’16 - - ...’16 ANNUAL REPORT The EuroGeoSurveys Annual Report 2016 refers to information related to the year 2015. Pioneering research for Society’s benefi t since 1971 A workforce

’16EuroGeoSurveysA N N U A L R E P O R T

The EuroGeoSurveys Annual Report 2016 refers to information related to the year 2015.

Pioneering research for Society’s benefi t since 1971

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

37 Geological surveys organisations from across Europe

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

Content Executive Summary 4

EGS in Brief 5

Key People 8

The shape of our business 13

Statistics 2015 65

Publications 71

The EuroGeoSurveys Annual Report 2016 refers to information related to the year 2015.

page 4 I EGS 2016 Annual Report

Executive SummaryThe most concrete EuroGeoSurveys success in 2015 is certainly the publication of the first official European Minerals Yearbook. A comprehensive source of minerals statistics for Europe, it presents, for the first time, official national level statistical data for 40 European countries, including all European Union (EU) Member States, countries in accession and potential candidates, as well as European Free Trade Association (EFTA) members. All the data is accessible digitally only, through the European Minerals Knowledge Data Platform.

The consequent set up of the Minerals4EU Foundation is aimed at guaranteeing the sustainability of the whole system, which includes, among other features, a geoportal lying the foundation of the European Mineral Resources Knowledge Base.

While this has granted EuroGeoSurveys universal visibility and recognition, it has also helped in further strengthening the relations with DG GROW and DG JRC.

Huge steps forward were made to coordinate the consortium to prepare to respond to an EC Call for Tenders on a geoscientific European Research Area Network (ERA-Net), which is expected to be a key pillar of the EGS Strategy.

At the same time the European Geological Data Infrastructure (EGDI) concept developed further from EGDI-Scope to EGDI-Bridge and, although it was not possible to access funding sources, the EGS members mobilised to ensure the set up of the system with own resources, until funding for the implementation phase are secured.

The cooperation with the African continent became concrete with the inclusion of the PanAfGeo project among the three budget lines of the EC PanAfrican Programme. A few months later an historical agreement was signed with the Organisation of Ibero-American Geological and Mining Surveys (ASGMI), during a joint General Meeting held after 15 years from the previous one.

The EGS community also enlarged with the inclusion of Latvia, Serbia and FYROM.

An important MoU was signed with Turkey.

The EGS investment on communication has been kept constant and effective, and in March another successful book 'Wonder Water' was officially launched.

In conclusion, 2015 has been marked by a continuous, progressive evolution, which confirmed the nowadays consolidated position of EGS as coordinated community able to achieve and enjoying international respect.

Figure 1.1: EU overview of the eutrophication state of transitional and coastal waters.Source: www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/chlorophyll-in-transitionalcoastal-and-2/assessment#toc-3. Note: Danish data is missing from this report. High summer chlorophyll-a concentrations and hypoxia frequently occur in Danish coastal waters.


Figure 1.2: EU overview of the proportion of river and lake water bodies in less than good ecological status or good ecological potential. Source: WISE WFDDatabase.


MISSION

EuroGeoSurveys (EGS), European leading geological organisation, provides public Earth science knowledge to support the EU’s competitiveness, social well-being, environmental management and international commitments. EGS represents 37 Geological Surveys in Europe, an overall workforce of several thousand experts. Since 1972 we have combined and coordinated the expertise of our members to support the direct interest of the European Union and/or of the European Free Trade Association, and today we are the leading technical advisory body to the EU Institutions in the field of geosciences.

By 2020 we will offer a unique gateway to unbiased and seamless data at European level. We will establish a common European Geological Knowledge Base and will jointly provide a Geological Service for Europe. We will achieve this by developing a joint research programme with a focus on EU policy, harmonizing, sharing and providing pan-European geological data and sharing knowledge, capacities and infrastructure.

Our strength is based on the work carried out by our Expert Groups.

Europe is facing a number of big challenges: economic growth, climate change, safety of environment, demand for sufficient water and food supplies, etc.

Our experts answer daily to questions such as : will Europe’s industries remain dependent on imports of critical raw materials or can we supply to this demand with own resources ? Raw materials are essential to stimulate the economic growth. Or how can we mitigate the effects of climate change and develop a European strategy ? Understanding the relationship between climate and natural hazards such as floods, draughts, land subsidence, landslides etc. becomes more and more important.

The knowledge of the subsurface is of vital importance to reduce the release of CO2 to the atmosphere, so is where, and to what extent, CO2 can be safely stored in the subsurface. It is another common question, as well as where and how groundwater resources and soils are available to provide a sufficient supply of food and water.

Zoom into your favourite topics and discover why geology has no borders.

