Tackling groundwater and energy resource challenges in a transnational setting: TNO starts 11 projects within GeoERA!

TNO is Coordinator of the GeoERA Programme and organized and independent Call for Proposals, in collaboration with NWO. From this process 15 project where selected, in which TNO participates in 11 of these, belonging to the Geo-Energy, Groundwater and Spatial Information Theme.  

The projects that will start are focussed on harmonizing data, information and expertise across borders. Currently the different countries within Europe have different methodologies, standards and interpretations of the subsurface, which makes it very challenging to get a good overview of e.g. European energy or mineral resources and our groundwater availabiltity and quality. By making agreements together on common methodologies and standards, it will be possible to harmonize data and information, GeoERA will not only make such agreements, but also look into improving the current existing methodologies and the way of modelling. GeoERA will create valuable, accessible and public results for policy-makers and other end-users of geological data and information in Europe.     

Within the Geo-Energy theme projects will concentrate on the subsurface potential to deliver energy resources such as fossil fuels and geothermal energy. Specifically deep carbonate rocks will be studied, which represents an underexplored geothermal play, which could play a large role within the energytransition in providing heat. Besides looking at the resources itself, there is also attention for the potential hazards and environmental impacts associated with exploitation of subsurface energy. One important deliverable is a fault database. This database which can be used to improve our understanding of fault behaviour for e.g. the mitigation of seismic hazards, ground movement, leakage and/ or fluid migration.  

Within the Groundwater theme data, information and decision-support tools will be provided for the long-term protection, sustainable management and improvement of groundwater resources across Europe. A set of deliverables will provide a map of Europe's fresh groundwater resources, assessments of the 3D structure of aquifers, water volumes available, water fluxes and water quality of the resource. Furthermore, the water quality in relation to naturally occuring and antropogenic pollutants and the effects of climate change on the groundwater system are being researched, to advice groundwater management approaches to protect human and ecosystem health.

All projects will contain specific transnational pilot cases to test, demonstrate and/or validate the newly obtained knowledge. All results will be made public through the GeoERA Information Platform, which is a web-based information system, which will be developed by one specific GeoERA project on spatial data and information and based on the already existing European Geological Data Infrastructure.

You can follow GeoERA via our website www.geoera.eu, or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.