgación, incluyendo diversas guías geológicas. Una de ellas, laGuía Geológica del Alto Tajo, recientemente re-editada por el IGME,recibió en el año 2009 el galardón internacional “Ciencia en Acción”como la mejor obra iberoamericana de divulgación científica en so-porte papel de ese año.

Jaime Palacio Suárez-Valgrande (Gijón, Asturias) es geólogo porla Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Inició su actividad en elcampo del Patrimonio Geológico en el año 1978, cuando participóen la elaboración y desarrollo de la primera Metodología de Inven-tariado y Catalogación de Puntos de Interés Geológico de España(PIG). Ha realizado y publicado numerosos trabajos sobre patrimo-nio para el Instituto Geológico y Minero de España (IGME), Princi-pado de Asturias, Gobierno de Navarra, Comunidad Autónoma deMadrid y ENRESA. A lo largo de más de treinta años ha organizadoreuniones científicas, coordinado y realizado diversas publicaciones,e inventariado, descrito, catalogado e informatizado, puntos y lugaresde interés geológico en casi todo el territorio nacional. Ha partici-pado activamente, desde su inicio, en la realización del proyectoGlobal Geosites, y en la publicación que ha dado origen a la pre-sente obra divulgativa.

P R O Y E C T O


found alive in Namibia a fossil fly thought extinct

IGME researchers described in 1999 a fly of the

genus Alavesia inside Cretaceous amber (110 My).

Now in a recent issue of Systematic Entomology,

Dr. Sinclair from Canada and Dr.Kirk-Spriggs of

South Africa have described new species of this fly

in a remote area (Brandberg Massif) of the vast

desert of northeast Namibia.

This recent findings of a creature though extinct,

allows to believe in a possible “Lost World” located

in the Brandberg Massif, as it seems this place is a

refuge for primitive living creatures. The site is a

mountainous region formed by a circular granitic

intrusion of 650 km2 were several years ago living

mantofasmid insects were found that had already

been described in Baltic amber by Spanish experts.

It is possible that this region might be a window to

remote times where insects have evolved

unchanged due to isolation.

first evidences of tsunamis in tenerife (Canary Islands)

A research directed by IGME researcher Mercedes

Ferrer, has found the first evidences of tsunami

deposits in the coast of Tenerife. Such tsunamis

created 50m high waves and are associated to the

destruction of the volcanic edifice of Las Cañadas,

previous to the current Teide volcano.

The characteristics and composition of the

deposits, point to its relationship to explosive

eruptions that happened 150.000 to 180.000 years

ago. Teno tsunamites are composed by detrital

sediments with fragments of shells, corals and

even fish remains and lay over the Teno lavas

located in the north-western coast of Tenerife.

This finding is exceptional as it is very difficult to

find tsunami deposit in the Canary islands due to

its abrupt coasts and the absence of costal

platforms were they could be deposited and later

preserved.

there’s more


Investigation of the new iron meteorite Javorje at Geological Survey of Slovenia

Miloš MILER and Mateja GOSAR

Geological Survey of Slovenia, Dimičeva ulica

14, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

A rusty iron mass was found by Mr. Vladimir Štibelj

while constructing a cut for a new forest road about

30 km northwest of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The find

was brought to the Geological Survey of Slovenia

where all necessary chemical and mineralogical

investigations using SEM/EDS were made to prove

that the find was a meteorite.

The single-piece iron meteorite Javorje, with nearly

five kilograms, is the heaviest and largest meteorite

found in the territory of Slovenia. It is a medium

octahedrite with kamacite bandwidth of 0.85 ±

0.26 mm. The bulk composition of Ni (7.83 wt%),

Co (0.48 wt%) and trace elements Ga (25 μg/g),

Ge (47 μg/g), Ir (7.6 μg/g), As (5.8 μg/g), Au (0.47

μg/g), and Pt (13.4 μg/g) indicates that the

meteorite Javorje belongs to the chemical group

IIIAB. The presence of numerous rhabdites,

carlsbergite, sparse troilite and chromite and

abundance of daubréelites are in accordance with

low-Ni and low-P IIIAB iron meteorites.

The severely weathered surface and secondary

weathering products in the interior of the meteorite

suggest its high terrestrial age.

The meteorite Javorje is the third meteorite and

the second iron meteorite reported from the

territory of Slovenia. It is also the largest and the

first meteorite in Slovenia designated as a find

without an observed fall.

The Javorje meteorite was approved by the

Meteoritical Society [www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor]

and complete description of it was published in paper

“Mineral and chemical composition of the new iron

meteorite Javorje from Slovenia” (Miler & Gosar,

2011) in Meteoritics & Planetary Science journal.

Meteorite Javorje, covered with a thick crust of oxidationproducts. Scale bar is 1 cm.

BGS won 3rd place in the Storytelling with Maps competition

iGeology was voted the top Community Favourite

Mobile App at the ESRI International User

Conference in July 2011, where it also won 3rd

place in the Storytelling with Maps competition.

“You are the Community Favorite 1st place winner

for Best Mobile App and the 3rd place winner for

Best Mobile App in the Storytelling with Maps

contest for your mobile app iGeology.”

[www.bgs.ac.uk/iGeology/newsAug11.html]

Surface of polished slab of meteorite Javorje a) before etching and b) after etching. After etching, the Widmanstätten patterns are very distinct. Scale bar is 1 cm.

there’s more


EuroGeoSurveys, the Geological Surveys of Europe

36-38, Rue Joseph II - 1000 Brussels (Belgium)

Tel. : +32.2.888.75.53 - Fax : +32.2.503.50.25

[email protected]

www.eurogeosurveys.org

www.geology.eu

Design & production : www.tango-grafix.be

EGS wishes to thank all the contributors to this Report.

In particular Claudia Delfini, who was responsible for

the overall coordination, Woody Hunter, Patrick Wall,

the Expert Groups Chairpersons and all the authors

of the various different sections.

this EuroGeoSurveys annual Report is a publication of :

ISSN: 2034-5283

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