In October 2000 the European Council together with the European Parliament approved the Water Framework Directive (WFD) which sets a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwaters with the aim of achieving a good status of water bodies by 2015. This paper addresses the issue of groundwaters in the WDF with special emphasis on groundwater planning and management. The main objectives and the overall approach of the WFD for groundwater management, protection and control are described. In spite of the great importance of the unsaturated zone in Mediterranean countries, the WFD simply ignores the unsaturated zone. Several proposals are given to overcome this gap. The contributions of the Unsaturated Zone Working Group will be of great relevance in the near future once Public Institutions realize the importance of the unsaturated zone for groundwater protection. | El 23 de octubre del 2000 se publicó en el Diario Oficial de las Comunidades Europeas la Directiva 2000/60/CE o Directiva Marco del Agua (DMA) del Parlamento Europeo y del Consejo por la que se establece un marco común para la protección de las aguas. La DMA define la política de la Comunidad Europea en el ámbito del medio ambiente dirigida a la conservación, protección y mejora de la calidad del medio ambiente y a la utilización prudente y racional de los recursos naturales. En esta ponencia se abordan los aspectos relativos a las aguas subterráneas y la zona no saturada y las implicaciones de la DMA en la planificación y gestión de las aguas subterráneas en España. El tratamiento que la DMA otorga a las aguas subterráneas es adecuado. Es certera en reconocer el carácter prioritario de los principios de prevención y protección para las aguas subterráneas. La zona no saturada es la gran ignorada en la DMA. No existen referencias directas a ella, siendo escasas las referencias indirectas. Se incluyen varias propuestas para subsanar esta deficiencia de la DMA que en todo caso deberá ser corregida durante la transposición de la DMA y su implementación. Los trabajos que viene desarrollando el Grupo de La Zona No Saturada cobrarán especial relevancia en los próximos años cuando la administración sea plenamente consciente de la relevancia e importancia de la zona no saturada.

Aquifer systems are an important part of an integrated water resources management plan as foreseen in the European Union’s Water Framework Directive (2000). The sustainable development of these systems demands the use of all available techniques capable of handling the multidisciplinary features of the problems involved. The formulation and resolution of an optimization model is described for a planning and management problem based on the Palmela aquifer (Portugal), developed to supply a given number of demand centres. This problem is solved using one of the latest optimization techniques, the simulated annealing heuristic method, designed to find the optimal solutions while avoiding falling into local optimums. The solution obtained, providing the wells location and the corresponding pumped flows to supply each centre, are analysed taking into account the objective function components and the constraints. It was found that the operation cost is the biggest share of the final cost, and the choice of wells is greatly affected by this fact. Another conclusion is that the solution takes advantage of the economies of scale, that is, it points toward drilling a large capacity well even if this increases the investment cost, rather than drilling several wells, which together will increase the operation costs.

Nitrate pollution from agricultural sources is one of the biggest issues facing groundwater management in the European Union (EU). During the last three decades, tens of nitrate vulnerable zones (NVZ) have been designated across the EU, aiming to make the problem more manageable. The Gallocanta Groundwater Body in NE Spain was declared as an NVZ in 1997, and after more than 20 years, significant improvements in water quality were expected to be observed. In the present study, the spatiotemporal trend of nitrate concentration within the Gallocanta NVZ in the last 38 years was assessed, and the effectiveness of the NVZ implementation was tested. Data from the official Ebro Basin Confederation monitoring network from 1980 to 2018 were used, and the results showed an increasing but fluctuating trend in nitrate concentration since 1980. Although a slight improvement was detected after the NVZ designation in 1997, the low rate of improvement would take decades to reach desirable levels in most of the area. The lack of update and control of action programmes, the inappropriate NVZ delimitation, and the influence of natural factors seem to be the reasons for the failure of the nitrate reduction measures. Currently, nitrate pollution and groundwater management are a matter of concern for the EU, so given the recurring problems in water supply in the area and the nonfulfillment of the goal of good quality status, more demanding measures are needed to be implemented in the short term.

The dynamics related to evolution of nitrate-contaminated groundwater are analyzed with focus on the impact of intrinsic aquifer properties, agricultural activities and restoration measures at Campina de Faro aquifer (M12), southern Portugal. Agricultural practices in the region developed in the 1970s and resulted in high abstraction rates, nitrate contamination and salinization. Despite the implementation of the European Union (EU) Nitrates Directive since 1997, nitrate levels still show increasing trends at some locations, constituting a threat to the chemical status of M12 and consequent nitrate discharge to Ria Formosa coastal lagoon. Simultaneously, groundwater levels are not dropping consistently, despite apparent overexploitation. A groundwater flow and mass transport model is developed for M12 to assess the evolution of nitrate under different scenarios. Model results reveal that M12 has a hydraulic connection with northernmost aquifers, a process not properly assessed so far. Results further show that nitrate contamination in the upper Plio-Quaternary layer of M12 is extremely persistent and mostly linked to unbalanced fertilizer application practices and irrigation return flows. The response of M12 to implementation of good agricultural practices in compliance with EU policies is slow, indicating that good qualitative status would be impossible to reach by the required EU deadlines. Integration of climate change scenarios into the transport model reveals that despite the implementation of restoration measures, there could be a retardation of the nitrate levels’ decrease in the upper aquifer as a result of enhanced evapoconcentration caused by lower recharge, higher water demands and incomplete mixing within the aquifer.

More than 99% of water use in Denmark is based on groundwater. Denmark has had a comprehensive national groundwater-monitoring programme since 1988 based on 74 well catchment areas and six small agricultural catchments with more than 1,500 screens at different depths for regular, mostly annual, water quality sampling. In addition, water samples from 10,000 abstraction wells are analysed every 3–5 years. The water is analysed for main components, inorganic trace elements, organic micro pollutants, and pesticides and their metabolites. A unique feature is the 20-year time-series data of inorganic pollutants. Groundwater modelling supports traditional monitoring to improve the conceptual geological understanding and to assess the quantitative status and the interaction between groundwater and surface water. The programme has been continuously adjusted to incorporate new knowledge from research programmes and meet new policy demands, currently the European Union Water Framework Directive, particularly with respect to an increased focus on quantitative aspects and on the groundwater/surface water interaction. The strengths and weaknesses of the Danish programme are assessed and compared with other national groundwater-monitoring programmes. Issues discussed include: strategic considerations for monitoring design, the link between research and monitoring, and adoption of responses to climate changes.