’14 - - · The EGS investment on communication has been kept constant and effective, and in March the much successful 'GeoGourmet Book' was officially launched. Two important milestones

’14EuroGeoSurveysA N N U A L R E P O R T

The EuroGeoSurveys Annual Report 2014 refers to information related to the year 2013.

Pioneering research for Society’s benefit since 1971

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

32 Geological surveys organisations from across Europe

Content Executive Summary 4

EGS in Brief 5

Conversation with Mart van Bracht 8

Key People 9

Earth moving 14

The shape of our business 20

Statistics 2013 71

EGS Strategy 80

Greater focus on soil health needed to feed a hungry planet 83

The EuroGeoSurveys Annual Report 2014 refers to information related to the year 2013.

page 4 I EGS 2013 Annual Report

Executive Summary2013 has been an extremely intense year for EGS strategically. The EGS Strategy Task Force had never been so engaged in the past.

This resulted in the finalisation of the EGS Strategic Vision and of the EGS Strategy Position Paper.

A major effort was put in the EGS continuing attempt to better serve the EU institutions. In 2013, a considerable number of meetings and dialogues with several EU institutions was held, which allowed to identify the ERA-NET (one of the tools of the EC Framework Programme for Research, now Horizon 2020, or H2020) as a suited tool to pave the way towards the application of an Art. 185 TFEU on geosciences.

One member of the Cabinet of the Commissioner for Research, two MEPs (including the Chair of the ITRE Committee) and two EC Director Generals attended the EGS General Meeting in March, expressing support to EGS and proving the sharp increase in the EGS recognition at EU level.

At the same time, and in order to facilitate the achievement of the above goals, other actions were undertaken by the EGS Secretariat, including the signature of an agreement of cooperation with the European

Commission's in-house research body - DG JRC.

However, also as a consequence of major changes in key EC positions, and notwithstanding the huge effort by EGS, some EC officers expressed the request to further discuss this topic. EGS, thanks to the joint effort of the members, could demonstrate a capacity to react in an extremely coordinated and effective way, finding direct and strong support in the National Representatives with the H2020 committees, while the EGS Secretariat and Executive Committee were at the same time engaged in close dialogues with EU institutions at the highest levels.

At the end of the year, the Commissioner for Research, on behalf of six other Commissioners, expressed in writing their support and stated that they 'will explore how geosciences could best be taken forward as a cross-cutting issue as part of the next Strategic Programming cycle'.

In the meantime the Minerals4EU project was launched in September 2013. The project is another milestone of the EGS growth, as it was conceived by the EGS Mineral Resources Expert Group. The project will set up a permanent infrastructure and will design the first European Minerals Yearbook.

Other relevant milestones of EGS in 2013 have been: the establishment of the European Technology Platform on Sustainable Mineral Resources (ETP SMR) as a legal entity; the launch of a feasibility study jointly with the Organisation of African Geological Surveys (OAGS); and the launch of the GEMAS Atlas during the World Soils Day at the FAO Headquarters, which was a huge success: the Atlas was presented as flagship of the event, in front of several authorities from all over the world.

The EGS investment on communication has been kept constant and effective, and in March the much successful 'GeoGourmet Book' was officially launched.

Two important milestones were reached this year with the signing of an MoU between EGS and ROSNEDRA (Russian Federal Agency on Mineral Resources) and the signing of a Cooperation Agreement between EGS and the EC DG JRC (Joint Research Centre). The cooperation that will result from the MoU with ROSNEDRA is seen as a significant development in the policy dialogue between the EC and their Russian counterparts particularly in the area of raw materials. The collaboration agreement with the JRC will ensure long term cooperation in sharing geo-scientific information and knowledge.

The Polish Geological Institute–National Research Institute (PGI-NRI) along with EGS organised the “S-Bridge International Conference – Shale Gas a bridge energy carrier: from fossil fuels to green energy” which was a satellite event for the Climate Change Conference of the Parties (CCCOP) – UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The focus of the conference was to shed light on chances for sustainable use of shale gas as well as its future role in the forecasted energy budget of individual countries, especially in Europe.

In conclusion, 2013 has been another transition year of strong evolution.

EuroGeoSurveys has shown an impressive level of maturity in the collective reaction towards an ERA-NET.

To keep at the same levels the consideration the EU institutions have shown towards EGS probably the biggest challenge. During 2014 EGS will need to prove that 2013 has not been an exceptional year, but simply marked a change in the position of the organisation into the international arena. A position that must become stable and permanent.


EGS in Brief MISSION

EGS provides 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.

Europe is facing a number of grand challenges. For many of them knowledge of the subsurface is of vital importance. The need to stimulate economic growth and recovery poses the question to what extent Europe’s industries will remain dependent on imports of critical raw materials. To answer this question we have to know if we can cover this demand from own resources. Europe’s need for reliable, clean and efficient energy asks for a sound, seamless overview of energy resources in Europe. To develop a European strategy to mitigate the effects of climate change it is important to understand the relationship between climate and natural hazards like floods, draughts, land subsidence, landslides etc. To reduce the release of CO2 to the atmosphere it is necessary to know where, and to what extent, CO2 can be safely stored in the subsurface. To guarantee a sufficient supply of food and water Europe needs to know the location, quantity and quality of its groundwater resources and soils. The need to provide EU’s citizens with a healthy and clean living environment asks for a clear, unambiguous understanding of the resilience and vulnerability of Europe’s subsurface to human interference. To protect EU’s citizens against natural hazards it is important to know under which geological conditions areas are subject to risks.

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 infrastructures 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 andDevelopment

• International cooperation with a focus on North America and Africa: European data available for the African Geological Surveys

• Future collaboration with Latin-southern America and Asia

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



Conversation with Mart van Bracht DIRECTOR OF GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE NETHERLANDS (TNO) – EUROGEOSURVEYS PRESIDENT 2013-2014

Dear reader,

The year 2013 has been a year of progress for EGS, and this Report shows some of the highlights. EGS has continued its evolution from a platform into a network organization which actively contributes to European policy.

In 2013 societal challenges such Energy, Climate Action, Raw Materials, Environment and Disaster Resilience remained high on the European Agenda, or even grew in importance as consequence of socio-political developments. It is clear that geological know-how and information are key enablers to address these challenges at EU-wide level. The launch of Horizon 2020, the European Union's €80 billion research and innovation programme, in December 2013, thus represents an important opportunity for EGS to answer EU science-related questions and keep contributing to the well-being of European citizens.

Over the past year EuroGeoSurveys has further developed its joint Strategic Vision and strategic action plan, and has started its implementation.

Central to the Strategic Vision is the establishment, by 2020 of a common European Geological Knowledge Base and a Geological Service for Europe, to be provided jointly by the National Geological Surveys of Europe. The Geological Service will provide the European Union with access to objective and seamless data, knowledge and expertise on geology and wider geosciences. The development of the European Geological Service is based on 3 pillars: a Joint Research Program, a European Geological Data Infrastructure, and sharing of Capacities and Infrastructure.

Throughout 2013, EGS has gathered growing support for the Strategy from EU Institutions, as exemplified by a letter signed by the Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science Maire Geoghegan-Quinn on behalf of 6 other Commissioners in December 2013. The letter states that: “Creating a geological service for Europe which provides harmonised pan-European geological data in order to support business, national and European policy and strategic planning is a valuable objective, which I support”.

The unanimous endorsement of the EGS Strategic Vision by all EGS members signifies a step change in the co-operative relationship between the geological surveys of Europe. But also at the practical level there are clear examples of the surveys’ increased collaboration.

Such examples include the finalisation of the PanGeo project (Earth Observation Expert Group), the end of EMODNet geology and the start of EMODNet geology-2 (Marine Geology EG), the start of the Minerals4EU project, and active contribution to the EU Raw Materials Initiative (Mineral Resources EG), the continuation of the EGDI-Scope study (Spatial Information EG), the finalisation of the GEMAS atlas (Geochemistry Expert Group), and many more.

In my opinion, the year 2013 has been a significant turning point for EGS of which you will surely find ample evidence in this Annual Report.

Mart van Bracht


Expert knowledge at the disposal of all European citizens, institutions, companies, media, universities, …

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEEis 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 GENERALis 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 GeneralLuca Demicheli

PresidentMart van Bracht'Netherlands - TNO'

Vice PresidentPeter Seifert'Austria - GBA'

MemberJerzy Nawrocki'Poland - PGI'

Key People WORKING TOGETHER TO REACH OUR GOALS

EXPERT GROUPS

NATIONALDELEGATES

SECRETARY GENERAL

BOARD OF DIRECTORS EXECUTIVE

COMMITTEE

Viktor Doda'Albania1 - AGS'

Michiel Dusar'Belgium - GSB'

Eleni Georgiu-Morrisseau'Cyprus - GSD'

Peter Seifert'Austria - GBA'

Josip Halamica'Croatia - HGI-CGS'

Zdenek Venera 'Czech Rep. - CGS'

TreasurerJosip Halamic'Croatia - HGI-CGS'

Johnny Fredericia 'Denmark - GEUS'


Branislav Zec 'Slovakia - SGUDS'

Elias Ekdahl 'Finland - GTK'

Stefano Laporta (Director General) 'Italy2 - ISPRA'

Mart J. van Bracht 'Netherlands - TNO'

Hans-Joachim Kümpel 'Germany1 - BGR'

Robert Maquil 'Luxembourg - SGL'

Jan Magnusson 'Sweden - SGU'

Aivar Pajupuu 'Estonia - EGK'

Koen Verbrugger 'Ireland - GSI'

Bernardo de Bernardinis (President) 'Italy1 - ISPRA'

Marko Komac 'Slovenia - GeoZS'

Vincent Laflèche 'France - BRGM'

Jonas Satkunas 'Lithuania - LGT'

Morten Smelror 'Norway - NGU'

Jorge Civis LLovera 'Spain1 - IGME'

Vassilis Kostopouls (President) 'Greece1 - EKBAA-IGME'

Nikolaos Nikolaou (Director General) 'Greece1b - EXBAA-IGME'

Anthony Rizzo 'Malta - MRA'

Stefan Marincea 'Romania - GIR'

Teresa Ponce de Leão (President) 'Portugal1 - LNEG'

Olivier Lateltin'Switzerland1 - SWISSTOPO'

Oleg Petrov 'Russia - VSEGEI'

Mário Rui Machado Leite (Director General) 'Portugal2 - LNEG'

John Ludden 'United Kingdom - BGS'

Sergiy Goshovskiy 'Ukraine - UkrSGRI'

Valeriy Dudinov 'Ukraine - SGSSU'

Tamás Fancsik 'Hungary - MFGI'

BOARD OF DIRECTORS (continued)

Jerzy Nawrocki 'Poland - PGI'

Key People


NATIONAL DELEGATESThey represent the National contact points of each Geological Survey.

'Albania - AGS' Arben Pambuku

'Austria - GBA' Hans-Georg Krenmayr

'Belgium - GSB' Cecile Baeteman

'Croatia - HGI-CGS' Josip Halamic

'Cyprus - GSD' Zomenia Zomeni

'Czech Rep. - CGS' Ivana Svojtkova

'Denmark - GEUS' Jens Stockmarr

'Estonia - EGK' Aivar Pajupuu

'Finland – GTK' Jarmo Kohonen

'France - BRGM' Pierre Nehlig

'Germany - BGR' Birgit Kuhns

'Greece - IGME' Kostas Laskaridis

'Hungary - MFGI' Annamaria Nador

'Ireland - GSI' Taly Hunter-Williams

'Italy - ISPRA' Luca Guerrieri

'Malta - MRA' Michael Schembri

'Netherlands - TNO' Tirza M. van Daalen

'Norway - NGU' Jan Host

'Poland - PGI' Ilona Smietanska

'Portugal - LNEG' Ruben Dias

'Portugal - LNEG' Rita Caldeira

'Romania - GIR' Marcel Maruntiu

'Russia - VSEGEI' Vitaly Shatov

'Slovakia - SGUDS' Alena Klukanova

'Spain - IGME' Manuel Regueiro

'Sweden - SGU' Lisbeth Hildebrand

'Switzerland - SWISSTOPO'

Peter Hayoz

'Ukraine - UkrSGRI' Boris Malyuk

'United Kingdom - BGS' Vicky Hards

Key People


EXPERT GROUPS CHAIRS

MARINE GEOLOGYChair: Henry Vallius, Geological Survey of Finland – GTK

Deputy Chair: Alan Stevenson, British Geological Survey – BGS

EARTH OBSERVATION – GEOHAZARDSChair: Gerardo Herrera, Geological Survey of Spain – IGME

Deputy Chair (for GeoHazards): Eleftheria Poyiadji, Greek Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration – EKBAA-IGME

Deputy Chair (for Earth Observation): Claudie Carnec, French Bureau de Reserches Géologiques et Minières – BRGM

GEOCHEMISTRYChair: Clemens Reimann, Geological Survey of Norway – NGU

Deputy Chair: Anna Ladenberger, Geological Survey of Sweden – SGU

GEOENERGYChair: Peter Britze, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland – GEUS

Deputy Chair (for Carbon Capture Storage): Kris Piessens, Geological Survey of Belgium – GSB

Deputy Chair (for Fossil Fuels and Geothermal Energy): Serge van Gessel, Geological Survey of the Netherlands – TNO

WATER RESOURCESChair: Hans Peter Broers, Built Environment and Geosciences, Geological Survey of the Netherlands – TNO

Deputy Chair: Klaus Hinsby, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland – GEUS

MINERAL RESOURCES Chair: Nikolaos Arvanitidis, Geological Survey of Sweden – SGU

Deputy-Chair: Daniel Cassard, French Bureau de Recerches Géologiques et Minières – BRGM

SPATIAL INFORMATION (INSPIRE)Chair: François Robida, French Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières – BRGM

Deputy Chair: Jarmo Kohonen, Geological Survey of Finland – GTK

Deputy Chair: Fernando Perez Cerdan, Geological Survey of Spain – IGME

SOIL RESOURCES – SUPERFICIAL DEPOSITSChair: Rainer Baritz, German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources – BGR

Deputy Chair: Florence Quesnel, French Bureau de Reserches Géologiques et Minières – BRGM

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENTChair: Marek Graniczny, Polish Geological Institute - National Research Institute (PGI-NRI)

Deputy Chair: Dirk Kuester, German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources – BGR

Key People



Earth moving MAIN GEOLOGICAL EVENTS IN EUROPE

FLOOD EVENT IN SARDINIA 18-19 NOVEMBER 2013 Introduction Since the late evening of November 17 up to November 19, an exceptional event of bad weather affected the region of Sardinia, an Italian island of about 24 km2 in the Mediterranean Sea where 1.6 million people live, affecting in particular the east and south west part of the territory. The phenomenon has caused serious problems, with significant damages and the loss of 17 human lives.

Hydro geological hazard in Sardinia

Sardinia has an area prone to phenomena of hydro-geological instability with particular reference to flooding, natural disaster which can be greatly amplified by anthropogenic factors and factors related to climate change.

The negative influence of human activities is carried out through the use of agro-pastoral practices not always adequate, the modification or abandonment of the most appropriate techniques for hydraulic measures, added to the loss of soil protection by the vegetation caused by the high number of forest fires in the island. In addition, over time, demographic and urban land has submitted the plain

areas, coastal areas in particular, to levels of anthropogenic pressure which cause imbalances in the dynamics of hydraulic and geo-morphological systems, further aggravating an already critical situation. The increase in the amount and distribution of rainfall, occurring more and more frequently with climate change, is an additional risk factor in this scenario.

Description of flood event

The flood event of 18-19 November 2013 characterized by flooding of numerous rivers and flash-flood phenomena, especially in the area of Olbia and in the basin of the river Cedrino, has had an impact, with different intensity and durations, on the areas of Gallura, of Baronie, Monte Acuto, Ogliastra, Barbagia Sarrabus-Gerrei, Campidano of Oristano and the Iglesiente, causing serious problems and considerable damage with tragic consequences in terms of loss of human lives.

In particular, based on the census of the damage occurred and as indicated by the Order of the Commissioner for the emergency no. 25 of 02.25.2014, 82 municipalities (corresponding to approximately 22% of all municipalities of the island) were affected by the event extreme, in all its forms of manifestation (flood, landslide, wind).

The table below shows the map of “isoiete” (closed curves showing the areas affected by the same amount of precipitation) on the rainy day of 18 November (Figure 1).

The density of “isoiete” shows the epicenter of rainfall in the area between the upper basin of the Flumendosa and the upper basin of the Cedrino. The “isoiete” detect as well as the areas of the high Oristanese, the average Campidano and the lower valley of the rio Cixerri have been affected by significant rainfall, also taking into account that these areas have average value of the series of daily maximum generally much lower than those the area east of Sardinia.

All non-coastal areas of eastern Sardinia, from the basin of the Flumendosa to the basin of the Liscia, have been affected by rainfall greater than 100 mm, with large areas that have values close to or greater than 200 mm.

The higher rainfall were recorded in the eastern part of the station of Monte Novo (Orgosolo, NU, 469 mm), Bau Mandara (Villagrande Strisaili - NU - 370.0 mm) and Cumbidanovu (Orgosolo, NU, 339.8 mm) . Values near or greater than 250 mm were detected further north, in the basin of the Rio Posada stations Mamone (Onanì, NU, 294.2 mm), Lula (NU, 259.4 mm), and in the basin of the Rio Padrongianu (Sa Pianedda in the area of the municipality of Padru, SS, 247.4 mm).

Figure 1. Geological section of the Torreperojil area.

Source: Presidenza - Direzione generale Agenzia Regionale del Distretto Idrografico della Sardegna.


Earth moving

Consequences of flood event

On the basis of the effects of the event, and thus the damages caused, the consequences on the ground in precipitation have been significant and widespread in the territory; In fact, while in small basins damages were caused by high intensity rainfall associated with shorter times of concentration of the basin, in biggest basins the cause of the damages has been attributed to the high rainfall, accumulated over 24 hours, and to the topography and the degree of human settlement of the territories affected.

Regarding the effects on the ground, due to sudden river floods, in addition to flooding, processes of sediment transport with considerable accumulation of debris and consequent phenomena of channel fill have been occurred frequently. The considerable amount of water, having increased river flows, in most cases resulted in the overlap of the banks and also led to the breakup of them. The erosion of river embankments, slopes and embankments road or rail, in particular, have contributed to the strong flow of the rivers, rivers have suffered significant accumulations of debris and contributed to the obstruction of bridges. The obstruction did not affect only the lights of the bridges but also closed channels found mainly in urban centers; or such "waterways", very

often undersized (ie not designed considering the actual solid discharge), have failed to allow the discharge of floods within the box-shaped, which have been clogged.

In terms of loss of human lives the event was one of the most devastating in the recent history of Sardinia with 17 victims.

Figure 2: Images from "www.meteoweb.eu”

Bridge Oloè S.P. n. 46 Oliena-Dorgali (1 victim)

S.P. n. 38 Olbia-Tempio (3 victims)

S.P. n. 3 Bitti –Onanì-Lula

Flood in the river Cedrino south of Olbia

S.P. n. 73 Bitti-Sologo


Earth moving

The Regional Basin Authority highlighted as the most critical points that have contributed to the occurrence of these types of damage, correspond in general to those already identified in the regional hydrogeological plan (PAI), with reference to the potential risks of hydrological instability: road bridges, railway bridges, urbanization in areas pertaining to the river, failure of the cross section, poor maintenance river, defense work in distress, failure/absence of mitigation measures, silting of the section; inadequacy of urban sewage systems. From all this we can estimate that the regional flood risk present in the entire region, confirmed by what happened tragically, is often associated with a little attention to water courses and their areas of competence, especially when they interact with the existing infrastructure.

A HOLE LOT OF TROUBLE – SINKHOLE EVENTS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM The winter of 2013-14 will be remembered in the United Kingdom for the incessant rain and flooding, particularly in the Somerset Levels and across southeast England. Records from the UK Meteorological Office show that this winter was one of, if not the most, exceptional periods of winter rainfall in at least 248 years for England and Wales. However, it was not just the flooding that

made the headlines. During a three week period in late February and early March, over 25 ‘sinkholes’ opened up across southern Britain, which were widely reported by the media.

