Groundwater (GW) is an important resource for freshwater and plays a key role in providing water supplies and livelihoods to respond to drought episodes. According to the European Environmental Agency, 26% of the European Union's GW bodies have poor chemical quality. Once the pollutants are detected in the GW, their harmful effects put the water supply and environment at risk for years, forcing the adoption of costly remediation measures.
The mission of the UPWATER project is to prevent and mitigate GW pollution by 1) identifying effective regulatory and legislative preventive measures devoted to minimise the release of chemicals at source, and 2) mitigating the pollution through development of novel engineered natural treatment systems.
In order to achieve these goals it will be required to:
• increase the scientific knowledge on the identification, occurrence and fate of pollutants in GW;
• develop and apply cost-efficient passive samplers to measure pollutants;
• identify and quantify the pollution sources, via development of source apportionment methods including Compound Specific Isotopic Analysis (CSIA);
• develop hydrogeological models for decision-making scenarios, considering multiple stressors and climate change projections;
• develop a framework for integrated risk analysis and impact assessment; and
• develop a participatory framework to analyse and prioritise the non-technological preventive measures and provide policy recommendations at local and EU levels.
Validation of the monitoring, mitigation and modelling solutions will occur in three case studies (DK, GR and ES), representing different EU climate conditions and a combination of rural, industrial and urban pollution sources. Expected outcomes include the adoption of preventive measures in the case studies, scaled-up bio-based solutions to treat the GW at case study level, the close-to-market development of the passive sampling devices and an updated EU chemical priority list.