Natural dissolutional sinkholes are common in the UK; many occur on Carboniferous limestones in upland parts of northern and western England, in Wales, and on the Permian gypsum outcrop in Yorkshire. The spatial distribution of these sinkholes, and other related dissolution phenomena, is highly dependent on bedrock and superficial geology. The British Geological Survey (BGS) has assessed the potential for dissolution hazards by combining the national 1:50,000 scale digital geological map with other datasets, for example topography and superficial thickness to come up with a hazard rating. This is available as attributed vector polygons and raster grids via the BGS ‘Geosure’ dataset (www.bgs.ac.uk/products/geosure/).

However, many of this winter’s ‘sinkhole’ events were not natural geological phenomenon at all, but related to the collapse of artificial cavities or to the failure of old mine shafts or wells. The UK is peppered with man-made underground cavities including old mines, tunnels, wells, cellars, culverts, and drains, many of which are unrecorded. Most of the recent

subsidence events occurred on the Cretaceous Chalk outcrop in south and south-east England, principally because this is where the rainfall was most extreme, but also because of the large number of shallow Chalk mine-workings. These were often dug for agricultural purposes, chiefly to lime acidic soils or in some instances to obtain flint, and as an ingredient for making bricks.

Although it is clear this winter’s heavy rainfall has caused a significant increase in subsidence events across southeast England, it is very difficult to assess the true magnitude of this increase relative to the normal background rate of sinkhole formation as most sinkholes in upland areas go unnoticed. Only those that have an impact get recorded. What is clear is that if predictions of more extreme weather events prove correct, then we can expect more sinkholes of whatever variety in the future.

Figure 1. Collapse of a house in Ripon, North Yorkshire, due to dissolution of gypsum, February 2014.

Figure 2. A collapsed denehole (Chalk mine) in the grounds of a school in Kent, southeast England, February 2014.


Earth moving

DISCOVERY OF A CLOSE RELATION BETWEEN PLATE TOPOGRAPHY AND EARTHQUAKES

Thanks to a combination of spatial geodesic techniques (InSAR and GPS), an international team of the Geological Survey of Spain (IGME), the Institut de Physique du Globe of Paris (IPGP) and the Institut des Sciences de la Terre (ISTerre, France), the Department of Geophysics of the University of Chile (DGF) and the California Technology Institute (Caltech, USA), has measured with an unprecedented resolution the interseismic deformation of the seismic gap in Northern Chile where a big earthquake could take place.

The results of the research show that there is a clear relation between the extension of the interseismic coupling and the topography of the upper plate, controlled by active faults. This suggest a mechanical relation between the segmentation of the subduction zone and the tectonic structures of the upper plate responsible of the uplift of the Andean margin, that is, there is clear evidence of the relation between the events in the subduction plane (where big earthquakes are produced) and the upper plate.

The novelty of the study is that up until now most studies considered that factors

controlling the extension of subduction earthquakes (and thus their magnitude) were or the frictional properties of the plate contact or the topography of the subducting plate (the bathymetry of the oceanic plate), disregarding the role of the structures of the upper plate.

Several studies have proven similarities between blocked (or coupled) regions during the interseismic charge period and the regions breaking during big subduction earthquakes. The size of the earthquakes depends on the size of the broken zone and this depends on the extension of the blocked zone in the interseismic period. This implies that if we can find the size of the blocked zone during the interseismic period, we will be able to know the maximum earthquake expected in that zone.

Identifying the reloading regions and the seismic barriers able to limit the extension of a future rupture (thus the magnitude of the resulting earthquake) is fundamental to evaluate the seismic hazard of these regions.

3D view showing the relation between the distribution of the subduction plane coupling and topography. The subduction plane is idealized be the colored rectangles, colors drafted according to the coupling degree. The zone near the surface (0-30 km deep) is very coupled, whereas the deepest zone (30-50 km deep) is only partially coupled.

Ground deformation measurements during the a interseismic period in Northern Chile. Color map represents speed according to InSAR data in the satellite-ground direction (grey arrow in the left upper corner). Black arrows show GPS horizontal speed and colored points in the same positions show vertical GPS speeds. The yellow arrow represents the length of the seismic gap (aprox 500 km).


Earth moving

CLIMATE CHANGE - ICE MELTING MONITORING IN GREENLAND AND DRAMATIC CLIMATE IMPACT ON SURFACE WATER COURSES IN DENMARK

The effect of global warming is considerable in the Arctic, and in recent years snow and ice melt in this region has reached new records. The Greenland ice sheet is shrinking year by year, and melt water is contributing to the rise in sea level. The sea ice in the Arctic is becoming thinner and its extension is decreasing, so that, in the summer of 2012, the distribution of sea ice was the lowest ever recorded.

Greenland and Denmark have a special interest in monitoring the condition of the large masses of ice in the Arctic, and in 2013, a new website, PolarPortal.dk, was launched to enable the public to follow what is happening with the ice, almost in real time. The website shows how the Greenland ice sheet is changing in size week by week. This is put in a global context by also showing the degree to which melting of the ice sheet has contributed to the rise in global sea level.

The information on the website is based on a comprehensive amount of data, which is being collected and processed by leading Danish research organisations every day.

The website provides information about the degree of melting from the surface of the ice sheet, the volume of ice breaking off glaciers and the extent of sea ice. PolarPortal.dk is run by the Danish Meteorological Institute, GEUS and DTU Space in collaboration, and some of the data originate from the PROMICE monitoring programme on the Greenland ice sheet, headed by GEUS.

Climate change impact on hydrology and runoff in Denmark

South-east Denmark will experience dramatic increases in the maximum surface watercourses runoff, while watercourses in north and east Jutland will experience more moderate increases up to 2050. This has been revealed by calculations from a nationwide hydrological model prepared by GEUS for the Danish Nature Agency. These calculations were performed using nine different climate projections. The greatest changes in maximum runoff in watercourses are more than 50%, predicted to occur in south-east Denmark in areas with clayey soils where most of the water will run off on the surface after a downpour. East, north and west Jutland will experience more moderate increases of between 10% and 25%. In the summer period from 1 May to 1 October, the increases will be even more dramatic. The implications of the extreme runoff in watercourses could lead to periodical accumulations of water

that could impact drainage, rainwater and sewage systems and thus increase the risk of flooding. The study therefore indicates that preparing for changes in sea levels and threats of cloudbursts e.g. in urban areas, cannot stand alone, changes in maximum runoff in watercourses also have to be taken into account.

The results of the calculations are available on the climate change adaption portal, along with similar assessments of groundwater level, to give municipalities a quick idea of the magnitude of problems and where these may occur in future.



EXPERT GROUP EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOHAZARDS (EOEG)

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The 2013 was a year of changes for Earth Observation Expert Group (EOEG), changes in chairmanship, increasing topics, and getting ready to face new challenges. The EOEG was renamed into Earth Observation and Geohazards Expert Group trying to embrace more members from the Geohazards community. In this context, the EOEG mission is to increase the quality, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of EGS members' science delivery, by sharing and pooling expertise and research, and to capitalize on European and International Earth Observation (EO) application to geohazards, as well as other geo-science related opportunities (i.e. geo-resources, waste management, etc.). Two new deputy chair positions were created to assist the EOEG Chair (Stuart Marsh, BGS) the deputy chair for GeoHazards (Eleftheria Poyiadji, IGME GR) and the deputy chair for Earth Observation (Claudie Carnec, BRGM). Finally, after the leave of Stuart Marsh, Gerardo Herrera (IGME ES) was appointed as Chair of EOEG in December 2013.

EOEG contributed to the Group of Earth Observation (GEO) through the Disasters Societal Benefit Area and Geohazard

Community of Practice, seeking additional opportunities to expand geology within GEO. EOEG has built a strong GEO and Copernicus project portfolio addressing geohazards. In 2013 they played a key role in SubCoast (floodings and subsidence), Doris and Lampre (landslides), Evoss (volcanos), Terrafirma and Pangeo (urban geohazards), as well as in geo-resources EO through Aegos and EO-Miners projects. Most of these projects, concluded in 2013, represent a wealth of data on Geohazards Earth Observation that will be poured into the European Geological Data Infrastructure (EGDI) making it accessible to European citizens in a harmonized and coordinated way. In this framework EOEG replied in a coordinated way to ESA Request for Information “Implementation of Thematic Exploitation Platforms” by pointing out the strong need of a Geo-hydrological risk Exploitation Platform (GEOREP). Scientific exploitation of these projects will lead to the participation of several EOEG members into a PAGEOPH (Pure and Applied Geophysics) topical issue called “Deformation Monitoring and Modelling”.

In 2014 EOEG developments are envisaged to pursue opportunities offered by H2020 scientific program related to earth observation and geohazards, support the Geohazards data integration into the European Geological Data Infrastructure, continue influencing GEO post-2015 working group, start the

collaboration with the Joint Research Centre and pursue opportunities related to the forthcoming launch of Sentinel missions (ESA), ALOS PALSAR-2 (JAXA) and PAZ (Spain) for ground motion monitoring.

2. MISSION AND VISION

EOEG from its creation in December 2009 exists to increase the quality, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of EGS members' science delivery and to capitalise on European and International Earth Observation (EO) application to geohazards, as well as other geo-science related opportunities (i.e. geo-resources, waste management, etc.)

EGS members share their EO expertise and research, utilise state-of-the-art in-situ, airborne and satellite EO techniques and datasets, and pool their EO expertise, experience, resources and facilities to pursue opportunities related to the Group on Earth Observation (GEO) through the H2020 programs, the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (Copernicus) and other related opportunities.

Our vision is that, by fulfilling this mission over 5 years to 2015, EOEG will ensure that EGS: becomes the European centre of excellence for geological applications of Earth Observation; plays a significant role in helping GEO create a Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS); takes the lead in validating

The shape of our business


space-borne and airborne EO with in-situ data; and delivers geological research and geo-information services in the EC’s Copernicus initiative.

3. SCOPE AND FOCUS

The scope of EOEG is the full range of EO tools (optical, hyperspectral, thermal, radar) from various platforms (satellite, airborne, in-situ) applied to geohazards (earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, subsidence and flooding), resources exploration and production (oil, gas, geothermal energy, minerals and groundwater), and waste management (mine pollution, nuclear, CCS, landfills).

Since its creation EOEG focus is geohazards EO applications participating in GEO Disasters Societal Benefit Area and Geohazard Community of Practice, the Terrafirma project that is one of ten services being supported by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (Copernicus) Service Element Programme and several FP7 projects (SubCoast, EVOSS, PanGeo, DORIS, Lampre, etc.).

Recently, since 2012 EOEG also focuses on geo-resources to support and contribute to the EC Raw Materials Initiative (RMI) and the African European Georesources Observation System, through EO-MINERS project.

It is expected that products and services produced within these projects could be served through the European Geological Data Infrastructure (EGDI scope project). For this purpose future H2020 calls will be responded by the EOEG.

4. THE EUROPEAN DIMENSION

GEO is an inter-governmental initiative with one overarching objective: to build the GEOSS. This observing system includes component systems coming from the geoscience community, including the Global Seismic Network, Global Geodetic Observing System and other satellite, airborne and in-situ observing systems. It is therefore both a duty upon, and in the self-interest of, geological surveys to engage with and contribute to GEO. Thus, along with the IUGS, EGS is a Participating Organisation in GEO. The EOEG acts as the EGS alternate representative, being part of GEO’s Implementation Board concerning science and technology, users and capacity building; the Point of Contact for minerals in GEO; and also in the human impacts of mining. GEO has offered a significant opportunity to secure additional research funding for EO and geoscience projects, called through the FP7 Environment Theme, and it is expected that this will continue in Horizon 2020 once that commences.

Copernicus is Europe’s flagship EO Programme, providing a global observing system for the environmental sciences in its own right, and also Europe’s main contribution to GEO. It is a joint initiative of both the European Space Agency and the European Commission designed to develop the European elements of the global Earth observing system. The space agency will deliver new satellite systems, the Sentinels, the first of which measures ground deformation and so will be of critical importance to EGS members. Copernicus also includes important in-situ observation systems that often fall within the remit of geological surveys, related institutes and their initiatives, such as the European Plate Observing System and EGS’s European Geological Data Infrastructure. The European geological surveys therefore need to engage and contribute to shaping and delivering Copernicus and EGS has been at the forefront of this effort in recent years, both through the provision of advice and via associated EC FP7 and ESA funded projects. EOEG members now have a strong GEO and Copernicus portfolio that addresses geohazards. This includes co-Chairing GEO’s Geohazard Community of Practice with its associated Roadmap for implementing GEO’s Disasters Societal Benefit Area. A growing portfolio of FP7-funded GEO European Projects underpins this involvement (AEGOS and EO-MINERS, led by BRGM).



In 2012, this expanded with the award of three new Supersite projects; EO-focused natural laboratories on classic European geohazards in Iceland (volcanic ash), Italy (volcanic hazards) and Turkey (earthquakes). In Copernicus, this activity includes the ESA-funded Terrafirma and a suite of EC-funded projects on geohazards in the coastal zone (SubCoast, led by TNO), landslides (DORIS, LAMPRE with IGME, MFGI and PGI involvement), volcanoes (EVOSS, with BGS involvement) and urban geohazards (PanGEO, for which EGS has federated the geological survey input from the EU27). The latter builds on the OneGeology infrastructure, provided by BRGM, and is of great strategic value to EGS as it builds towards the foreseen European Geological Data Infrastructure.

5. ACTIVITY REPORT

The 2013 was a year of changes for Earth Observation Expert Group (EOEG), changes in chairmanship, increasing topics, and getting ready to face new challenges.

During EOEG meeting held in Brussels on the 7th of February, following the National Delegates meeting recommendations, it was decided that the Expert Group would be renamed into Earth Observation and Geohazards Expert Group trying to embrace more members from both Earth Observation and Geohazards communities.

Reported EOEG activities by the British, French, German, Spanish, Italians, Irish, Polish, Greek, Danish, Norwegian and Netherlands GSOs included: technical developments in the use of radar linking wave direction to coastal erosion; integration of C-, L- and X-Band SAR, to monitor a range of ground motion rates; integration of EO with in-situ data and use of terrestrial observing systems e.g. SAR; geohazard applications to earthquakes, floodings, landslides and subsidence; other application areas developing, such as minerals exploration and mining impacts.

These activities were developed under the framework of several "cross-cutting" projects funded by Copernicus and FP7 program like: Terrafirma, PanGeo, SubCoast, EO-MINERS, DORIS, LAMPRE.

In June 2013, two new positions (deputy Chairs) were created to assist the EOEG Chair, Stuart Marsh (BGS, UK): Deputy Chair (for GeoHazards): Eleftheria Poyiadji (IGME, Greece) and Deputy Chair (for Earth Observation): Claudie Carnec (BRGM, France). Finally, after the leave of Stuart Marsh on the 30th September as the Chair in Geospatial Engineering in the Nottingham Geospatial Institute, Gerardo Herrera (IGME-Spain) was appointed as Chair of EOEG in December 2013. In December 2013, Claudie Carnec left the position as Deputy Chair.

The EOEG issued a call for new members to Geological Surveys involved in projects like PanGeo, which involve almost every EGS Member. This effort increased EOEG membership to 16 Geological Surveys including: Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Irland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, The Netherlands, UK.

In November 2013, group of Earth Scientists formed by the EOEG, and key scientific partners from FP7 DORIS, FP7 LAMPRE and FP7 SUBCOAST and EGDI scope projects, replied to ESA Request for Information “Implementation of Thematic Exploitation Platforms” by pointing out the strong need of a Geo-hydrological risk Exploitation Platform (GEOREP).

In December 2013, the EOEG members were invited to submit original papers to a PAGEOPH (Pure and Applied Geophysics) topical issue called “Deformation Monitoring and Modelling” www.springer.com/birkhauser/geo+science/journal/24 , which is co-edited by EOEG appointed chairman.

EOEG members attended to several relevant meetings: PanGeo Annual Review hosted by the Research European Agency in Brussels on the 28th February 2013; the meeting “MONITORING MATTERS - In–situ coordination in support of Copernicus operations” hosted



by the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen on 10-11th April 2013, and to the EGDI-scope project meeting on the 10th September in Malta.

Five GEO related FP7 and GMES projects (EO-Miners, Subcoast, Doris, Terrafirma, PanGeo) were concluded or in the final run in 2013, with an active involvement of EOEG members.

6. RESULTS AND IMPACTS

EOEG coordinated efforts in 2013 resulted in strengthening our position in GEO, Copernicus and FP7 science programs, raising the profile of Geological Surveys in Earth Observation. EOEG key participation permitted to develop new products and services for improving Earth Observation and Geohazards throughout several projects:

• EO-Miners project developed tools and methodologies to monitor mineral resources exploration and mining, and their impact on the environment and society (www.eo-miners.eu).

• Subcoast provides a service for monitoring and forecasting subsidence hazards in coastal areas that can influence on flood risk around Europe (www.subcoast.eu).

• Doris fulfils the gap in GMES Emergency services for detecting, mapping, monitoring and forecasting landslides (www.doris-project.eu).

• Terrafirma and then PanGeo, for which EGS has federated the geological survey input from the EU27, provide a Geohazard Information Service for 52 urban areas across Europe (www.terrafirma.eu.com). The geohazard information in each city combines InSAR derived ground motion and geological information, being accessible through PanGeo webservices via open access (www.pangeoproject.eu).

These results will provide a platform to argue for more Geology within the future GEO 2015-2025 working plan, and the new H2020 funding program. Moreover, they represent a wealth of information, data and expertise on Earth Observation and Geohazards that will be poured into European Geological Data Infrastructure (EGDI) to make it accessible to European citizens in a harmonized and coordinated way.

7. FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

The following developments are envisaged within EOEG in 2014:

• Secure the legacy of Terrafirma, Pangeo, Doris and Subcoast and especially its ground motion data

• Pursue opportunities offered by H2020 scientific program related to earth observation and geohazards

• Support the development and integration of Earth Observation and Geohazards data into the European Geological Data Infrastructure

• EOEG in GEO: > Influence post-2015 Working Group to

include landslides and subsidence in the GEO Disasters Societal Benefit Area and Geohazard Community of Practice

> Seek opportunities for other EGS expert groups to expand geology within GEO (i.e. the Geo-resources tasks)

• Start the collaboration with the Joint Research Centre:

> Provide support about satellite radar interferometry (InSAR) downstream services to the Global Security and Crisis Management working group (IPSC)

> Integrate the European Landslide Expert Group (IES)

• Seek opportunities related to the forthcoming launch of Sentinel missions (ESA) and ALOS PALSAR-2 (JAXA), and PAZ (Spain) for ground motion monitoring.



8. LIST OF MEMBERS Updated July 2013


Country Survey Expert

CZECH REPUBLIC CZS Veronika Kopackova

DENMARK GEUS Jens Stockmarr

GEUS Karen Hanghøj

GEUS Jorgen Tulstrup

GEUS Signe Bech Andersen

FRANCE BRGM Claudie Carnec

BRGM Stéphane Chevrel

BRGM Francis Bertrand

BRGM Guillaume Martelet

GERMANY BGR Birgit Kuhns

BGR Dirk Balzer

BGR Lege, Thomas

BGR Kai Hahne

GREECE IGME Eleftheria Poyiadji

IRELAND GSI Michael Sheehy

ITALY ISPRA Luca Guerrieri

ISPRA valerio comerci

ISPRA Eutizio Vittori

NORWAY NGU Jan Host

NGU John Dehls

POLAND PGI Zbigniew Kowalski

PGI Marek Graniczny

PGI Maria Przylucka

PORTUGAL LNEG Teresa Cunha

Lídia Quental

SLOVAK REPUBLIC SGUDS Pavel Liščák

SLOVENIA GEOZS Mateja Jemec

GEOZS Marko Komac

SPAIN IGME Manuel Regueiro

IGME Gerardo Herrera

SWEDEN SGU Cecilia Jelinek

THE NETHERLANDS TNO Paul Bogaard

TNO Rob van der Krogt

UK BGS Colm Jordan

BGS Luke Bateson

BGS Francesca Cigna

SLOVAK REPUBLIC SGUDS Peter Malík

SLOVENIA GEOZS Janko Urbanc

SPAIN IGME Juan de Dios Gómez Gómez

IGME Juan Antonio de la Orden Gomez

IGME Miguel Mejias Moreno

SWEDEN SGU Jenny McCarthy

SWITZERLAND FOEN Ronald Kozel

TNO Paul Bogaard

UK BGS Robert Ward

BGS Denis Peach

BGS John Chilton


EXPERT GROUP GEOENERGY

1. INTRODUCTION

This has been the fourth 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. During 2013 it was decided to incorporate the former CCS expert group into the EGS GEEG. The GeoEnergy Expert Group consists of 42 representatives from 21 of the EuroGeoSurveys’ member organizations. The group has grown considerably since last year as the diversifications of tasks. Two deputy chairs have been appointed, Serge Van Gessel within Geothermal energy, and Kries Piessens within CCS.

Since the incorporation of CCS into the group EGS GEEG Mission and Vision statements needs an update, which will be implemented at the next GEEG meeting. But for now the statements are.

2. 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.

3. 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.

5. ACTIVITY REPORT

Since May 2010 EGS GEEG has been a member of the Berlin Forum Indigenous Fossil Fuels Working Group under DG ENER.

Intergroup meeting: Towards a more ambitious agreement on emissions at UNFCCC – COP 19

The GEEG represented EGS at the EP conference “Towards a more ambitious agreement on emissions reduction at UNFCCC CoP19?” chaired by MEP Vittorio Prodi. The conference took place on 25 June 2013 in preparation of the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Warsaw in November 2013.



In the meeting a distinguished group of MEPs, EU and Presidency officials, representatives from USA, China, and Brazil, businesses, IUCN and UNEP sent a call for a clear move forward on an ambitious international agreement.

The outcomes of international agreements on climate change and sustainable development relate to the activities of the GEEG with regard to European assessments of CO2 storage capacity and potential for geothermal energy production. These assessments rely on innovative and cooperative geological evaluations which are central to the EGS vision and strategy.

22nd Session Committee on Sustainable Energy, UNECE

November 21st and 22nd the GEEG represented EGS at the UNECE 22nd Session Committee on Sustainable Energy in Geneva. The presentations and discussions strongly focused on global energy supply (rising demand of energy, accessibility to clean sustainable energy), sustainable development and the role of gas in the transition towards renewable energy. Important GEEG topics addressed are unconventional oil and gas, geothermal energy and subsurface storage of energy.

The relevant documents and presentations can be found at the Sustainable Energy section of UNECE website (www.unece.org).

European CO2 storage Atlas – JRC

JRC-Petten contacted EGS for support on the development of a comprehensive CO2 storage atlas covering the entire European region. The primary objective for potential EGS work concerns a consistent digital mapping, description and GIS-representation of geological units relevant to CO2 storage.

GEEG meeting and Shale Gas trip in Poland

In April PGI was host for a EGS GEEG meeting. At this meeting PGI presented the difficulties in assessing, exploring, and developing the shale gas in Poland. PGI also arranged a tour to drilling sites in northern Poland, where the drilling, fracturing, extraction, and environmental impact of shale gas from the Paleozoic Shales were the subject for many fruitful discussions. The figure shows the EGS GEEG at one of these sites.

Fig. 1: PGI shale gas field trip.

S-Bridge Conference

In November, as a side event to COP19, PGI together with EGS arranged a conference on Shale Gas in Europe, where several european ministers, politicians, and ambassadors together with experts on Shale Gas had the opportunity to discuss the assessment, exploration, development, the risks, and the environmental impact of extracting hydro-carbons from shales.

EU Unconventional Plays

In June DG ENV, ENER, CLIMA invited EGS GEEG to a stakeholders meeting on Shale gas for Horizon2020. During this meeting each stakeholder was asked to give a presentation pointing out the arguments for pushing research funds with regards to unconventional hydrocarbons being a part of Horizon 2020. After the presentations the pros and cons for adding unconventional hydrocarbons were discussed. Especially the politically impact on the European policies was pointed out by EGS.


In December the Horizon 2020 work programme was published. For the first time research subjects on Unconventional Hydro carbons are in the programme. All the subjects on geo-energy, geothermal energy, shale gas, and CCS, are found in the Horizon




2020 call. The call on shale gas is on the environmental impact. Until now, the main problem for EGS GEEG has been the lack of finances on any EU budget. The Horizon 2020 calls now enable the EGS GEEG to apply for EU funded research funds.

The EGS GEEG is by the DG ENER considered as their independent experts and advisors on geological matters with regards to geoenergy.


Within the Horizon 2020 Work Programme The Joint Research Center (DG JRC) has under other actions three programmes that will involve EGS GEEG:

B.2.7.: Energy Storage Mapping and Planning B.2.8.: Energy Policy support on CCS B.2.9.: Energy Policy support on

unconventional gas and oilIn B.2.9. it is directly stated that assessing Europe's resources will be in cooperation with the geological surveys.

A recent meeting with JRC has confirmed their interest of joint collaborations with regards to resource assessment, risks and hazards, and environmental issues for shale gas, geothermal energy, and CO2 storage. The time frame for these desk top studies is approximately 18 months, and will only give a rough outline of the resources and issues. A more thorough

research is needed to minimize the uncertainties.EGS GEEG will in the nearest future try to set up a collaboration agreement with JRC to ensure the best possible assessments and environmental evaluations on Europe’s geo-energy.

8. EGS GEEG MEMBERS LIST


AUSTRIA GBA Gerhard Letouze

GBA Gregor Götzl

BELGIUM GSB Estelle Petitclerc

GSB Kris Piessens

C.REPUBLIC CGS Josef Godany

CGS Karel Martinek

CGS Vit Hladik

CYPRUS GSD Ioannis Panayides

DENMARK GEUS Peter Britze

GEUS Jens Stockmarr

GEUS Niels Poulsen

FINLAND GTK Runar Blomqvist

FRANCE BRGM Didier Bonijoly

BRGM Aurélien Leynet

BRGM Philippe Calcagno

BRGM Isabelle Czernichowski

GERMANY BGR Harald Andruleit

BGR Birgit Kuhns

BGR Peter Gerling

BGR Franz May

GREECE IGME George Vougioukalakis

IGME Yiorgos Chatziyiannis

HUNGARY MAFI Anna Maria Nador

IRELAND GSI Taly Hunter

GSI John Morris

GSI Brian McConnell

ITALY ISPRA Fernando Ferri

ISPRA Marcello Iocca

MALTA MRA Michael Schembri

POLAND PGI Grzegorz Ryzynski

PGI Hubert Kiersnowski

PGI Monika Konieczyńska

PGI Marek Jarosiński

ROMANIA IGR Mircea Ticleanu

SLOVAK REPUBLIC SGUDS Ludovit Kucharic

SLOVENIA GeoZS Milos Markic

SPAIN IGME Roberto Martinez Orio

SWEDEN SGU Mikael Erlström

SGU Linda Wickström

THE NETHERLANDS TNO Serge van Gessel

TNO Barthold Pagnier

TNO Henk Pagnier

UNITED KINGDOM BGS Michael Stephenson


EXPERT GROUP GEOCHEMISTRY


The members of the EuroGeoSurveys Geochemistry Expert Group and the GEMAS Project Team, which includes members from outside organisations (e.g., Alterra, The Netherlands; Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute; Research Group Swiss Soil Monitoring Network, Swiss Research Station Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon, several Ministries of the Environment and University Departments of Geosciences, Chemistry and Mathematics in a number of European countries and New Zealand; ARCHE Consulting in Belgium; CSIRO Land and Water in Adelaide, Australia) were very active during 2013 on the preparation and publication of the two volumes of the Atlas with the title “Chemistry of Europe’s Agricultural Soils”. The new Atlas was launched on the occasion of World Soil Day (5 December 2013) at the premises of FAO in Rome, with an introduction by Mart van Bracht (EGS President), and a keynote presentation delivered by Clemens Reimann (Chairperson, EGS Geochemistry Expert Group), followed by a technical Workshop in the afternoon. During 2013, six papers were published on the GEMAS project results in peer-reviewed journals, and many oral and poster presentations were given at

national and international conferences and meetings. The GEMAS website, hosted by the Geological Survey of Austria, is updated continuously with new information. Other Group activities include (a) the completion of sampling in three URGE cities (Volos in Hellas, Ajka in Hungary, Čačak in Serbia), (b) publication of papers and presentations in conferences using results from the FOREGS Geochemical Atlas of Europe, European Groundwater Geochemistry (EGG), Geochemistry of Agricultural and Grazing land soil (GEMAS), and Urban Geochemistry (URGE) projects. Results from all four projects are relevant for various European Commission Directives and EU international commitments.


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, to offer independent expert advice to the European Commission, and to supply sound background data to scientists for their research, and to the public, in general, for education and other purposes (e.g., land use planning, agriculture).

To achieve this mission, systematic geochemical data for the whole 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 (both as books and on-line publications), which are freely available, and can be used in

• State of the environment reports (including monitoring)

• Mineral exploration

• Agriculture

• Forestry

• Animal husbandry

• Geomedicine or medical geology

• Forensic medicine

• Determination of natural background values for environmental risk assessment, etc.

The vision, therefore, is to produce high quality multi-element geochemical atlases for multi-purpose use for all types of near-surface Earth materials.



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 the current spatial chemical composition in materials occurring at the Earth’s surface, the geochemical background against which any future changes can be assessed.

3. SCOPE AND FOCUS

The focus of the EuroGeoSurveys Geochemistry Expert Group is the execution of pan-European applied geochemical projects using harmonised procedures of

sampling, sample preparation and laboratory analysis. 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 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 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.

• To provide European-wide harmonised geochemical data required by EC Directives.


The Table below summarises European Commission (EC) Directives that require European-wide harmonised geochemical background data across political borders. Four EuroGeoSurveys projects fulfil requirements of different EU directives: (1) FOREGS Geochemical Atlas of Europe (FOREGS atlas); (2) European Groundwater Geochemistry (EGG); (3) Geochemistry of Agricultural and Grazing land soil (GEMAS) and (4) Urban Geochemistry (URGE).




Directive Summary Application of geochemical data

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 FOREGS 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 EuroGeoSurveys project on European 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. Other Directives that can use information from these projects are: 65/65/EEC (26/1/1965); 80/777/EEC (15/7/1980); 80/778/EEC (15/7/1980); 96/70/EC (28/10/1996); 98/83/EC (3/11/1998); 2003/40/EC (16/5/2003); 2008/32/EC (11/3/2008).

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. Data from all four EuroGeoSurveys projects are relevant.

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. Data from all four EuroGeoSurveys projects are relevant.

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. Data from the FOREGS and GEMAS projects are relevant.

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. Data from the FOREGS, EGG and GEMAS projects are relevant.

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 affect fauna and flora can be monitored using geochemical background data of the surface environment. Data from the FOREGS and GEMAS projects are relevant.

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. Data from the FOREGS and GEMAS projects are relevant.


5. ACTIVITY REPORT

5.1. Continued work with the FOREGS data

The FOREGS Geochemical Atlas of Europe project is the first pan-European work that provides harmonised data sets for stream water, stream sediment, floodplain sediment and soil. Its results are important, because the variable geochemical background of European superficial natural materials was mapped. The two volumes of the Geochemical Atlas presenting the results were published in 2005 and 2006, and new analytical on boron, chlorine and fluorine in top- and sub-soil samples have been added to the database. The Geochemical Atlas texts, data, maps and photographs are freely available from: http://weppi.gtk.fi/publ/foregsatlas/.

Many European Union institutions, national and local authorities, and Universities use the produced data.

5.2. European Groundwater Geochemistry project (EGG)

In Europe, ca. 1900 ‘mineral water’ brands are officially registered and bottled for drinking. Bottled water is collected from ground water reservoirs, and it is rapidly becoming the main supply of drinking water for the general population in many European countries. A geochemical atlas presenting the results of the EuroGeoSurveys EGG project 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#).

This book is the first state of the art overview of the chemistry of ground water from 40 European countries from Portugal to Russia, measured on 1785 bottled water samples, equivalent to 1189 distinct bottled water brands from 1247 wells at 884 locations plus an additional 500 tap water samples acquired in 2008 by the network of EuroGeoSurveys experts all across Europe.

In contrast to previously available compilations, all chemical data (contained on the enclosed CD) were measured in a single laboratory, under strict quality control with high internal and external reproducibility,


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. All four EuroGeoSurveys projects (FOREGS atlas, GEMAS, EGG and URGE) are relevant.

REACH Regulation (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 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.

The EuroGeoSurveys Agricultural and Grazing land soil geochemistry project (GEMAS) fulfils the requirements of this regulation and will be available at the end of 2013. The GEMAS project satisfies other EU international commitments, such as (i) the United Nations Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), and (ii) the OECD Work on Investigation of High Production Volume Chemicals.


affording a single high quality, internally consistent data set. More than 70 parameters were determined on every sample using state of the art analytical techniques with ultra low detection limits at a single hydrochemical lab facility.

Because of the wide geographical distribution of water sources across 40 European countries, the bottled mineral, drinking and tap waters characterised herein may be used to obtain a first estimate of ‘groundwater geochemistry’ at the scale of the European Continent, previously unavailable in this completeness, quality and coverage. The data published here allow for the first time to present a comprehensive internally consistent, overview of the natural distribution and variation of the determined chemical elements and additional status parameters of groundwater at the European scale.

5.3. Geochemistry of Agricultural and Grazing land soil (GEMAS)

The GEMAS project is a cooperative project between the Geochemistry Expert Group of EuroGeoSurveys and Eurometaux (http://gemas.geolba.ac.at/). During 2008 and until early 2009, a total of 2108 samples of agricultural and 2023 samples of grazing land soil were collected at a density of 1 site/2500 km2 each from 33 European countries, covering an area of 5,600,000 km2. All

samples were analysed for 52 chemical elements following tight external quality control procedures. The GEMAS project thus provides for the first time fully harmonised data for element concentrations and soil properties known to influence the bio avai lability and toxicity of the elements at the continental (European) scale. The provided database is fully in compliance with the requirements of the European REACH Regulation (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals). It also provides valuable information for other European pieces of legislation related to metals in soil.

Most of 2013 was devoted to the GEMAS project, i.e., (i) finalisation of all Atlas Chapters and submission of the manuscripts to the Publisher in February 2013; (ii) publication of two volumes with the title: “Chemistry of Europe’s Agricultural Soils”, and inclusion of a DVD with all results, maps, diagrams, etc.; (iii) correction of typesetting mistakes; (iv) compilation of the GEMAS Atlas interactive DVD; “GEMAS Google Earth photo database” uploaded to the website as ‘kml’ files (http://gemas.geolba.ac.at/Photos.htm); (v) compilation of a 16-page brochure and its design by the NGU Communication & Public Relations Department (http://gemas.geolba.ac.at/image/GEMAS_Brochure.pdf).

Figure 1. Examples of the GEMAS Google Earth photo database from Ireland and Lithuania.


(a) Landscape photograph of Agricultural soil, Ireland (IRL002Ap)

(c) Landscape photograph of Grazing land soil, Lithuania (LIT025Gr)

(b) Profile photograph of Agricultural soil, Ireland (IRL002Ap)

(d) Profile photograph of Grazing land soil, Lithuania (LIT025Gr)


The GEMAS atlas was launched at the plenary session of World Soil Day on the 5th of December 2013 at the FAO premises in Rome. Mart van Bracht (EGS President) introduced the two volumes to the audience (Figure 2), and the keynote presentation was delivered by Clemens Reimann (Chairperson, EGS Geochemistry Expert Group). More than 300 people from all over the world attended the event. In the afternoon of World Soil Day (5 December 2013), a GEMAS Workshop was organised. The workshop was opened by Moujahed Achouri (Director of FAO's Land and Water Division), who acknowledged the importance of the GEMAS results for the European community. The abstracts of the GEMAS Workshop presentations, and PowerPoint files are available for downloading from the GEMAS website (http://gemas.geolba.ac.at/).

5.4. Urban Geochemistry project (URGE)

The urban geochemistry book edited by 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. (http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470747242.html) has essentially given the incentive and impetus for the EuroGeoSurveys URGE project. The book

focuses on the increasingly important issues of urban geochemical mapping with key coverage of the distribution and behaviour of chemicals and compounds in the urban environment. Clearly structured throughout, the first part of the book covers general aspects of urban geochemical mapping with an overview of current practice and reviews of different aspects of the component methodologies. The second part includes case histories from different urban areas around Europe, USA, Africa and Far East.

The URGE project’s objective is to compare the urban geochemistry of several European cities using the same sampling, sample preparation and chemical analysis protocol. It deals 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.

In 2013, the sampling was completed in Volos (Hellas), Ajka (Hungary) and Čačak (Serbia).


The EuroGeoSurveys Geochemistry Expert Group, since its first mandate in 1985 by the Western European Geological Survey Directors (WEGS), and its subsequent forms, Forum of European Geological Surveys Directors (FOREGS), and currently 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.

The EuroGeoSurveys Geochemistry Expert Group publishes original research, reports on innovative practices and case studies, as well books and atlases. It also disseminates its work findings and experience through participation in conferences, seminars and workshops. Apart from the dissemination of the FOREGS ‘Geochemical Atlas of Europe’ through a dedicated website hosted by the Geological Survey of Finland (http://weppi.gtk.fi/publ/foregsatlas/), published material of the EuroGeoSurveys ‘Geochemical Atlas of Agricultural and Grazing land soil’ (GEMAS) can be accessed from the project’s website, hosted by the Geological Survey of Austria (http://gemas.geolba.ac.at).


Figure 2. Front covers of the two volumes of the GEMAS Atlas ‘Chemistry of Europe’s Agricultural Soils’.


EGS Geochemistry Expert Group publications 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, strict 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) publication of the two volume GEMAS atlas “Chemistry of Europe’s Agricultural Soils” (April 2014), (ii) publication of papers on GEMAS results during 2014, (iii) presentation of the GEMAS results in conferences, meetings, national Ministries, Universities, etc., (iv) continued work on new analytical results on the GEMAS samples, (v) translation of the GEMAS brochure into different languages, (vi) development of GEMAS webpages at all European Geological Survey websites, (vii) completion of the work on all URGE project cities, publication of a comparison paper with available results, and writing of papers for all ten cities, and publication of the results in a special issue of a Journal in 2015, (viii)

updating of Geochemical Atlas of Europe and GEMAS websites, and (ix) development of new projects, such as lithogeochemistry of Europe, forensic geology, isotope systems, update of the FOREGS stream water geochemistry, etc.

The EGG project demonstrated that it is possible to provide an overview of water quality at the European scale with a limited number of samples. The book and the database have met a lot of attention and the chairman of the group is time and again approached for ‘more such data’, e.g., on tap water, surface water, or spring water. If the Geological Surveys wish, any such project could be done with relatively little effort following the approach of the earlier projects.

The GEMAS project highlights once more that one important database is missing at the European scale: lithogeochemistry. Some countries have carried out such projects (e.g., Finland, Slovakia, Norway), but the overview at the European scale is missing. We consider the development of such a database as one of the core tasks of the Geological Surveys of Europe, and suggest that the directors initiate such a project at the European scale.

8. LIST OF MEMBERS



ALBANIA AGS Agim Mazreku

AUSTRIA GBA Sebastian Pfleiderer

Gerhard Hobier

Albert Schedl

BELGIUM GSB Walter De Vos

BULGARIA MOEW Valeri Trendafilov

CROATIA HGI_CGS Josip Halamić

Ajka Šorša

CYPRUS GSD Andreas Zissimos

CZECH REPUBLIC CZS Michal Ponavic

DENMARK GEUS Vibeke Ernstsen

ESTONIA EGK Valter Petersell

FINLAND GTK Tommi Kauppila

Timo Tarvainen

FRANCE BRGM Philippe Negrel

GERMANY BGR Manfred Birke

HELLAS IGME Maria Kaminari

HUNGARY MAFI Ubul Fügedi

Lásló Kuti

Kálmán Török

IRELAND GSI Ray Scanlon

ITALY ISPRA Marco Falconi

Nicoletta Calace

Maurizio Guerra

LITHUANIA LGT Virgilija Gregorauskiene

LUXEMBOURG SGL Robert Maquil



NORWAY NGU Clemens Reimann

Ola Eggen

Rolf Tore Ottesen

POLAND PGI Aleksandra Dusza-Dobek

Pawel Kwecko

PORTUGAL LNEG Maria Joao Batista

ROMANIA GIR Adriana Ion

SLOVAK REPUBLIC SGUDS Dusan Bodis

Daniela Mackovych

SLOVENIA GEOZS Mateja Gosar

SPAIN IGME Juan Locutura

Alejandro Bel-Lan

SWEDEN SGU Madelen Andersson

Anna Ladenberger

SWITZERLAND SWISSTOPO Peter Hayoz

THE NETHERLANDS TNO Jasper Griffionen

UNITED KINGDOM BGS Dee Flight

Chris Johnson

UKRAINE UkrSGRI Boris Maliuk

Volodymyr Klos

Marina Vladimirova

Note: Alecos Demetriades (Hellas) and Patrick O’Connor (Ireland), although retired, are still involved in projects of the Geochemistry Expert Group.


EXPERT GROUP INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT TASK FORCE


EuroGeoSurveys’ (EGS) Task Force on International Cooperation and Development (ICDTF), chaired by Marek Graniczny (PGI) and with Dirk Kuester (BGR) as deputy, was established by EGS to intensify and improve international cooperation, starting with Africa.

The capacity of EuroGeoSurveys to establish stronger ties with Geological Surveys outside Europe was discussed during several institutional meetings over the last years. The argumentation was based on assumptions that the growing demand for mineral resources in EU Member States, the bulk of which are located outside Europe, also offers opportunities for cooperation projects between geological surveys, due to their high potential to provide substantial information, expertise and advice.

The Task Force continued its work in 2013. The contract for implementation of the Pan-African Feasibility Study “Geoscientific knowledge and skills in African Geological Surveys” was signed by EC DG DEVCO and EGS authorities . The overall objective of the feasibility study is to develop a long-term

strategic cooperation concept to strengthen the operational and administrative capacity, knowledge and skills of geological administration of African countries regarding the governance of natural resources, enforcing sustainable mineral resources exploitation as well as preventing and mitigating natural disasters and enhancing conservation and public use of geoheritage.

The most important task of the project was the preparation of a road map for a PAN – AFRICAN PROJECT 2014 – 2018, designed to contribute to capacity building and to facilitate communication and cooperation between the EU and AU, and individual African countries in the field of the Earth sciences and sustainable use of mineral resources.


The mission of the ICDTF is to increase the capacity of EGS and its members to establish stable, permanent end effective relationships with Geological Survey organisations and other relevant stakeholders internationally, as well as to capitalise on international cooperation opportunities.

The ICDTF allows EGS to become the reference centre of the European Union for the implementation of international policies and actions related to geoscientific matters,

with the aim to reinforce the position of European geosciences worldwide and to foster development and growth in Europe and in the partner countries. The ICDTF strives to make the EGS members and their international partners advance in their scientific and technical capacity through joint research.

3. SCOPE AND FOCUS

In accordance with recommendations of the EGS General Meeting, the ICDTF is doing this by ensuring that members share their international cooperation expertise and research, and acting upon request of the EU institutions as well as by making use of newly opening opportunities. The initial focus is on the African continent and countries where the EC is looking for assistance in implementation of the Policy Dialogues.

The IDCTF aims to act as an effective facilitator of the cooperation between the EGS members and international stakeholders, and to gain the status of the geoscientific reference body capable to provide technical support for European policies and decision makers in their relationships with international partners and bodies.


The ICDTF now has 36 personal members,



representing 19 national geological surveys. That is 54% of all the EGS member states. In addition to active members (representatives) directly involved in the ICDTF, EGS members offer a support to the implementation of the ICDTF goals with their additional and on-necessity-based in-kind contribution.

Currently EGS has one concrete tool which it implements its vision for an international extra-European cooperation: Pan – African Feasibility Study “Geoscientific knowledge and skills in African Geological Surveys” was signed by EC DG DEVCO and EGS authorities on July 19th 2013 (Contract 323 – 534).

The specific objectives of the Feasibility Study are as follow:

• Enhance capacity and role of African national geological surveys;

• Contribute to capacity building in assessing mineral resources by national geological surveys in Africa;

• Increase activity of national geological surveys in regional mapping and exploration to upgrade their geoscientific information base and mineral resources inventories;

• Strengthen the level of national geological surveys geological knowledge and skills through training;

• Strengthen OAGS potential to meet the needs of the African continent.

The aim of the ICDTF is to engage in the near future into more tools to effectively achieve the set up goals.

5. ACTIVITY REPORT

During the first half of 2013, application documents of the Feasibility Study “Geoscientific knowledge and skills in African Geological Surveys” were elaborated and supplied to DG DEVCO. They are as follows:

• ANNEX I: General conditions for service contracts for external actions financed by the European Union or by the European Development Fund,

• ANNEX II: - Terms of Reference (TOR) of the group,

• ANNEX III - Organization & Methodology,

• ANNEX IV - Key Experts – Coordinator and Luca Demicheli – Team Leader,

• ANNEX V - Budget.

Preparatory works also started for elaborating the questionnaire for members of African Geological Surveys (OAGS). The video-conference and meeting of ICDTF staff were organized in Brussels on 16 July 2013. The

meeting between representatives of DG DEVCO, EGS Secretariat and ICDTF took place on the same day. The contract for the implementation of the Feasibility Study was signed three days later.

A successful OAGS-EGS workshop dedicated to this Feasibility Study was held in Ghana on 25 September 2013. Participants in this meeting were 17 experts coming from 10 different European geological surveys (Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom) and 12 experts coming from 12 African geological surveys (Algeria, Botswana, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa), along with the OAGS President and the EGS Secretary General.

The Workshop was opened by Luca Demicheli, EGS Secretary General, who presented the background and scope of the meeting. The next speaker was Lhacene Bitam, President of OAGS, who reviewed the Scope for Geoscientific Research in the African Continent and the Role of Geological Surveys. Marek Graniczny (Technical Coordinator of the project) & Izabela Ploch (Technical Coordinator Support) presented the introduction to the study - “Geoscientific knowledge and skills in the African Geological Surveys”. Following these presentations,



the Activities (AC) were presented to the audience by the AC leaders or deputy leaders. Following the presentations, the contents of the different activities were discussed among the participants. The contents of the Draft Questionnaire were also reviewed. In the next part of the Workshop it was agreed that the OAGS Member Surveys would co-lead the respective Activities.

The EGS – OAGS Workshop took place back to back with 3 other important meetings: the OAGS Annual General Meeting, the GIRAF 2013 workshop “ Geoinformation, sustainable mining and mapping in Africa” , and the 100th Anniversary of the Geological Survey of Ghana.

Following the reception of the first responses to the questionnaires, a meeting and videoconference of European Activity leaders was organized on 22nd November in Brussels. The following items were discussed during this meeting:

> Overview of the present situation> Update of Activity results - short

presentations of each Activity by their Leader or Deputy,

> Discussion about each Activity analysis of the preliminary results of the Questionnaire,

> Preparation of the next steps, > Discussion about the recent problems:

> Improvement of OAGS Website, > Further additional way of collecting

Questionnaires

Other activities

President of EGS Mart van Bracht has asked ICDTF leader Marek Graniczny to prepare a short document on the “International Policy of EGS”. The document is under preparation and consultation, and should be ready before the Executive Committee meeting in March 2014.

6. THE RESULTS AND IMPACTS

The most important results and milestones accomplished in the development of the Feasibility Study “Geoscientific knowledge and skills in African Geological Surveys” (Contract 323-534) are being summarized in the corresponding reports submitted to DG DEVCO:

• Inception Report (completed and submitted at the beginning of October);

• Interim Report (completed and submitted at the beginning of December).

7. FUTURE PERSPECTIVES (A 2014 FOCUS)

Work in 2014 will include:

• Final Report of the Feasibility Study.

• Dissemination of results of the Feasibility Study.

• Design of a “road map” for the PAN – AFRICA PROJECT 2014 – 2018 (also include reference to meetings planned for 2014).



8. LIST OF MEMBERS



BELGIUM GSB Yves Vanbrabant

CZECH REPUBLIC CGS Bohdan Kribek

Petr Rambousek

Ivana Svojtkova

DENMARK GEUS John Tychsen

FINLAND GTK Esko Korkiakoski

Mika Räisänen

FRANCE BRGM Christian Braux

Patrice Christmann

GERMANY BGR Kristine Asch

Birgit Kunhs

Dirk Küster

GREECE IGME Kostas Laskaridis

ITALY ISPRA Elisa Brustia

Giuseppe Delmonaco

Luca Guerrieri

LITHUANIA LGT Jonas Satkunas


POLAND PGI Wojciech Brochwicz-Lewiński

Izabela Ploch

Marek Graniczny

PORTUGAL LNEG Luisa Duarte

Ruben Dias

Vitor Lisboa

Rita Caldeira

SPAIN IGME Enrique Díaz-Martínez

Javier Escuder

Eusebio Lopera Caballero

SLOVAKIA SGUDS Ludovit Kucharic

SLOVENIA Geo-ZS Marko Komac

SWEDEN SGU Rune Johansson

Joanna Lindahl


UK BGS Martin Smith

Richard Ellison

UKRAINE Geoinform of Ukraine Boris Maliuk


EXPERT GROUP MARINE GEOLOGY


The Marine Geology Expert Group (MGEG) includes representatives from 23 EuroGeoSurveys member organisations. During 2013, MGEG members have contributed to several EC-funded projects and taken part in meetings with EC officials. The group officially started the second (full) phase of the EC’s European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) Geology Project on 16 October 2013 and will run for 3 years. Geological surveys continue to contribute to the NAG-TEC Atlas (Northeast Atlantic Geoscience Tectonostratigraphic Atlas) project. New initiatives launched by the EC during the year will provide further focus on trans-national Atlantic research. Members of the group are involved in developing Horizon 2020 proposals.


The MGEG members deliver high-quality information and advice to inform decision-makers responsible for the European seas, and lead on issues of global importance. Emphasis is 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 group promotes marine geological information and interpretations as a fundamental requirement for all activities that take place in Europe’s seas.

Maintaining collaboration between the marine departments of the European geological survey organizations is central to achieving our vision. At national level, all EU Member States have introduced policies to improve better integration of marine science. The drivers are mainly EU Action Plans and Directives, therefore it is important that EU Member States develop strategies that are underpinned by cross-border collaboration. This is especially important in the marine environment, therefore it is necessary to ensure 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

The group has a long-term strategy that does not depend solely on EC funding, but which fits with the overarching EC marine strategy. The EMODnet programme places the marine departments of the geological surveys at the centre of providing geological advice and information to the EC. The group is also active in initiatives such as the scoping phase of the European Geological Data Infrastructure (EGDI) and the EuroGeoSurveys North Atlantic

Group (NAG). The group continues to look outwards to develop multi-disciplinary collaboration with the marine biological, oceanographic/hydrographic, physics, chemistry and archaeological communities, who form the main providers of scientific information for the European marine community. The MGEG also considers essential that the group expands its geographical scope whenever possible, as the issues that affect the European seas are not constrained by national boundaries. Recent initiatives launched in 2013 by the EC to develop an Atlantic Research Alliance will further these aims.


The main environmental challenges for the marine sector have been established in a number of EU policy and strategy documents, such as the 2008 Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), which aims to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) in Europe’s seas by 2020. The requirements of the MSFD are that each EU Member State made an assessment of the state of their seas by July 2012, that a monitoring programme to measure progress towards GES is established by July 2014, and that a programme of measures to achieve GES is in place by 2016. In its ‘Marine Knowledge 2020: marine data and observation for smart and sustainable growth’ document published in 2010, the EC



outlined the case for a more coordinated approach to marine data collection and assembly and described an action plan to achieve this, including the EMODnet Programme. Key elements are the provision of geological information that identify the distribution and quality of marine habitats and information that allows the integrity of the seabed to be assessed, to safeguard the structure and function of the seafloor ecosystem from human activities.

5. ACTIVITY REPORT

5.1 EMODnet-Geology

Of the 36 organisations involved in EMODnet-Geology, 24 are EuroGeoSurveys members. The project started on 16 October 2013 and for the next 3 years the group will compile for all European seas information on sea-bed sediments, sea-floor geology, coastal behaviour, Quaternary geology, rates of coastal erosion or accumulation, geological events (submarine slides, earthquakes etc.) and minerals. The resulting information compiled at 1:250,000 scale will be added to the OneGeology-Europe (1G-E) portal. The EC have established a Secretariat to oversee the programme, which together with the Project Co-ordinators will provide direction and advice to the EC on the future of EMODnet. An overarching EMODnet portal has been established at www.emodnet.eu.

Three staff from the MGEG members serve on the European Commission’s (DG MARE) Marine Observation and Data Expert Group (MODEG) to provide the EC with the scientific, technical and operational expertise it needs to ensure that EMODnet best meets the needs of its future users.

5.2 Other EC-funded projects

Members of the MGEG have participated in a range of EC-funded projects. The GeoSeas FP7 Project ended during 2013; many of the MGEG members participated in the project and continue to add metadata and access to national datasets. Others include EMODnet-Bathymetry; EUROFLEETS; SAFI (aquaculture and fisheries); ASTARTE (tsunami risk); GLANAM (Glaciated North Atlantic Margins: Initial Training Network); PERGAMON (methane input from marine and terrestrial sources into the atmosphere in the Arctic region; completed in 2013); ICE-ARC (Arctic environment stresses); SASMAP (development of marine tools for locating and assessing cultural heritage); INIS-HYDRO (hydrographic mapping in Ireland and the UK); CASE – Arctic Holocene Climate Variability; ODIP (ocean data interoperability). 5.3 Industry/survey partnerships

NAG-TEC: Northeast Atlantic Geoscience Tectonostratigraphic Atlas. As part of the

Northeast Atlantic Geoscience (NAG) initiative, several of the European geological surveys have initiated a project to develop a new tectonostratigraphic Atlas of the North Atlantic region from the Bight Fracture to Svalbard and the western Barents margin, including the continental margins areas along Greenland, Norway, the UK, and Ireland. The new Atlas is nearing completion. The project is co-funded by industry and survey partners. http://nagtec.org/home.seam

5.4 National Marine Geology Programmes

Each of the MGEG members continue to pursue a wide range of activities at national level. The group compiles a detailed report each year giving a comprehensive list of MGEG partners’ activities. Copies of the reports are available from the MGEG Secretary ([email protected]). National programmes include the Estonian Geological Base Map Programme; RGF-Plateau Continental Project (France); Geo-scientific Potential of the German North Sea (GPDN; completed in 2013); INFOMAR (Ireland); CARG (Italian Geological Mapping Project); MAREANO (Norway); Recognition and Visualisation of Geological Structures of the Pomeranian Bay for Natural Resources Management (Poland); INGMAR (Investigacao em Geologia Marinha; Portugal); ALGECO (Assessment of the Potential for Geological Storage of CO2 in the Spanish Continental Margin, Spain)



MAREMAP (UK). Mapping Programmes also take place in the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany (by the Bundesamt fuer Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH).

5.5. Global programmes

Several MGEG member organisations contribute to the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) through membership of the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD). Scientists from the geological surveys of the Baltic countries were proponents and participants in IODP Expedition 347: Baltic Sea Paleoenvironment from September- November 2013 and associated projects (e.g. the Dan-IODP-Seis project, a collaboration between Denmark (GEUS) and Sweden (SGU). The British Geological Survey managed the operation as part of the ECORD Science Operator. A meeting of the (ECORD) Council and Science Support and Advisory Committee was organized and hosted by the Polish Geological Institute – National Research Institute, Marine Geology Branch in Gdansk from 3-7 June 2013. Scientists from many of the MGEG partners regularly contribute to the GeoHab (Marine Geological and Biological Habitat Mapping) Conferences and publications. The 2013 GeoHab Conference was hosted by the Geological Survey of Italy (ISPRA) from 6-10 May 2013 attended by about 200 participants.

5.4 MGEG Annual meeting 2013

The annual MGEG meeting was held in Lisbon, Portugal on 23rd January 2014, hosted by the IPMA. The meeting took advantage of the EMODnet-Geology Project Meeting during the previous two days to bring together representatives from 22 MGEG members. .


The marine departments of the EuroGeoSurveys members and collaborating organizations continue to address the need for integrated marine environmental mapping at a national level to provide geological and other datasets that can address the issues raised in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), the Habitat Directive (FFH-D) and other EC initiatives. Sharing information with other disciplines (e.g. biologists, oceanographers, fisheries scientists, mineral resource managers, flood risk managers, coastal authorities and government decision makers) derives maximum benefit to national and the EU economies. The geological surveys are also involved in contributing to policy development by responding to national government and EU consultations on policies that address the requirements of the MSFD. The geological surveys contribute to the EC’s Marine Knowledge 2020 objectives through participation in the EMODnet Programme. The impacts of the activities described above

range from the cost efficiency and innovation of integrating and sharing science and technologies to addressing topics of key European socio-economic interests such as wealth creation and health (e.g. natural resources and bio-technology/pharmaceuticals), environmental (climate change) and social impacts (protection from natural hazards: earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes).


Common research issues in many national and European 5-10 year strategic plans are those that relate to the security of energy supplies (hydrocarbons and renewable energy), raw materials (mineral and aggregate resources) and the protection of the amenity value of the marine environment for food (e.g. habitat mapping for fisheries and aquaculture), health (pollution), cultural value (archaeology) and recreation (coastal landscapes/boating). The MGEG members will continue to address these in European waters through development of, for example, coastal, shelf and deep-water geological and habitat models; Quaternary science; submarine hazards; sediment mobility and 4D monitoring/modelling; and heritage and archaeology. Marine technologies will continue to be developed, and the MGEG will make use of new delivery mechanisms (e.g. machine to machine enquiries and mobile applications).



At a European level, the main focus of the marine departments of the geological surveys is the EMODnet Programme, which is expected to continue beyond the current funding phase which ends in 2016. New opportunities will develop from the Atlantic Research Alliance between Europe, Canada, the USA and other circum-Atlantic countries. At a global scale, several geological surveys or their parent bodies are participants in the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), the world’s largest geoscience programme. Through membership of the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD), many EuroGeoSurvey members provide geoscientists to all aspects of IOSP scientific objectives. The integration of existing drilling research infrastructures is included in the recent Horizon 2020 calls and a proposal involving MGEG members will be included in the response to the call.

8. LIST OF MEMBERS

The Chair and Deputy Chair of the MGEG thank all of the group members for their participation in the compilation of this report. The following list includes current nominated representatives* and member organisations of the MGEG; additional contributors to the Annual Report are also shown for some organisations.

Non-EGS associated organisations.

• Institute of Oceanology, Bulgaria. Lyubomir Dimitrov• Hydrographic Institute of Croatia. Ranko Crmaric and Nenad Leder.• Jardfeingi, Faroe Islands. Lis Mortensen and Bartal Højgaard• Bundesamt fuer Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH),

Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency, Germany. Manfred Zeiler*• Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre (LEGMC),

Latvia. Antra Eihenberga• Lithuanian Nature Research Centre (NRC) Algimantas Grigelis and Leonora

Zivile Zelumbauskaite• Continental Shelf Department, Ministry for Transport & Infrastructure,

Malta. Julie Auerbach and Albert Caruana.• Geological Survey of Montenegro. Ivana Radošević and Slobodan

Radusinovic.• GeoEcoMar,Romania. Gabriel Ion.• Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey. Günay Çifçi, Mustafa Ergun and Erdeniz Ozel.


COUNTRY Surveys ExpertFINLAND GTK Henry Vallius*

UK BGS Alan Stevenson*

ALBANIA AGS Arben Pambuku*

BELGIUM RBINS Vera Van Lancker*

CROATIA HGI_CGS Slobodan Miko*

CYPRUS CGS Zomenia Zomeni

DENMARK GEUS Jørgen Leth*

ESTONIA GSE Sten Suuroja*

FINLAND GTK Aarno Kotilainen*

GTK Anu Kaskela

GTK Ulla Allanen

FRANCE BRGM Pol Guennoc*

BRGM Fabien Paquet

GERMANY BGR Lutz Reinhardt*

BGR Kristine Asche

GREECE IGME Irene Zananiri*

ICELAND ISOR Árni Hjartarson

IRELAND GSI Koen Verbruggen*

GSI Archie Donovan

GSI Janine Guinan

GSI Maria Judge

ITALY ISPRA Andrea Fiorentino*

ISPRA Silvana D’Angelo*Geological Survey of Lithuania Jonas Satkunas*

THE NETHERLANDS TNO Sytze van Heteren*

NORWAY NGU Reidulv Bøe*

NGU Terje Thorsnes

POLAND PGI-NRC Szymon Uscinowic*

PGI-NRC Wojciech Jegliński

PGI-NRC Piotr Przezdziecki*

PORTUGAL IPMA Fatima Abrantes*

IPMA Nuno Lourenco

IPMA Gabriela Carrara

ROMANIA GIR Constantin Costea*

GIR Diana PersaRUSSIAN FEDERATION VSEGEI Daria Ryabchuk*

VSEGEI Vladimir Zhamoida

SLOVENIA GeoZs Bogomir Celarc

SPAIN IGME Teresa Medialdea Cela

IGME Luis Somoza Losada*

SWEDEN SGU Lovisa Zillén Snowball*

SGU Johan Nyberg*

SGU Ola Halberg

UKRAINE UkrSGRI Boris Malyuk*

UK BGS Robert Gatliff*

BGS Rhys Cooper


EXPERT GROUP MINERAL RESOURCES


The EU faces a number of major societal and economic growth challenges including availability of critical and essential raw materials from primary and secondary sources as well as an availability of jobs, skills and technological competences. At the same time, the need for mineral resources continues to grow because of an increasing global population and a growing demand from developing countries and emerging economies (BRICS countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). 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. In November 2008, the EU launched the Raw Materials Initiative (RMI), in 2011 the Roadmap for a Resource-Efficient Europe to secure reliable and undistorted access to raw materials, as being “crucial for the sound functioning of the EU's economy”, and in 2013 the Strategic Implementation Plan for the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials, based on 3 pillars: fostering sustainable supply within the EU, boosting resource efficiency and recycling as well as international collaboration. Raw materials are essential for the functioning of

the economy of industrialised regions like the EU. In this respect, the EU needs to secure reliable and uninterrupted supply of raw materials and achieve a sustainable and efficient management of non-energy raw materials. The EGS Mineral Resources Expert Group (MREG) has been actively involved in working groups contributing to policy and strategy making process aiming to create a

sustainable resource potential by accessing to, and supplying of, essential and critical raw materials in the EU, through research, development and innovation.


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, communication and education purposes on European level, focusing mainly on strengthening the position of the European minerals industry towards resource sustainability and competitive growth. The EGS MREG aims to become the leading partner within a European mineral knowledge base and information network, or other form of cooperation, that will be providing innovative tools and expertise to support sustainable minerals supply for Europe. Mineral information provided by EGS MREG is based on globally comparable standards of excellence for research and development, and these standards are maintained to become permanent. Vision is carried out collaboratively with other organizations that have mineral information and expertise, and with consumers of that information and other potential stakeholders.

3. SCOPE AND FOCUS

The emphasis of EGS MREG needs to go beyond its present state and institutional role to become an active partner (using the expertise and involvement of all EGS member surveys) getting involved to projects, addressing minerals related topics, in terms of:

• Restarting and progressing towards sustainable use of European mineral resources,

- Enhancement of minerals role, new industrial targets, added value products, competitive growth, more and better jobs expected

• Challenging new opportunities for EGS, - Further implementing RMI and the

committed SIP for EIP on RM - Taking into account any relevant

documentation and reporting, such as the ones on Criticality

- New mineral calls- New projects (e.g. H2020, KIC)

- Need for EGS to reshape its (minerals) strategy

• Changing the activity profile for MREG - Potential to network and exploit project

results - Data provision is good but applied

research performance and technology development (e.g. exploration, waste re-use, mineral processing) are probably better.

The focus goes along with the fact that,• A coherent resource-efficient product

policy framework contributes to, - Recycle and re-use waste materials and

by-products from all mineral value chain activities in order to increase the

supply of valuable secondary resources. Many critical minerals and metals may be collected through recycling of mining related waste materials

• However, even with the important contribution from recycling, to secure resource efficient supply it will still be necessary to extract primary mineral deposits, focusing on

- Applying new technologies for deep exploration and mining

- Turning low-grade ores into exploitable resources

- Reducing generation of mining wastes and large tailings by converting them into exploitable resources


The main target of the EU initiated strategies, in relation to raw materials, aim at the reduction of import dependency and promotion of production and exports (“Reducing Europe's import dependency on the raw materials that are critical to Europe's industries”) by improving supply conditions from EU and other sources and providing resource efficiency, including recycling, and alternatives in supply through substitution (“Providing Europe with enough flexibility and alternatives in the supply of important raw materials”). Putting Europe to the forefront in raw materials sectors (“Making



Europe a leader in the capabilities related to exploration, extraction, processing, recycling and substitution by 2020”) and mitigating the related negative environmental and social impacts (“taking into account the importance of mitigating the negative environmental and social impacts of some materials during their life cycle”).

In this respect mineral resource information sharing and networking by European Geological Surveys is becoming very essential and much needed. The European Commission’s Strategic Implementation Plan for European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials (SIP EIP RM) highlights the need for establishing and permanently updating a common and uniform EU Geological Knowledge Base, including Minerals Intelligence Information. Such a knowledge base will allow a common European exploration effort for natural resources as well as effective policy- and decision making related to the subsurface. Specific objectives and targets of the SIP EIP RM action to which such a knowledge base can contribute include:

• better insight into the distribution of known raw materials resources,

• a basic prerequisite for finding new prospects and as yet undiscovered resources – particularly at depth –

e.g. through innovative 3D/4D modelling applications,

• the use of standards for the survey of primary and secondary resources and reserves (land and marine) which can contribute to enhancing investment conditions for the mining industry,

• analyses of global raw materials flows and trends which can inform and enhance strategic decision and policy making,

• innovations in exploration and mining technologies which can contribute to the discovery of as yet unknown resources (e.g. marine resources, low grade deposits, very deep seated or bodies) and/or can make currently uneconomic deposits recoverable,

• mining waste is an important potential secondary source for minerals and metals that earlier could not be recovered,

• innovations in understanding and predicting of mineral occurrences in 3 and 4 dimensions through advanced modelling applications and space observation technologies,

• better networking between all players allows exchange of best practices and including them in a better regulatory framework,

• new production technologies and mitigation of environmental and social impacts.

5. ACTIVITY REPORT

All main areas of activity stay well within the scope lines of the EGS MREG, addressing and considering,

5.1. EU mineral agenda on R & I priorities and industrial growth

Several MREG members, representing either EGS or their Surveys, were actively joining various strategy planning and implementation working groups, like,

• The SIP EIP RM, having the roles of Sherpa and of Operational members,

• The ad-hoc group on Criticality,

• The Raw Materials Supply Group,

• The European Rare Earths Competency Network (ERECON),

• The Horizon2020/Challenge 5 Advisory Group,

• The ETP SMR, contributing to the new Strategic Research Agenda and Internal Rules



5.2. EU mineral funded mineral projects

An essential number of EU Flagship projects, with EGS and/or National Geological Surveys’ (NGS) participation, in partnership, leading roles or other type of representation, were carried out, like,

• Ended; AEGOS, SARMa, ProMine, EuroGeoSource, EO-MINERS, Polinares

• Ongoing; ERA-MIN, EURARE, SNAP SEE, COBALT

• DG Enterprise tenders; - Study on 10 EIP pilot plants selected to

demonstrate innovative technologies applied at various stages of minerals value chain,

- Study, on Structured Statistical Information on the Quality and Quantity of the EU Raw Materials Deposits-MINVENTORY,

- Geoscientific Knowledge and Skills of African Geological Surveys, commissioned by DG-Enterprise and DG DEVCO

• Projects and actions of strategic importance for EGS and NGS,

- European Geological Data Infrastructure (EGDI) scoping study, in full progress,

- Minerals Intelligence Network for Europe- Minerals4EU-project, going on,

- Member of Advisory Boards –EuroGeoSource, EURARE,

- EGS Strategy issues e.g. ART 185/ERA-NET+, EGDI

- KIC on raw materials, with the EGS MREG prepared to act in knowledge base issues

- SIP EIP RM Call of Commitments proposal poster-presented at EIP conference

- International co-operation and representation e.g. EU-Greenland, EU-US (Brussels and Washington, including USGS-EGS dialogue), EU-Africa, EU-Russia, Trilateral EU-USA-Japan, EGS-cooperation with Algeria

- EGS-JRC MoU- based cooperation on geoscientific issues including mineral resources

5.3. Conferences & workshops

• EO MINERS workshop on Minerals and Society, 18-19 September, Brussels

• COST Conference «Materials in a resource-constrained world» 18-20 November, Delft

• COBALT opening conference, 28-29 November 2013, Brussels

• European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials Annual Conference, 5th December 2013, "Square – Brussels meeting centre"

5.4. Minerals4EU project

The SIP of EIP-RM highlights the need for establishing and permanently updating a common and uniform EU Knowledge Base on RM, focusing mainly on Minerals Intelligence Information. National Geological Survey Organizations (NGSO) are the institutions responsible for the collection, management and delivery of data and information relating to mineral resources on land and the marine environment. NGSO have gathered those unique and authoritative databases over many decades, informing many national and EU policies and providing highly knowledge and applied research intensive technical advice to various stakeholder groups.

One of the key projects EuroGeoSurveys and its members are involved in, with regard to the EU Raw Materials Knowledge Base, is Minerals4EU aiming at building a minerals intelligence network providing data, information and knowledge on mineral resources around Europe, based on an accepted business model, to make a fundamental contribution to the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials. Minerals4EU aims to become the leading



European minerals information network structure that will provide tools and expertise to enhance resource efficiency; minerals supply security and support sustainable minerals development for Europe. Minerals4EU is a knowledge based platform that goes along and in line with the SIP for the EIP on Raw Materials. It portents a dynamic value chain, delivering added value intelligence and foresight studies, and challenging the development of a permanent structure to achieve sustainable exploitation. Public geological data, information and knowledge, provided by geological surveys, making compiled intelligence and requiring high-level multidisciplinary geo-scientific knowledge for its production, inform both policy makers and industry about the existence of a potential for given minerals in specific areas. The processing and modeling of such data is the basis for the production of mineral potential (or predictability) maps that are used by public authorities, for policy-making such as land-use planning, research and the development of national and regional mineral resources supply strategies.

Through Minerals4EU, the EU will be in the position to provide the knowledge on the ability to exploit its mineral resources and critical raw materials with respect to sustainability. Europe should become world’s key asset in promoting sustainable use of

mineral resources. Both primary and secondary resources, in terms of re-use of by-products and mine wastes/tailings should be explored, evaluated and exploited. Through Minerals4EU and further project actions planned to be taken, NGSO make concrete and strategic steps towards the objectives of the EIP-RM in terms of creating a permanent Minerals Intelligence Network structure (providing and delivering web portal, minerals yearbook and statistics, foresight studies) to be part of a sustainable European Geological Service. Examples of ended and ongoing NGSO driven EU projects addressing, and making reference and data sources for developing this pan-European minerals information infrastructure are ProMine, EuroGeoSource, EO-Miners, ERA-MIN, SNAP-SEE and those recently granted and started such as Minventory and EURARE.

5.5. Minerals Book

All MREG members, along with contact persons specifically appointed by almost every Survey, were brought together to prepare printed and electronic versions of the Minerals Book edition, as originally decided and planned earlier this year. It was proposed to be a popular type of edition to be addressed and communicated to a broader public. Something to be easier understood by as many as possible everyday

people. The intention of the book is to outline the many functions and uses minerals have in our daily lives in order to make people understand that most of the things and products that meet our needs are made of minerals.

5.6. SIP EIP on RM/ Call for Commitments (CfC)

The MREG members were actively contributing to address the Strategic Implementation Plan of the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials (SIP EIP RM). The SIP identifies 24 action areas which in total contain 97 specific actions. To be recognised, a commitment needs to be clearly linked to one or more of the action areas of the SIP. Furthermore, it is desirable that the commitment be clearly linked to one or more of the actions of the SIP. The EGS MREG was presenting a draft proposal for commitment in 2013 to further develop the EU Minerals Knowledge Base structure along with other potential stakeholders. Our intention is, under the coordination of GTK, to have an EGS MREG based CfC proposal prepared and submitted before the deadline of 31st January 2014. There are plans underway for the submittal of two such proposals.




The results to be paid particular attention are about achievements and outcomes having a more practical approach, as well as more applied research and development value for the sustainable supply and growth of mineral resources in Europe, such as:

a. The kick-off meeting and progress reporting of the Minerals Intelligence Network for Europe (Minerals4EU) project, working on the delivery of an EU knowledge database service, mineral statistics and foresight studies. Technical choices have been finalized during technical meetings, allowing a rapid start of the development of the knowledge database architecture, including web services and of the portal (version 1) design. It is noteworthy that these developments fall into line with the recommendations of the EGDI-Scope project.

b. The progress of the study on Structured Statistical Information on the Quality and Quantity of the EU Raw Materials Deposits (Minventory) commissioned by DG-Enterprise and carried out by Oakdene Hollins in cooperation with NGS and EGS MREG. The 2nd Interim report on EU statistics on raw materials and resources was delivered last November.

c. The progress of the Sustainable Aggregates Planning in South East Europe (SNAP-SEE) project focusing on developing and disseminating tools for aggregates management planning in Southeast Europe (SEE), with the presence of mainly SE European NGS.

d. The progress of the EURARE project having already delivered economic geology information on the major REE deposits in Europe and proceeding the REE database structure, based on the work of the NGS involved. This will safeguard the uninterrupted supply of REE raw materials and products to crucial for the EU economy industrial sectors.

e. The final reporting, on database deliveries, service achievements, and technology and product developments, in relation to ProMine, EuroGeoSource and EO- MINERS projects which were contributing to enhance the intelligence and raise the political, economic and public awareness for sustainable mineral resources in the EU.

Through national and European level project work the socioeconomic role of minerals was highlighted and strengthened. Having this background in place and used the MREG members participated and got actively involved in working groups and networks dealing with EU strategy, innovation agendas and H2020 work programming, related to raw

materials. In all cases they were always making clear the position of the Geological Surveys, managing at the same time to raise the political, economic, environmental and public awareness for resource sustainability and efficiency with respect to minerals.


Our modern society is totally dependent on non-energy minerals (NEM). They are essential for manufacturing and supply of renewable «green» energy. They also provide the materials to build homes, schools, hospitals and the infrastructure needed by sustainable communities. Despite the recent financial downturn across the globe, the demand for raw materials, such as NEM, will increase as attempts are made to boost economies and push the growth of manufactured goods. A continuous supply of minerals will, in other words, be necessary also in the future. The emphasis of EGS MREG is looking forward the way to become an active component (using the expertise and involvement of all EGS member surveys) in emerging projects addressing minerals related topics and focusing on,

• specifically committing to selected SIP EIP RM thematic priorities and actions e.g. knowledge and skills on raw materials, more effective and deep exploration, technologies for primary and secondary raw materials



production, international cooperation including exchange of best practices

• further raising the position of minerals in Europe 2020 Strategy through active involvement to Research and Innovation (R&I) strategy initiatives and agendas, and participation to EU projects and networks, e.g. KIC on raw materials, SIP EIP RM pilot actions on exploration, processing and recycling, regulatory framework related to land-use planning and public acceptance

• incorporating mineral resources topics in HORIZON 2020 calls through our participation to the Challenge 5 Advisory Group, e.g. 22 mineral raw materials R&I actions are already included in the 1st call published, and more are expected to be launched linked mainly to SIP EIP RM

• avoiding fragmentation of the European Research Area in the field of mineral resources by trying to create a critical mass mobilizing all potential stakeholders

• enhancing an EU geopolitical role in RM by exploiting more intensively the international component to promote the positive impacts of minerals to society at global scale

• working on highlighting the importance of resource efficiency and supply sustainability issues, through waste re-use, but also by

securing the potential of primary mineral raw materials

• environmental technologies and applications (e.g. wind turbines, photovoltaic cells, electric and hybrid vehicles) using, so called, high-tech metals (e.g. Rare Earth Elements-REE, Platinum Group Metals-PGM, niobium, lithium, cobalt, indium, vanadium, tellurium, selenium) that are derived or refined from minerals, which Europe is strongly import dependent on

• establishing and permanently updating a common and uniform EU Geological Knowledge Base, including Minerals Intelligence Information. Such a knowledge base will allow a common European exploration effort for natural resources as well as effective policy- and decision making related to the subsurface

• proper position of minerals into the context of Art 185/ERA-NET+ as proposed in the Vision Paper edited to highlight the EGS expertise in raw materials

• seeking a more active involvement to the UNECE Expert Group on Resources Classification

Relevant links

• Raw Materials Initiative (http://ec.europa. eu/enterprise/policies/raw-materials)

• Resource - Efficient Europe (http://ec. europa.eu/resource-efficient-europe)

• European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials (http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/raw-materials/innovation-partnership)

• Critical Raw Materials for the EU (http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/raw-materials/critical)



• Strategic Implementation Plan for European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials (http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/raw-materials/innovation-partnership)

• ProMine project (http://promine.gtk.fi/)

• Improving framework conditions for extracting minerals for the EU (http: //ec. europa. eu / enterprise / policies / raw-materials / files / best-practices)

• EuroGeoSource project (www.eurogeosource.eu)

• EO-Miners project (www.eo-miners.eu)

• ERA-MIN project (www.era-min-eu.org)

• SNAP-SEE project (www.snapsee.eu)

• Minerals4EU project (www.eurogeosurveys.org/minerals4eu)

• Minventory study (www.minventory.eu)

• ERARE project (www.eurare.eu)

• ERECON network (http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/raw-materials/erecon)

• EGDI study (www.egdi-scope.eu)

• Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) of the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Mineral Resources (www.etpsmr.org)

• Knowledge & Innovation Communities (http://eit.europa.eu/kics)

• EU multilateral / bilateral cooperation, such as with USA, Japan, Australia (http://ec.europa.eu/research/industrial_technologies/event-13)

• COBALT project (www.cobalt-fp7.eu)

• SARMa project (www.sarmaproject.eu)

• Polinares project (www.polinares.eu)

• Horizon 2020 (http://ec.europa.eu/research/horizon2020/index_en.cfm)

• Call of Commitments (https://ec.europa.eu/eip/raw-materials/en/content/call-commitments)


By launching the Raw Materials Initiative (RMI) the European Commission stressed the importance of a steady supply of non-energy, non-agricultural raw materials to the EU and its national economies, highlighting the numerous sustainable development challenges related to minerals and metals. This was further underpinned by the European Innovation

Partnership on Raw Materials and its Strategic Implementation. The EGS MREG and its members National Geological Surveys were and still are active parts of this process through their participation into strategy-making and project activities related to minerals.



Major ore deposit types and related critical and high-tech metal associations (Source: Friedrich-W. Wellmer, 2008) General architecture of the EU-MKDP developed in the frame of the Minerals4EU project: developing this architecture will contribute to lay the foundations of an effective and lasting

system designed for welcoming various data sets related to raw materials and facilitating data updates and maintenance, and for facilitating their visualization and their use.

3D geo-modeling showing host- lithology setting and structural control of deeply steeping polymetallic sulfide ore bodies in northern Greece (Source: ProMine)


8. LIST OF MEMBERS



ALBANIA AGS Arben Pambuku

AUSTRIA GBA Maria Heinrich

GBA Albert Schedl

GBA Sebastian Pfleider

BELGIUM GSB Christian Burlet

BULGARIA MOEW

CROATIA HGI_CGS Miko Slobodan

HGI_CGS Željko Dedić

CYPRUS GSD Christodoulos Hadjigeorgiou

CZECH REPUBLIC CGS Ivo Sitensly

CGS Petr Rambousek

DENMARK GEUS Karen Hanghøj

GEUS Jørgen Tulstrup

ESTONIA EGK Mare Kukk

FINLAND GTK Asko Käpyaho

Raimo LAHTINEN

Saku VUORI

FRANCE BRGM Daniel Cassard

Patrice Christmann

GERMANY BGR Peter Buchholz

Henrike Sievers

Thomas Oberthür

GREECE IGME Kostas Papavasileiou

IGME Kostas Laskaridis

HUNGARY MAFI Annamaria Nador

ICELAND ISOR

IRELAND GSI Gerry Stanley

ITALY ISPRA Mauro Lucarini

LITHUANIA LGT Juozas Mockevicius

LUXEMBOURG SGL

MALTA MRA Charles Galea

MRA Michael Schembri

NORWAY NGU Tom Heldal

Jan Høst

Schiellerup Henrik

Rognvald Boyd

POLAND PGI Stanislaw Wolkowicz

Stanislaw Mikulski

Janina wiszniewska

PORTUGAL LNEG Daniel Oliveira

ROMANIA GIR Marian Munteanu

RUSSIAN FEDERATION VSEGEI Grigory Brekhov

Vitaly Shatov

Aleksey Sokolov

Boris Mikhailov

SLOVAK REPUBLIC SGUDS Peter Balaz

SGUDS Zoltan Nemeth

SLOVENIA GeoZS Duška Rokavec

SPAIN IGME Manuel Regueiro

IGME Juan Locutora

IGME Santiago Martin

SWEDEN SGU Nikos Arvanitidis

SGU Lisbeth Hildebrand

SWITZERLAND SWISSTOPO Rainer Kündig


TNO Michiel van der Meulen

UK BGS Evi Petavratzi

BGS Gus Gunn

BGS Andrew Bloodworth

UKRAINE SGSSUBoris Maliuk

UKRAINE UkrSGRI

REGIONAL SURVEYS Germany - Bavaria Italy - Emilia-RomangaSpain - Catalonia EGS - Isabel Pino


TASK FORCE SUPERFICIAL DEPOSITS


This report refers to the activities of the task force in 2013:

• Support of EGDI-Scope

• Support to EGS strategy

• Support to EGS – EEA cooperation

• Support to EGS – JRC cooperation

• Planned activities 2014

The task force has only recently been established through a kick-off meeting in January 2013. The activities in 2013 mainly focused on support to (a) the EGS strategy and (b) activities of other expert groups including the EGDI-Scope project.


Mission (acc. to ToR 2011)

• 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 (acc. to ToR 2011)

• to act as a connecting link between soil and geology.

• 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 political scope of the task force (as note in the terms of reference) may require some adaptation due to recent changes of the European Commission policies with regard to soils. In 2013 the European Commission has reviewed its soil thematic strategy. Because the 2006 draft Soil Directive was not successfully accepted, the COM intends to

no longer pursue the Directive; rather it focuses at the integration of soils into other policies (such as greening of the CAP, land policies). Nevertheless, there is a need for parent material data because there is still a need for higher resolution soil map data (representative of the EU during the JRC-EGS cooperation meeting in January 2014). Because of existing gaps in soil mapping, the lack of harmonized and uniform layers, a harmonized spatial layer of parent material is one of the fundamental covariates to predict soils, and to integrated soil map data from different sources.

In addition to needs in soil mapping, the modeling of mass and water movements at the Earth surface and superficial-close deposits require data for this layer (depth, structure, properties) (see also cooperation agreement with EEA). The task force also closely interlinks with other EGS expert groups such as Geochemistry and Water Resources, but also international cooperation (discussion about parent material and soil prediction with the African Soil Information System).


Politically, the task force intends to support assessments of priority areas for soil protection with regard to erosion, salinization, landslides. This task is likely to be



accomplished by the member states according to agreed methodologies and on the basis of homogenous data sets. Parent material is also important in connection with other applications such as filter for contaminants and storage for nutrients, as well as buffer capacity against acidification (from weathering).

There is evidence that the EU’s soil policy shifts towards land use and rural development.

The following list presents the main ongoing activities of the COM with regard to research and policy related to the scope of the Task Force:

• Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change Joint Programming Initiative (FACCE JPI): Coordination action in support of the JPI

• European Innovation Partnership 'Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability (EIP-AGRI)

• EEA: Open call for proposals – Environment Topic Centre on Urban, Land Use and Soil – (Deadline 31 March 2014)

• DG ENV plan for tender: Land as a resource (planned 2014; indicative title)

• DG JRC: preparations of a tender (or series of tenders) for soil mapping

The two most important stakeholders for the task force in Europe are the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), and the European Environment Agency (EEA):

• JRC still intends to contract out a study on higher resolution soil mapping, probably a campaign towards 1:250.000. This will require higher resolution soil parent material data sets. JRC has also a great interest in cooperation with the task force in relation to the JRC-EGS cooperation agreement (see below).

• EEA has strongly interacted with the TF SD in the frame of EGDI-Scope. Cooperation was established via use case “Geology and Soils in Ecosystem Mapping and Assessment”. It refers to spatial data sets for ecosystem mapping and assessment in Europe, and includes the evaluation of the state of soils (soil as an important ecosystem compartment).

5. ACTIVITY REPORT


When? Who?

Input to the EGS Strategy on the topic of soil resources Febr. 2013 Baritz (BGR)

Attending the EGS Chairs meeting and NDs Forum Feb. 4-5th 2013 Baritz (BGR)

Registration of EGS as member of the Global Soil PartnershipParticipation at the 1st General Assembly as representative of EGS; founding member of the European Soil Partnership

2013

2013

Demicheli in consultation with SDTF Baritz (BGR)

Cooperation Agreement EGS – JRC (Technical Annex I: Work Programme)

March 2013 Baritz (BGR)

Decision on co-chair: Florence Quesnel (BRGM) June 2013 Quesnel (BRGM)

JRC-EEA cooperation meeting June 2013 Baritz (BGR)

IHME-litholayer (1:2.5 Million International Hydrogeological Map of Europe); interaction with EGS EG Water Resources and with EU JRC

Aug. 2013 Guenther (BGR)

EGDI-Scope: EEA use case (“Geology and Soils”) Sept. 2013 Pedersen (GEUS) Louwagi (EEA), Baritz (BGR)

Co-Convenor “Get it, use it, improve it – soil information”, 2nd Global Soil Week Berlin

Oct. 2013 Baritz (BGR)

German-CZ cooperation on validation of soil prediction mapping (includes the application of the revised parent material classification, SOTER mapping and DSM using geology maps)

Start Nov. 2013 Baritz (BGR) (Janderkova, CGS)

Presentation at the IQUAME workshop (1:2.5 Million International Quaternary Map of Europe)

Nov. 2013 Schokker (TNO)

Support to geochemistry EG: presentation at the GEMAS Atlas workshop, Rome 2013

Dec. 2013 Baritz (BGR)

Planning of DE-PL pilot project on soil parent material mapping 1:250.000

2013/2014 Jozwik (PGI)


Planning and activities 2014


(1) Next meeting in April 2014- revision of the Terms of Reference- preparation of the review (as a scientific article) on the status quo of national superficial deposits

mapping- discussion of national projects/cross-border cooperations- planning of the support action to the JRC-EGS cooperation

All members

(2) Article: review about status quo of data sets Lead: TNO (Schokker)

(3) JRC cooperationBGR publishes PM report; TF SD members reviewBGR has already prepared a soil PM map (base on the soil map; old PM), TF SD applies new Geology classes; BGR conducts comparison with IHME-Litho layer; task force members describe main PM-soil combinations (text with photo)

Depending on interest and time: allLead: BGR

(4) Cooperation with EEA Topic centre on Spatial Information Analysis (SIA): Development of a Land form map of Europe

BGR


The recently finalized revised FAO-Classification of Parent Material, expected to be published between BGR and the World Soil Data Centre (ISRIC) in 2014, will be an important basis for actions between the TF SD and JRC with regard to the 2nd Edition of the European Soil Atlas. This revision of soil parent material has also been considered in the coordination between the INSPIRE data specifications ‘Soil’ and ‘Geology’.

Cooperation with JRC

During the EGS-JRC cooperation meeting the 27-28 January 2014, JRC has proposed that the Task Force joins the revision of the European Soil Atlas by adding a chapter on soil parent material. The atlas will be published and released during the Year of Soils 2015. Input by the task force is therefore required during 2014. First ideas for discussion of action by the task force see under “Planning and activities 2014”.

Cooperation with other Expert Groups

EG Geochemistry: PM layer based on the European soil maps was provided as a basis for GEMAS stratification; a new upscaling methodology based on spatially explicit covariates has been implemented (TOC, pH, P) and presented during the EGS GEMAS workshop in Rome the 5th December 2013.

EG Water Resources: The status and role of the IHME-litho layer has been introduced and discussed with EG members during the workshop “Groundwater Systems in Europe”


(20-23 August 2013). As a result that current layer was provided to JRC, and forms a key element of the JRC-EGS cooperation on water.

EG Earth observation/Geohazards: parent material plays an important role in landslide hazard assessments. Currently, BGR is involved with a CNRS-project and seeks to improve the current landslide prediction using the IHME-litho layer. Close interaction is foreseen, and the TF SD supports the EG in the cooperation with JRC (JRC landslide expert group, which has produced the current landslide hazard map).


TF SD is representing EGS in Global Soil Partnership (GSP) and in that context has officially Global the European Soil Partnership (ESP). It is part of a global initiative by FAO and its member states. The GSP structure is based on 5 Pillars: soil management, soil research, soil awareness, soil information, soil harmonization. Currently, writing teams prepare workplans for the 5 pillars; they will be discussed and endorsed during the 2nd General Assembly 2014. TF SD member Baritz/BGR has been member of the writing team of Pillar 4, and is chairing the writing team for pillar 5.

8. MEMBER LIST



CYPRUS Andreas Zissimos

CZ. REPUBLIC CGS Jana Janderkova

DENMARK GEUS Peter Roll Jakobsen

GERMANY BGR Rainer Baritz


GERMANY BGR Andreas Günther

ITALY ISPRA Luca Guerrieri

ITALY ISPRA Anna Maria Blumetti

POLAND PGI Tomasz Gliwicz

POLAND PGI Dariusz Galazka

POLAND PGI Katarzyna Jóźwik

SLOVENIA GeoZS Miloš Bavec

SPAIN IGME Angel Salazar Rincón

SPAIN IGME Angel Martín Serrano

SWEDEN SGU Lars Rodhe

SWEDEN SGU Kärstin Malmberg Persson

UK BGS Russell Lawley

FINLAND GTK Jukka-Pekka Palmu

BELGIUM GSB Frieda Bogemans

NORWAY NGU Astrid Lysa

AUSTRIA GBA Wolfgang Pavlik

FRANCE BRGM Caroline Prognon

FRANCE BRGM Florence Quesnel

NETHERLANDS TNO Jeroen Schokker

PORTUGAL LNEG Ruben Dias

ROMANIA GIR Mircea Ticleanu

ROMANIA GIR Ion Adriana

LITHUANIA LGT Jonas Satkuna

LITHUANIA LGT Virgilija Gregorauskiene

SLOVAKIA SGUDS Juraj Maglay

SLOVAKIA SGUDS Dusan Wunder

IRELAND GSI Michael Sheehy


EXPERT GROUP SPATIAL INFORMATION


From the date of its creation, the prime mission of the Spatial Information Expert Group has been to coordinate the contribution of EuroGeoSurveys to the INSPIRE implementation. While the implementation phase is now well on track, the SIEG will focus on the design and development of the EGDI (European Geological Data Infrastructure), a strategic objective of EGS. This development should be run together with the other projects and initiatives that are run (i.e. Minerals4EU).

In 2013, INSPIRE has reached a new phase of its implementation process with the publication by the Commission of the technical guidelines for the data specifications for the Annexe II and III themes (which include geology, mineral resources, natural risk zones, soils, ect.). Eleven experts of EGS have already been proposed to the newly formed pool of experts to work on the MIF (maintenance of INSPIRE).

The SIEG has been identified as a key contributor for the EGDI-Scope project that has been launched in 2012, it is involved in the project not only to review the documents produced by the project team, but also to

play a pro-active role in contributing as far as possible in the consultation phases.

As part of its mandate, the SIEG is Networking and benchmarking to support the NGSO’s in INSPIRE implementation and in developing their system and services according to the commonly accepted standards. It is also a place to share information and monitor the numerous EU funded projects related to IT and spatial information.

The SIEG is also involved in the new EGS Task Force that is working on the governance models for the EGDI and Minerals4EU initiatives.


The Expert Group has a mission to contribute to the definition of the European policies which aim at developing the European information infrastructure (INSPIRE, SEIS, Copernicus). It is also a place to share expertise between EGS members.

Spatial information expertise is a key asset in the design and development of the European Geological Knowledge infrastructure which is at the core of EGS strategy, and this expertise, through the SIEG, has to be mobilized in a transverse way, in support to the other EGS expert groups to make sure that the infrastructure that will be developed

is in line with EGS strategy.

SIEG provides expertise to develop a shared vision of what will be the EGDI, how it could be developed and managed, and how the different contributions will be assembled in a consistent way (both on content and technical dimensions). It has also the responsibility to define how the EGS infrastructure can fit/collaborate with other infrastructures (national spatial data infrastructures, GEOSS, SEIS, EPOS…).

As the other Expert Groups, the Spatial Information 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.

3. SCOPE AND FOCUS

The infrastructure of data and services is the core component of the EGS strategy towards delivering a European Geological Service. It requires assembling the information produced at the regional and national levels into pan-european datasets and information, through an information engine, and to deliver this service in the most appropriate way to users, whatever will be the use and domain of application. Given the variety of thematic domains (geology, minerals, groundwater, geohazard, energy, etc.), and of the funding mechanisms (mainly EU co-funded projects



with duration of 24-48 months), this requires a strong coordination to guarantee a consistent and evolutionary system.

Considering that this EGS infrastructure cannot be isolated, it is crucial to define the outline/ boundaries of the EGS infrastructure with the regional and national SDIs (principle of subsidiarity), with other European scale infrastructures (complementarity with EuroGeoGraphics, EPOS, etc.), with the objective to minimize duplication and costs.

A major scope of the Spatial Information Expert Group is to coordinate the contribution of EuroGeoSurveys to the INSPIRE implementation (sharing of expertise and tools for implementing the directive, contribution to the maintenance).

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 specified, managed and delivered to provide harmonized services at the European scale.


INSPIRE sets up a framework of data, technology, policies, standards, and human resources, necessary to facilitate the sharing and using of spatial information. However, the success of the INSPIRE implementation will greatly depend upon the mobilization of the communities (as EGS) to make the best use of this framework to develop their own infrastructure to serve the users’ needs, possibly in partnership with other communities. The contribution to the maintenance of the implementing rules will permit to adapt this major piece of legislation to the evolution of the needs and of the technologies.

Regarding the Implementation of EGDI, it is expected that H2020 could support the development of the infrastructure; however there is not yet any call in place where it could be funded.

5. ACTIVITY REPORT

In terms of organisation, two Co-Chairs have been nominated by the Excom in 2013 to second the Chair:

• Jarmo Kohonen (GTK - Finland) – Co-Chair

• Fernando Perez Cerdan (IGME – Spain) – Co-Chair.

The SIEG had physical meetings during the last period:

• SIEG meeting: Brussels 22-23/01/2013

• SIEG meeting and meeting with JRC (INSPIRE Conference): Florence 24/06/2013

• EGDI-Scope progress meeting: Malta 09/09/2013

• SIEG meeting: Paris 30-231/01/2014 Members of the SIEG were also invited to different meetings:

• Conference on European GEO projects – Barcelona – 15-17/04/2013

• Geomol Info day – Brussels – 23/09/2013

• OneGeology consortium meeting – Paris – 21-22/10/2013

• EGS Governance Task Force – Brussels – 20/11/2013

• EGS Governance Task Force – Amsterdam – 16/12/2013

• GEO Plenary – Geneva – 13-17/01/2014

• EGS Governance Task Force – Paris – 30/01/2014




6.1. From OneGeology-Europe to EGDI

For the short and medium term, the OneGeology-Europe portal is confirmed as the main window to EGS pan-European datasets. The portal and its catalogue are maintained by BRGM and CGS with a financial contribution of EGS. Moreover, the portal integrates datasets from different projects (currently EMODNET, PROMINE, PANGEO). The EGS Directors decided in September 2012 to launch the OneGeology-Europe+ initiative, under the leadership of CGS. The objective of this initiative (funded by EGS members) is to extend the geographical coverage of the portal to all the members of EGS, by applying the same methodology as the one developed through the OneGeology-Europe project. The project is still not achieved, and a few countries will unfortunately probably still not be included in the short term.

On a longer perspective, the design and development of a complete infrastructure has been identified as a priority of the EGS strategy. The infrastructure has been named EGDI (European Geological Data Infrastructure). EGS has been successful in getting funding from the Commission, through an FP7-Infrastructure call, for an

“EGDI-Scope” project (led by TNO). The EGDI-Scope project will be concluded in May 2014. The SIEG is involved in the review meetings to ensure that the scenarios to be proposed to the EGS Directors are agreed by the EGS experts (deliverables are made available to the SIEG members).

As no call for funding is yet identified in the first round of H2020 calls for funding the implementation of EGDI, it might have to be achieved through “opportunistic” coordination with the current FP7 projects (in particular Minerals4EU), and through voluntary developments funded by EGS members. These options will have to be discussed, as well as the framework for governing this infrastructure.

The SIEG chair has been invited to represent the SIEG in the new Task Force put in place by EGS to work on the governance model for sustaining the Minerals4EU and EGDI initiatives. The Task force will report to the National Delegates at the February 2014 meeting.

One of the important issues regarding the implementation of EGDI will be the connection with EPOS, which might be funded under the H2020 infrastructure support as a research infrastructure for geosciences.

6.2. INSPIRE update

The technical guidelines of the themes of Annexes II and III have been published in December 2013. The EGS experts of the data specifications drafting themes have contributed to this publication. It should be noted that EGS experts have also permitted to update the international standards (GeoSciML and EarthResourceML) by submitting evolutions derived from the INSPIRE work.

The Commission, in agreement with the Member States, has set up in June 2013 the INSPIRE Maintenance and Implementation Framework (MIF), which is based on the same principles as those applied for its development. It has created a Commission expert group called INSPIRE Maintenance and Implementation Group (MIG) with representatives of the INSPIRE national contact points, in order to:

• bring about an exchange of experience and good practice related to the implementation of the INSPIRE Directive and the Implementing Rules;

• identify and give advice about the priority issues to be addressed in the maintenance of the INSPIRE Directive, Implementing Rules and/or Technical Guidance documents;



• identify issues related to INSPIRE implementation (including, but not limited to, technologies, standards, methods, coherence across INSPIRE chapters and communication measures to be adopted) and advise the Commission on how to address them.

The MIG will be complemented by a pool of experts drawn from the stakeholder community.

Eleven experts from the SIEG have already been proposed and accepted in the pool of experts:

• Kristine Asch - BGR

• Einar Eberhardt - BGR

• Bernhard Wagner - Bavarian Survey

• Tim Duffy - BGS

• John Laxton - BGS

• Etienne Taffoureau - BRGM

• Sylvain Grellet - BRGM

• Jouni Vuollo - GTK

• Tomasz Nalecz - PGI

• Jakob Nisell - SGU

• Tomas Lindberg – SGU.

The participation to the MIG is not currently opened to umbrella organizations as EGS, however, two members of geological surveys are representing their country in the MIG (Tim Duffy for UK and Carlo Cipolloni for Italy).

EGS has proposed to the Commission via the JRC to coordinate the work of the EGS experts, in order to guarantee the best coordination with the whole community. The formal agreement of JRC (and of the MIG) is expected.

The technical implementation of the specifications should not be a major issue for the surveys, as they have been involved in their preparation, and have demonstrated through OneGeology- Europe a preliminary implementation which is very close to the final requirements. However, as the INSPIRE data specifications mainly describe the “core data model”, an efficient and useful implementation will require the use of “extensions” to the core data model. Those extensions will not be mandatory, but will be of the responsibility of the communities to develop and adopt.

A survey of geological applications developed on mobiles has been funded by

the Commission. It is currently done by BGS on behalf of EGS.

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 in different domains:

• Marine geology: EMODNET, GeoSeas,

• 3D regional modelling: GeoRG, GEOMOL

• Hazards and environment: PANGEO, EENVplus

• Minerals and energy: Promine, EuroGeoSource, Mineral4EU, Eurare, Thermomap

• Technology: EarthServer, InGeoClouds (these projects have potentially applications outside the geoscience community).


The implementation of INSPIRE data specifications will still mobilize the activity of our experts in the coming years, with the need to ensure sharing of best practices and expertise.



EGS, through the SIEG will therefore have a major role to play to ensure a coordinated definition and adoption of extensions to INSPIRE that will make possible to deliver added value data products. The contribution of EGS members to the development of standards will also take place in international groups such as the new joint group between OGC and IUGS/CGI for GeoSciML, or potential working groups on 3D standards. This evolution should guarantee the compliance of EGDI with INSPIRE.

However, the coming years will be crucial for EGDI. Securing the funding and setting up of governance of EGDI will have to be agreed by EGS members. The “business model” of EGDI should define how the system will be operated by the members and associate partners (EPOS?, JRC?). It should in particular deal with the apparent gap between (1) the rather narrow EU project objectives and (2) the creation of a sustainable, stable EU level Information Infrastructure. It should also conciliate the role of national GSO roles (national mandate, national funding) and the lack of EU level long-term funding, in absence of clear roadmap at the EU level.

Development of SIEG activities is also expected to involve more members to active participation, to create forums for networking and learning, analysis of synergy with other processes / meetings.

With the initiation of the implementation of EGDI, the role of SIEG could evolve in different ways (towards a more operational role?) that will probably need to be discussed within the SIEG and within EGS.



8. MEMBERS LIST

Country Survey ExpertALBANIA AGS Lavdie Moisiu

AUSTRIA GBA Marcus Ebner

GBA Werner Stöckl

BELGIUM GSB Pierre-Yves Declercq

BULGARY MOEW

CROATIA HGI_CGS

CYPRUS GSD Ioannis Panayides

CZECH REPUBLIC CZS/JRC Robert Tomas

CZS Lucie Kondrova

CZS Dana Capova

DENMARK GEUS Jorgen Tulstrup

ESTONIA

FINLAND GTK Jarmo Kohonen

GTK Juoni Vuollo

FRANCE BRGM François Robida

BGRM Jean-Jacques Serrano


BGR Rainer Baritz

GREECE IGME

HUNGARY MAFI Ferenc Sikhegyi

ICELAND ISOR

IRELAND GSI Mary Carter

ITALY ISPRA Valentina Campo

ISPRA Carlo Cipolloni

ISPRA Marco

ISPRA Maria Pia Congi

LITHUANIA LGT

LUXEMBOURG SGL Robert Colbach

Malta

NORWAY NGU Jan Host

NGU Per Ryghaug

POLAND PGI Urszula Stepien

PGI Tomasz Nalecz

PGI Nowakowska Paulina

Portugal LNEG Teresa Cunha

LNEG Judite Cunha

LNEG Lidia Quental

LNEG Cristina Antunes

ROMANIA GIR Anca-Marina Vajdea

RUSSIAN FEDERATION VSEGEI

SLOVAK REPUBLIC SGUDS

SLOVENIA GEOZS Matija Krivic

GEOZS Jasna Sinigoj

SPAIN IGME Ángel Prieto Martin

IGME Maria Mancebo

IGME Fernando Perez Cerdan

SWEDEN SGU Lars Kristian Stolen

SWITZERLAND SWISSTOPO Nils Oesterling


TNO Rob Van De Krogt

TNO Robert Jan Van Leeuwen

UK BGS Mathew Harrison

BGS John Laxton

UKRAINE SGSU

UKRAINE UkrSGRI

Regional Surveys

Italy Emilia-Romagna Michela

Spain Catalonia Berastegui



EXPERT GROUP WATER RESOURCES


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 2013 focused on specific advice on the topic of climate change 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. 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

Figure 1. Issues tackled by the WFD (2000) and GWD (2006).

Figure 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.



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 to a dedicated Groundwater Systems topic in the second call of FPVII.

In 2012 a number of FPVII calls specifically mentions groundwater and asks for outcomes relevant for groundwater management, merely as a result of the Expert Group’s lobby and advice. In 2013 WREG members were very active in the policy and technical discussions on the review of the Groundwater Directive.


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 2009-2013 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”. These recommendations were thoroughly discussed at the EU Groundwater Conference of October 9th in Brussels, where two WREG members performed an invited Intervention, highlighting important aspects of GWD renewal (see separate documents). The WREG input to the discussion at the Conference and the susbsequent two-day meeting of the EU Working Group C was much appreciated by the EU officials.

Another important WGC activity was chaired by EGWR Chair Hans Peter Broers, who organized two EU workshops on ‘Climate Change Impacts on Groundwater’ in 2011 and 2012. The first workshop in Warsaw aimed to bring scientists and policy makers together on this topic and led to a Manifesto on research needs related to this topic which was offered to DG-Research. The second workshop was held in Cyprus and was dedicated to Concrete Recommendations for the 2nd and 3rd cycle of the river basin management plans. Eurogeosurveys chaired


Figure 3. Overview of the position of EU Working Group C in the Common Implementation Strategy for the WFD and GWD


3 of the 4 breakout groups during that workshop and have been responsible for producing the workshop report with recommendations at the Dublin meeting of EU Working Group C in April 2013. The workshop reports were complemented by a set of case study descriptions, and will be transferred into an official EU document in 2014.

Moreover, Rob Ward has chaired the Ad Hoc activity on Science-Policy Interface for EU Working Group C, which sets the research priorities for the EU in the coming years.

5. ACTIVITY REPORT

ACTIVITIES 2013

The shape of our businessActivity When? Who?

Attending the EGS Chairs meeting and NDs Forum Feb. 4-5th 2013 Hans Peter Broers

Organizing the annual WREG Video Conference on Shale Gas Exploration, the EU Blueprint on Safe guarding waters, the research priorities and options for EU wide monitoring of CC impacts (see minutes)

Feb. 28th 2013 12 members

Input to the EGS Strategy on the topic of Water resources Febr. 2013 Klaus Hinsby, Hans Peter Broers, Rob Ward et al.

Contribution to the MOU between JRC and EGS Spring 2013 Klaus Hinsby, Hans Peter Broers

Input to the review process of the Groundwater Directive First half 2013 Rob Ward

3 group applications for the Horizon2020 Expert Advisory Panel (not granted) March 2013 Rob Ward, Klaus Hinsby, Hans Peter Broers

Attending CIS EU Working Group C meetings in Dublin and Brussels April, Oct 2013 Many members, WREG represented by Klaus Hinsby and Hans Peter Broers

Presenting the final Groundwater & CC report at the Dublin EU meeting April 2013 Klaus Hinsby, Ronald Kozel

Attending the Horizon2020 stakeholder meeting and contribution to the EGS document highlighting research needs for Horizon2020 in the field of Water Resources

April 19 and 30th 2013 Klaus Hinsby

Hans Peter Broers

Input to and presentation at the International Workshop on Groundwater Systems in Europe , which was organized by BGR

Aug. 2013 Klaus Hinsby

And other WREG members

Contribution to the Round table "to shape the future of EU China Water Research”, Brussels, by attending and drafting texts

June 20th 2013 Klaus Hinsby

Hans Peter Broers

Organizing a WREG meeting and dinner following the EU Groundwater Conference (see minutes) Oct 9th 2013 10 members of WREG + EGS Secretariat

Presentation on “Integrated groundwater-surface water models support for decision making and WFD implementation in a changing climate” at the EGDI Scope meeting in Malta and drafting of a Use Case

Sept. 10 2013 Klaus Hinsby

Invited Interventions and active input to the discussion on the GWD review of the Annexes I and II of the EU Groundwater Conference

Oct. 9th 2013 Hans Peter Broers and Rob Ward

Active Input to the EU CIS Working Group C meeting in Brussels following the Groundwater Conference

Oct 10-11th 2013 Several members, Klaus and Hans Peter representing EGS

Attending and presenting the EGS view on the Future Research Agenda at the European Federation of Geologist workshop “European Water Policy: Challenges for Hydrogeologists

Nov. 22-23th 2013 Klaus Hinsby

Organization of a special session on “Shale Gas Extraction and Groundwater Resources” at the EGU General Assembly 2014, Vienna

June-Dec. 2014 Hans Peter Broers and Rob Ward (convenors)

Partipation as WREG Chair in the panel of the PGI organized S-Bridge Conference on “Shale Gas as a Bridge Energy Carrier: from fossil fuels to green energy”, Warsaw

Nov. 12th 2013 Hans Peter Broers


ACTIVITIES FORESEEN 2014

Activity When? Who?

Video conference Expert Group March 2014 Expert Group

Attending 2 EU Working Group C meetings April and Oct 2014 Many members

Organizing Expoert Group Meeting vis-à-vis EU WGC Oct. 2014 Expert Group

Final Reporting on recommendations for dealing with climate change in river basin management plans as input for EU Working Group C

March-April 2014 Hans Peter Broers, Klaus Hinsby, Ronald Kozel

Contribution to the EGS/ JRC meeting in Ispra January 2014 Klaus Hinsby

Organization of the EGU 2014 session on “Shale Gas Extraction and Groundwater Resources” at the EGU General Assembly 2014, Vienna

April 2014 Hans Peter Broers, Rob Ward (convenors)

Contribution to the EGS ERANET Early 2014 Hans Peter Broers, Klaus Hinsby (coordination)


• There is a great appreciation by the EU for the support and advice of Eurogeosurveys, which is illustrated by the fact EG Water members chaired two of the three EU activities in the WFD Common Implementation Strategy in the field of Groundwater and are invited for a supporting role at the EU Groundwater Conference. Much appreciation was received for the completion of the reports on the workshops on Impacts of Climate Change on Groundwater and for the EGS role in the review of the GWD.

• The DG-Research officials also showed much appreciation for the Eurogeosurveys input for future FP7 calls and WREG members in FPVII consortia always have been active in knowledge dissemination in the direction of member states through EU WGC. This role is to be continued through granted FPVII projects, such as MARS, which connects groundwater researchers and ecologists and the EU WGC and EU WGA (on ecosystems).

• The 2011 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.

• After lobby work of Expert Group members in their member states Groundwater was specifically mentioned in some of the final calls of FPVII and Horizon2020, for example the calls on water management and toxic substances and emerging pollutants and call in Impacts of Shale Gas extraction.


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 preparation for the Horizon2020 program, the WREG 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. Water for ecosystems: Developing tools for relating response of Groundwater

Dependent Terrestrial and Associated Aquatic Ecosystems to the quantitative and chemical status of groundwater systems, and the estimation of environmental flow and threshold values for protection of ecosystems.

2. Water for cities: Developing tools to facilitate management strategies for multiple uses of groundwater in urban areas incl. predictive tools and monitoring systems for groundwater abstraction in coastal areas.

3. Climate change impacts on water for cities, ecosystems and agriculture: 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.

4. Protecting groundwater, human and ecosystem health against existing and emerging contaminants. To address the possible risk for human and environmental health from existing and emerging contaminants not commonly monitored in the environment. This include the development of new analytical methods, mapping of occurrence, identification and characterization of sources, pathways, transformations and target organisms/

effect; and the assessment of natural baselines and threshold values to protect human and ecosystem health.

5. Research on groundwater and water resources protection in relation to fracking and exploration of unconventional oil and gas in Europe may be foreseen to be an important research topic of the Horizon 2020 in addition to the above listed research topics and priorities; depending on future political decisions on the exploration of shale gas. The Water Resources Expert Group of EGS will be able to make significant contributions to such research in close collaboration with other public and private expert groups.

Through the EGS involvement in the SPI (Rob Ward) these research priorities regarding groundwater are also reflected in the outcomes of the SPI activity (see separate pdf)



8. MEMBER LIST



ALBANIA AGS Arben Pambuku

AUSTRIA GBA Gerhard Schubert

BELGIUM GSB

CROATIA HGI_CGS Josip Terzic

CYPRUS GSD Costas Constantinou

CZECH REPUBLIC CZS Renata Kadlecova

DENMARK GEUS

GEUS Klaus Hinsby

GEUS Heidi Christiansen Barlebo

GEUS Lærke Thorling

GEUS Jens S.

GEUS Birgitte Hansen

ESTONIA EGK

FINLAND GTK Jarkko Okkonen

GTK Olli Breilin

FRANCE [email protected]

BRGM Nathalie Dörfliger

BRGM Didier Pennequin

GERMANY BGR Dr. Thomas Himmelsbach

GREECE IGME Mr. Vassilis Zorapas

IGME George Zacharioudakis

HUNGARY MAFI Teodora Szocs

IRELAND GSI Taly Hunter

GSI Caoimhe Hickey

GSI Monica Lee

ITALY ISPRA Michele Fratini

ISPRA Lucio Martarelli

ISPRA Fabio Pascarella

LITHUANIA LGT KESTUTIS KADUNAS

LUXEMBOURG SGL

MALTA MRA Manuel Sapiano


NORWAY NGU Atle Dagestad

NGU Jan Høst

POLAND PGI Lidia Razowska – Jaworek (leader)

PGI Maciej Klonowski

PGI Anna Kuczynska

ALBANIA GSA Sonila Marku

PORTUGAL LNEG Augusto Marques da Costa

Helena Amaral

ROMANIA GIRRUSSIAN FEDERATION

VSEGEI

SLOVAK REPUBLIC SGUDS Peter Malík

SLOVENIA GEOZS Janko Urbanc

SPAIN IGME Juan de Dios Gómez Gómez

IGME Juan Antonio de la Orden Gomez

IGME Miguel Mejias Moreno

SWEDEN SGU Jenny McCarthy

SWITZERLAND FOEN Ronald Kozel


TNO Ronald Vernes

TNO Erik Simmelink

UK BGS Robert Ward

UKRAINE SGSU

UkrSGRI



In this section you will find some interesting statistical information on EuroGeoSurveys’ membership evolution, publications, member organisations, such as staff numbers and budget data, showing past trends as well as specific details from 2013.

Membership and StaffingIf compare EGS life with the course of a river from the source 1971 to the mouth 2013, we can see three sharp increases in the representing curve of membership evolution, that meet with the main EGS dates. In the same way, if we compare the accumulation rate of sediments in the river terraces with the accumulation rate of EGS members, for the first trench from 1971 until 1995, we have 2.5 members per year, from 1995 until 2005, 0.5 members per year, and from 2005 until 2013, 1 member per year. The resulting balance is positive; we have more accumulation than erosion in our membership.

See Chart 1Main events in EGS History

EuroGeoSurveys represented a combined total of over 11,66 staff in 2013. Table 1 shows the fluctuations of staff numbers within our membership over the past 10 years. Please note that data is not always available at time of collection.

See Table 1

2013 Staff fluctuations

Statistics 2013

Chart 1 Membership evolution through EGS history. Table 1 Total combined staff of all EGS Member organisations over the last 10 years. Data is not always available at the time of collection.

Country 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Albania 350 345 330 195 131 140 145 0 145

Austria 114 117 114 107 107 108 112 113 111,65 111

Belgium 41 45 44 33 35 38 36 36 32 12

Croatia 115 113 113 108 110 111 110 112

Cyprus 75 75 122 123 120 98 91 83 88 75

Czech Republic 317 282 274 269 268 268 260 328,1 307

Denmark 294 283 283 291 304 314 322 404 422 417

Estonia 101 106 101 104 106 108 86 67 0 69

Finland 842 807 818 713 713 675 648 615 602 581

France 849 842 879 1023 1096 1077 949 958 935,9 928

Germany 689 671 694 721 716 722 749 737 727 741

Greece 729 704 684 660 545 491 405 332 286 265

Hungary 148 145 143 114 114 114 119 103 0 158

Ireland 73 73 60 55 47 42 65 65,05 57

Italy 145 164 1262 1039 1039 142 123 143 168 156

Lithuania 117 117 117 117 116 107 100 99 108

Luxembourg 11 15 15 14 12 12 12 13 13

Malta** 5 6 1 0

Netherlands 270 236 353 388 212 218 272 252 240 225

Norway 65 203 201 255 252 285 219 222 226 219

Poland 725 732 735 726 746 741 773 786 798,36 853

Portugal 962 923 911 804 217 202 175 172

Romania 170 165 165 166 185 158 150 153 140

Slovak Republic 316 307 291 246 256 244 243 230 238

Slovenia 83 84 87 91 91 92 93 92 95 118

Russia** 1008 987 0 0

Spain 442 455 510 525 528 487 465 424 397

Sweden 320 318 322 333 335 300 268 258 286,8 252

Switzerland 77 77 21 21 23 28 32 35 37 39

Ukraine 9600 9600 9632 9500 9000 7000 4500 4100

United Kingdom 831 863 808 831 785 769 783 657 655,2 654

Grand Total 9271 9266,5 20056,5 19671,5 18055,4 16277,95 17877,91 15712,64 11809,06 11659,55


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, linked to the economic downturn in Europe, which unfortunately continues despite a small recovery of numbers in 2010.

For 2013, 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. See Chart 2

Publications in 2013The total number of peer reviewed publication on international scientist journals is almost 2000. Highlight that Hungary, while small survey, is the second one in the publication ranking.

See Chart 3

Statistics 2013

Chart 2 Total staff for each EGS Member (in red), showing the proportion of permanent graduate researchers, scientists and engineers (in blue). Data for some countries was not available at the time of print.

Chart 3 Total number of peer reviewed publication on international scientific journals for all EGS Member organisations in 2013. Data for some countries was not available at the time of print.

Total/permanent Staff per Country

Publications 2013 - Peer reviewed on international scientific journals

Serie1

= 1956


Budgets / Funding In 2013The combined budgets of EGS Members totalled over €771 million. As seen in Table 3, there is a progressive decrease of budget in the last years, levels that can be attributed to recent public spending cuts throughout Europe. However, the overall trend seems now to be stabilising.

See Table 2

For 2013, the total budget of each member survey can be seen in Chart 4.

The budget of Italy is not representative as the Survey is part of a larger organization, the data provided is ISPRA total budget.

See Chart 4Total Budgets 2013

Statistics 2013

Name 2011 2012 2013Albania 0,12 0 99,9

Austria 9,03 9,29 9,57

Belgium 2,44 3,09 1,51

Croatia 3,36 3,03 3,18

Cyprus 4,82 4,39 5,3

Czech Republic 11,43 12,99 10,58

Denmark 45,26 47,78 40,91

Estonia 1,34 0 1,29

Finland 56,4 55,3 52,5

France 138,1 143,7 146,8

Germany 75,61 84,24 82,36

Greece 20,51 19,96 14,01

Hungary 3,11 0 5,402

Ireland 0 10,2 9,2

Italy 0 132,72 125,83

Lithuania 2,05 1,66 2,3

Luxembourg 0,2 0,2 0,2

Malta** 0,107 0

Netherlands 35,3 34,5 32,7

Norway 33,7 34,36 33,5

Poland 23,6 24 23,9

Portugal 7,63 6,17 5,87

Romania 2,19 3 1,89

Russian Federation**Slovak Republic 3,74 3,61 5,84

Slovenia 5,15 5,05 3,82

Spain 27,99 28,34 29,29

Sweden 38,83 33,31 38,69

Switzerland 5,62 5,6 5,9

Ukraine 25 21 25

United Kingdom 59,35 49,97 53,42

Total 641,97 777,46 770,762

Table 2 Total combined budgets of all EGS Member organisations over the last 3 years. Data is not always available at the time of collection.

Budget Fluctuations (Incomes)

Chart 4 Ttotal budget of each member survey in 2013. Data for some countries was not available at the time of print.


The national geological surveys throughout Europe receive funding from a number of different sources, for example from government funding or EU research funding, whilst some also receive private funding through commercial activities. A breakdown of funding sources for each EGS Member in 2013 can be seen in Chart 5.

See Chart 5

Statistics 2013

Chart 5 Breakdown of funding sources for each EGS Member. Data for some countries was not available at the time of print.

Budget Breakdown 2013

Geological Activities

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 were involved in during 2013.

See Chart 6

Chart 6 Number of EGS members involved in various geological activities in 2013. Data for some countries was not available at the time of print so the figures may be slightly higher than indicated.


The national geological surveys are more actives in some areas than in other. A breakdown of the different activities with a percentage for each EGS Member in 2013 can be seen in Chart 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14. Please note that for Germany, the basic geological research cannot be quantified as it is included on several topics.

See charts 7, 8, 9, 19, 11, 12, 13 and 14

Statistics 2013

Chart 7 Basic Geological Research activity (including Basic geology, Geological mapping and Regional geology) for each EGS Member. Data for some countries was not available at the time of print.

Chart 8 Water activity for each EGS Member. Data for some countries was not available at the time of print.


Statistics 2013

Chart 9 Environment activity (including Pollution, Domestic and non hazardous industrial wastes, Hazardous wastes, Radioactive wastes and Geohazards) for each EGS Member. Data for some countries was not available at the time of print.

Chart 10 Minerals activity (including Metalliferous deposits and Industrial and construction minerals) for each EGS Member. Data for some countries was not available at the time of print.


Statistics 2013

Chart 11 Energy activity (including Solid fuels, Hydrocarbons, Nuclear energy, Geothermal Energy and CO2) for each EGS Member. Data for some countries was not available at the time of print.

Chart 12 Marine geology activity (including Open sea, Continental shelf and Coastal geology) for each EGS Member. Data for some countries was not available at the time of print.


Statistics 2013

Chart 13 Geocultural activities (including Heritage and conservation, Tourism and Education) for each EGS Member. Data for some countries was not available at the time of print.

Chart 14 Other activities (Including Climate change and CO2, Geotechnical and engineering geology, Underground storage, Geochemistry, Geophysics and Remote sensing, Soils, Glaciology, International activities, Official geological information supply and Permit delivery) for each EGS Member. Data for some countries was not available at the time of print.

Chart 15 Distribution of EGS Members under the supervision of various government ministries or their equivalent.

Survey Governance

The national geological surveys that make up EGS are all public bodies that are under the supervision of various government ministries. There was a continuing trend over the last few years for Geological Surveys increasingly coming under the supervision of the Ministry of Environment, but this year the trend has been inverted with a decrease of this Ministry. Chart 8 shows the distribution of supervising governmental bodies for EGS Members in 2013.

Supervising governmental bidies 2013



StrategyA joint Strategic Vision of the Geological Surveys of Europe

National governments have since long realized the need for the long-term preservation, interpretation and dissemination of geological knowledge. National geological survey organizations exist in almost every country in the world because of this realization.

Originally Geological Surveys primarily dealt with geological mapping and subsurface resources such as coal, oil, gas, minerals, and groundwater, but increasingly there focus has expanded to include environmental issues, climate changes, hazards, etc. In Europe, policies in all of these areas are increasingly developed on a European level, and as a consequence, the need for EU-wide geological data, information and expertise is growing. Hence, the European Parliament and the European Commission have called for the development of a common European Geological Service to support national and EU institutions in effective policy- and decision making and strategic planning related to the subsurface.

The EU Geological Service can support a wide range of policy topics, covered by a number of EU DG’s.

In response to this call, the EuroGeoSurveys and its members have developed a joint vision and action plan towards establishing, by 2020, a common European Geological Knowledge Base and to jointly provide a Geological Service for Europe. This Service will guarantee Europe access to objective and seamless data and knowledge on geology and wider geosciences. It will be developed through an integrated geological research and innovation agenda aimed at filling critical gaps. The vision is based on three main pillars:

Pillar I: A joint research programme with a focus on EU policy level describes the development of a coordinated common programme of geoscientific research for the next 7-10 years, with focus on tackling Societal Challenges and Needs that require knowledge of Subsurface Properties and Conditions.

Pillar II: Completing, harmonizing, sharing and providing pan-European geological data addresses the need for pan-European, interoperable geoscientific information. It will focus on building a common European Geological Data Infrastructure. This infrastructure will form the backbone for delivering multinational, distributed, derived spatial and temporal datasets, in line with INSPIRE and other international standards.

Pillar III: Sharing knowledge, capacities and infrastructure addresses capacity building through training and participation in multinational and multidisciplinary research; multinational exchange of researchers and of best practices; and sharing of laboratories, facilities and infrastructures. It addresses the very different starting points and capabilities which currently seriously hamper some Member States and regions to unlock their scientific and innovative potential; the need for sufficient professionals in the field; and the need for optimisation of the European applied geoscience Research area.


The action plan to implement the vision includes the following main elements: • An ERA-NET on Applied Geoscience as a

preparatory step towards developing an Article 185 initiative, integrating national applied geology research programmes in analogy with the European Metrology Research Programme

• Establishing the European Geological Data

Infrastructure, building on an on-going feasibility study (EGDI-Scope) as well as several other on-going initiatives

• A series of measures and activities to

mutually open up capacities and infrastructure, and to train professionals.

The strategy has been very well received by the European commission, and implementation of all three pillars is well underway. There is a good change that the ERA-NET supporting Pillar I will be included in the Horizon 2020 call of 2016. A scoping study for the EGDI (Pillar II) was finalized in 2014 and delivered an implementation plan. The first steps of this plan are taken up by the Surveys themselves, while the search for funding for full implementation is well underway. Actions to strengthen the third pillar, including a mapping of available infrastructure at member surveys, are being taken up as well.

The strategy, and the process of developing it, are already paying off and have strengthened the collaboration within EuroGeoSurveys considerably. EuroGeoSurveys is ready to take on the future!

Strategy



New push for better data first step towards better soil management

GEMAS ATLAS Geochemical mapping of agricultural and grazing land soil of Europe

The GEochemical Mapping of Agricultural and Grazing land Soil (GEMAS) atlas is a collection of quality-controlled, fully harmonised, freely and interoperable geochemical data on the natural distribution of chemical elements and of soil properties known to influence their bioavailability and toxicity at the continental scale. The data set is based on low-density sampling of both agricultural and grassland soil across 33 European countries, representing an area of 5.6 million km2, and comprises more than 60 chemical elements and parameters, determined on more than 4,000 soil samples, i.e., 2018 samples of agricultural soil (ploughed land, 0-20 cm depth) and 2024 samples of grazing land soil (land under permanent grass cover, 0-10 cm depth).

Soil is a vital resource upon which humanity depends for its existence and well-being. Agricultural and grazing land soils represent the substrate for the vast majority of agricultural food production in Europe – the grains and root vegetables, the meat and dairy food chains. It is, therefore, important

to know the quality of our European productive soil at the beginning of the 21st century.

The European Commission has defined ‘diffuse contamination’ as one of eight threats to the quality of European agricultural soil. Diffuse contamination is defined as contamination by substances that cannot easily be traced back to a single or definite point source; it arises where substances are widely used and dispersed over an area as a result of land use activities such as urban development, amenity, farming and forestry. Examples of diffuse contamination include the dispersion of contaminants from road traffic, manures, nutrients and pesticides used in agriculture and forestry, and atmospheric deposition of contaminants arising from industry. Therefore, the determination of the impact of diffuse contamination on soil quality can only be achieved if the trace element concentrations of European soil are known in the geographical context, and a 21st century timeline is established against which future changes in the chemical composition of soil can be assessed.

Soil is formed, primarily, through the weathering of the underlying bedrock parental material over geological time combined with the prolonged action of biological and climatic processes. This process takes very

long, hundreds if not thousands of years, in a human time perspective soil is thus an irreplacable resource. As world population grows the most productive agricultural soil is under constant threat. Coupled with climate change pressures, it must be expected to see accelerated soil degradation and erosion in the decades ahead. Thus, it is imperative that the quality of the agricultural soil is assessed in order to document the staus quo and to ensure sustainability of this vital resource for the future generations.

At the same time, the REACH regulation (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) requires industry to prove that it can produce and handle its manufactured chemical substances safely, without harm to the environment. Consequently, the metals industries requires harmonised geochemical data on the natural distribution of metals, and of the soil properties determining metal availability in soil at the continental scale.

The assessment of risks to human health and the environment, related to exposure of metals in agricultural soil (arable land) and grazing land soil (grassland), is one of the requirements of the REACH regulation.

The GEMAS project’s focus is on the agricultural and grazing land soil, both of which provides a link to the human food chain and host terrestrial ecosystems.

Greater focus on soil health needed to feed a hungry planet


33 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, F.Y.R.O.M., Germany, Hellas, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg , The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom) have participated in the GEMAS project. It is a cooperation project between EuroGeoSurveys (the organisation of Geological Surveys of Europe, the public institutions responsible for geological knowledge, monitoring and research) through its Geochemical Expert Group, and Eurometaux, the European Association of Metals.

GEMAS determined more than 60 chemical elements on each soil sample by three different analytical methods: (1) aqua regia by which a soil sample of <2 mm in grain size is dissolved by an acid solution and the element concentrations measured by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), a type of mass spectrometer capable of detecting metals and several non-metals at very low concentrations; (2) X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer (an X-ray instrument for relatively non-destructive chemical analyses of rocks, minerals, sediments and fluids) is used for measuring the total element concentrations in the samples, and (3) Mobile Metal Ion (MMI),

where a soil sample of <2mm in grain size is extracted by a special very weak solution and the element concentrations measured by ICP-MS. In addition, other parameters that influence the binding and availability of elements in soil were determined by specialised techniques on the collected soil samples (e.g., Total organic carbon, Total Carbon, Total Sulphur, Effective Cation Exchange Capacity, pH, mid-infra red (MIR) spectra, Texture and Partitioning coefficients).

The GEMAS project started in 2008 with a joint field campaign in Berlin of almost all geological surveys in Europe in cooperation with some external organisations. The sampling campaign was completed in the first quarter of 2009. All soil samples were prepared at the same laboratory by June 2009, and the first analytical results by aqua regia extraction were available in August 2009. The last set of analyses were received in the first quarter of 2012.

A large difference is observed in the concentration of many chemical elements between the soil from northern and southern Europe. The young soil from northern Europe shows for many elements by a factor of 2-3 lower element concentrations than the older and more weathered southern European soil. Element concentrations in agricultural soil are clearly higher in southern than in northern Europe. For example,

the concentration break of arsenic (As), in agricultural and grazing land soil, between southern (high) and northern (low) Europe, follows the southern limit of the last glaciation. Many of the high element values, observed on the geochemical maps, are actually related to metal occurrences or to specific rock types that are enriched in these elements. In terms of the few existing national soil action levels for agricultural soil in Europe, it can be stated that, in general, a very small number of soil samples deliver results that are above any action level. A large difference is even observed in the median values of the soil samples taken from the different European countries. On average, there is a factor 6 difference in the median concentration of the elements among the 33 countries sampled. Several elements show even a substantially larger difference, up to a factor of more than 100 times. For nickel (Ni), the lowest median value is observed in Poland (about 5 mg/kg), and the highest in Montenegro (almost 100 mg/kg). Given these large natural differences, it is very difficult to define a single European background (or ‘good quality’) value for any one element. This is an important factor to consider in soil legislation. The impact of geology, or better the distribution of parent material for soil formation, plays a key role in determining the patterns observed on the maps. Many geochemical maps are dominated


Distribution of arsenic (As) in agricultural (top) and grazing land (bottom) soil. Note the concentration break between southern (high values) and northern (low values) Europe, which follows the southern limit of the last glaciation.


by anomalies (high element values), which are related to single ore deposits or metal provinces. Soil developed on the sediments of the last glaciation, and on different rock types (chalk and limestone, granite, alkaline igneous intrusions, greenstone or black shale), all have their own characteristic geochemical pattern on the maps. For example, high silicon (Si) concentrations are observed in soil developed on top of the thick silica rich sediments of the last glaciation in northern central Europe, and high calcium (Ca) concentrations in soil occur in areas underlain by chalk and limestone, rocks made up by calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Even the principal geological difference between Scandinavia and the rest of Europe is reflected on the Ca map. Impact of some cities on soil quality visible. For a few elements [e.g., mercury (Hg), lead (Pb) but even silver (Ag) and gold (Au)], typically associated with human activities, some (but far from all) European cities are noticeable by elevated concentrations of the above metals in the agricultural soil samples taken in their vicinity. For example, the location of some cities is marked by comparatively high mercury (Hg) values, e.g., Kiev, London, Paris, Rotterdam; the geochemical anomalies (high values) in the Rome/Naples area are due to the occurrence of a special type of volcanic rocks, called ‘alkaline’ volcanic rocks. Large European Hg


Boxplot comparison of nickel (Ni) concentrations in the agricultural (Ap - red) and grazing land (Gr - green) soil of Europe. To focus on the main body of data the boxplots are shown without outliers (extreme values). The boxes are ordered according to decreasing median values. Countries: AUS: Austria, BEL: Belgium, BOS: Bosnia and Herzegovina, BUL: Bulgaria, CRO: Croatia, CYP: Cyprus, CZR: Czech Republic, DEN: Denmark, EST: Estonia, FIN: Finland, FOM: Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, FRA: France, GER: Germany, HEL: Hellas, HUN: Hungary, IRL: Republic of Ireland, ITA: Italy, LAC: Latvia, LIT: Lithuania, LUX: Luxemburg, MON: Montenegro, NEL: The Netherlands, NOR: Norway, POL: Poland, PTG: Portugal, SIL: Switzerland, SKA: Slovakia, SLO: Slovenia, SPA: Spain, SRB: Serbia, SWE: Sweden, UKR: Ukraine, UNK: United Kingdom. The red and green lines show the median concentration for Ap (red) and Gr (green) samples.

Total concentrations of silicon (Si) and calcium (Ca) in the agricultural (Ap) soil samples: note the high Si concentrations in soil developed on top of the thick silica rich sediments of the last glaciation in northern central Europe, and the high calcium (Ca) concentrations in soil in areas underlain by chalk and limestone. On a more local scale, the low at the Norwegian/Swedish border marks a sandstone unit that has very low calcium contents.


deposits like Almaden in Spain and Monte Amiata in Italy are also marked by distinct Hg anomalies. Many of the anomalies in Scandinavia, at the west coast of Scotland and Ireland are due to the occurrence of organic matter-rich soil.

A very low proportion of the soil samples is at risk due to measured metal concentrations. The existence of harmonised measurements of metal concentrations in soil, in combination with results for the

parameters determining their availability, allows for the first time a realistic and accurate risk assessment of meals in soil at the European scale. It turns out that very few soil samples are at risk due to measured metal concentrations. For copper (Cu), for example, most of the soil samples at risk were taken in vineyards (use of Cu-based pesticides).

The GEMAS maps demonstrate that the impact of diffuse contamination on the quality of European agricultural soil is vastly overestimated at present. Contamination of soil from anthropogenic sources plays an important role at a much more local scale (see, for example, the impact of cities like London, Paris and Kiev on the mercury (Hg) concentrations in soil), but remains undetectable at the continental scale. At the continental scale, the occurrence of ore deposits, geology (certain rock types enriched in specific elements) and climate play the key role in determining the observed element distribution patterns. Surprisingly, neither agriculture nor diffuse contamination affects seriously the chemical composition of European agricultural soil.

Health Implications: element deficiency needs more attention. Many trace elements play an important role on the health of plants, animals and humans, and different diseases may occur. One example is

molybdenosis, a disease affecting ruminants, and especially cattle and sheep, caused by grazing on land with increased molybdenum (Mo) concentrations in soil. The high intake of Mo results in a copper (Cu) deficiency, which leads to many serious health problems, including organ failure and animal death. Another example is selenosis, a poisoning of livestock caused by the ingestion of selenium (Se), which can be enriched in some plants, by microorganisms or in soil due to specific climatic conditions, as has been observed in Europe, for example, in Ireland (see map) where Se can be enriched in soil due to steady input via marine aerosols. Other elements are, for example, cobalt (Co), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), where contamination is a much discussed issue. However, at the European scale, deficiency of these elements in soil may be a much larger issue warranting attention to guarantee optimal production from the agricultural soil. While very few soil samples reach concentrations where toxicity may become of concern, more than 10% of the samples contain so low concentrations that deficiency, for example in Cu, Se and Zn, is an issue for optimum plant and animal health and productivity.

GEMAS and FAO’s Global Soil Partnership: high quality agricultural land and sustainable use of agricultural soil are essential to secure healthy food production. Soil chemistry plays


Distribution of mercury (Hg) in the agricultural soil (Ap horizon) of Europe. The location of some cities is marked by Hg anomalies, e.g., Kiev, London, Paris, Rotterdam. The anomalies in the Rome/Naples area are due to the occurrence of alkaline volcanic rocks. Large European Hg deposits like Almaden in Spain and Monte Amiata in Italy are also marked by distinct Hg anomalies. Many of the anomalies in Scandinavia, at the west coast of Scotland and Ireland are due to the occurrence of very organic soil.

Maps showing the distribution of the risk characterisation ratio (RCR) of copper (Cu) in agricultural (top) and grazing land (bottom) soil. Only a few, isolated sites are predicted at risk (i.e., RCR > 1): 1.6% and 1.3% of sites for Agricultural and Grazing land, respectively.


an important role: too high or too low concentrations of certain chemical elements and other inorganic compounds in soil have a negative impact on crop production. Good quality soil chemical data is pivotal for any soil policy aiming for sustainable use of agricultural soil and efficient use of available resources as fertilisers.

FAO’s Global Soil Partnership (GSP) identified a number of concerns hampering sustainable soil use, including the lack of harmonised, high quality soil chemical data, which are often not easily accessible to various disciplines and for decision making, and agreed on 5 pillars of action to address these, i.e., 1- Promote sustainable management of soil resources for soil protection, conservation and sustainable productivity; 2- Encourage investment, technical cooperation, policy, education awareness and extension in soil; 3- Promote targeted soil research and development focusing on identified gaps and priorities and synergies with related productive, environmental and social development actions; 4- Enhance the quantity and quality of soil data and information: data collection (generation), analysis, validation, reporting, monitoring and integration with other disciplines, and 5- Harmonisation of methods, measurements and indicators for the sustainable management and protection of soil resources.

GEMAS –a joint project of EuroGeoSurveys and Eurometaux– illustrates how several of these concerns can be addressed. GEMAS provides harmonised high quality data on geochemical background levels of nutrients and other elements in agricultural and grazing land soil in Europe, as well as data on the key parameters that influence their availability in productive soil.

The project is unique in that 65 organisations from almost all Geological Surveys of Europe, other State and contract research organisations, universities to industry, and experts from different disciples –geochemists, soil scientists, geologists, statisticians– cooperated to produce a fully harmonised, strictly quality controlled and freely available data set at the scale of a continent. This cooperation addresses another action pillar of GSP.

The raw data are made freely available, so that they can be used for further research by experts from different disciplines, decision and policy makers.

Analysis of the data summarised above, reveals important findings for those involved in promoting sustainable management of soil resources for soil protection, conservation and sustainable productivity, another pillar of GSP.


Copper (Cu) deficiency in European agricultural soil is a rather common phenomenon (blue colour on the left map), while possibly toxic levels are rarely reached - see risk maps). Selenium (Se) deficiency also affects large parts of Europe’s agricultural land, while too high concentrations can be reached at coastal areas (see Ireland and western Norway) due to the combination of steady input via marine aerosols and a strong affinity of Se to bind to organic matter in soil.


EuroGeoSurveys, the Geological Surveys of Europe36-38, Rue Joseph II - 1000 Brussels (Belgium)Tel. : +32 2 888 75 53 - Fax : +32 2 503 50 [email protected]

www.eurogeosurveys.orgwww.geology.eu

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EGS wishes to thank all the contributors to this Report. In particular Claudia Delfini, who was responsible for the overall coordination, EuroGeoSurveys Staff,

the Expert Groups Chairpersons and all the authors of the various different sections.

This EuroGeoSurveys Annual Report is a publication of :

Documents

’14 - - · The EGS investment on communication has been kept constant and effective, and in March the much successful 'GeoGourmet Book' was officially launched. Two important milestones