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

EGS in Brief


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



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

PresidentKoen VerbruggenGeological Survey of Ireland

Vice PresidentTeresa Ponce de Leão Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia

MemberJonas SatkunasGeological Survey of Lithuania

Key People WORKING TOGETHER TO REACH OUR GOALS

EXPERT GROUPS

NATIONALDELEGATES

WORKING TOGETHER TO REACH OUR GOALS

SECRETARY GENERAL

BOARD OF DIRECTORS EXECUTIVE

COMMITTEE

ALBANIA Viktor DodaDirector General, Albanian Geological Survey

BELGIUM Yves VanbrabantDirector, Geological Survey of Belgium

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA Hazim HrvatovicDirector, Geological Survey of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA Dragan MitrovicDirector General, Geological Survey of the Republic of Srpska

CYPRUS Costas ConstantinouActing Director, Cyprus Geological Survey Department | Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment

AUSTRIA Peter SeifertDirector, Geological Survey of Austria

CROATIA Josip HalamicaDirector, Hrvatski geološki institut – Croatian Geological Survey

TreasurerJorge Civis LloveraInstituto Geologico y Minero de España


SLOVAK REPUBLIC Branislav Zec Director, State Geological Institute of Dionyz Stur

SERBIA Dragoman Rabrenović Director, Geološki zavod Srbije

FINLAND Mika Nykänen Director General, Geological Survey of Finland

ITALY Stefano Laporta Director General, Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale

ITALY Gabriele Bartolini Director, Servizio Geologico Sismico e dei Suoli -Emilia Romagna

THE NETHERLANDS Mart J. van Bracht Director, Geological Survey of the Netherlands

GERMANY Renate Taugs Director General, Geologisches Landesamt Hamburg

GERMANY Hans-Joachim Kümpel President, Bundesanstalt für Geowissenshaften und Rohstoffe

FYROM Kostadin Jovanov Director, Geological Survey of Macedonia

LUXEMBOURG Robert Colbach Director, Service Géologique du Luxembourg

SWEDEN Lena Söderberg Director General, Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning

ESTONIA Aivar Pajupuu Director, Geological Survey of Estonia

IRELAND Koen Verbrugger Director, Geological Survey of Ireland

ITALY Bernardo de Bernardinis President, Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale

ITALY Claudio Campobasso Director, Geological Survey of Italy

SLOVENIA Miloš Bavec Director General, Geological Survey of Slovenia

FRANCE Vincent Laflèche CEO, Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières

LITHUANIA Jonas Satkunas Acting Director, Geological Survey of Lithuania

LATVIA Kristaps Treimanis Chairperson of the Board, Geological Survey of Latvia

NORWAY Morten Smelror Director General, Geological Survey of Norway

SPAIN Jorge Civis LLovera Director, Instituto Geologico y Minero de España

GREECE Mountrakis Demosthenis President, Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration

GREECE Rousetos Livadaros Director General, Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration

PORTUGAL Teresa Ponce de Leão President, Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia

RUSSIAN FEDERATION Oleg Petrov Director General, A. P. Karpinsky All Russia Geological Research Institute

PORTUGAL Mário Rui Machado Leite Director, Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia

HUNGARY Tamás Fancsik Director, Geological and Geophysical Institute of Hungary

BOARD OF DIRECTORS (continued)

POLAND Andrzej Gąsiewicz Acting Director, Polish Geological Institute – National Research Institute

Key People

KOSOVO Fidaim Sahiti Chief Executive, Kosovo Geological Survey

CZECH REPUBLIC Zdenek Venera Director General, Czech Geological Survey

DENMARK Johnny Fredericia Managing Director, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland

MALTA Albert Caruana Director General, Continental Shelf Department


BOARD OF DIRECTORS (continued)

Key People

SWITZERLAND Olivier LateltinHead, Swiss Geological Survey, Bundesamt für Landestopografie SWISSTOPO, Landesgeologie

UNITED KINGDOM John Nicholas Ludden Executive Director, British Geological Survey

UKRAINE Sergii Prymushko Director, Geoinform of Ukraine

UKRAINE Mykola Boyarkin Acting head, SGSSU


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

Key People

ALBANIA Mr Sokol Marku Albanian Geological Survey

AUSTRIA Mr Hans-Georg Krenmayr Geological Survey of Austria

BELGIUM Mr Kris Piessen Geological Survey of Belgium

BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

Mr Boban Jolović Geological Survey of Republic of Srpska

CYPRUS Mrs Zomenia Zomeni Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment,Geological Survey Department

CZECH REPUBLIC

Mrs Ivana Svojtkova Czech Geological Survey

DENMARK Mr Jens Stockmarr Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland

ESTONIA Mr Margus Raha Geological Survey of Estonia

FINLAND Dr Asko Käpyaho Geological Survey of Finland

FRANCE Mr Pierre Nehlig Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières

FYROM Dr Dejan Pavlov Geological Survey of Macedonia

GERMANY Mrs Birgit Kuhns Bundesanstalt für Geowissenshaften und Rohstoffe

GREECE Mr Kostas Laskaridis Institute of Geology and Mineral

HUNGARY Mrs Annamaria Nádor Geological and Geophysical Institute of Hungary

IRELAND Ms Taly Hunter Williams Geological Survey of Ireland

ITALY Mr Luca Guerrieri Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale

LATVIA Ms Daiga Pipira Geological Survey of Latvia

LITHUANIA Ms Jolanta Čyžienė Geological Survey of Lithuania

MALTA Dr Charles Galea Ministry for Transport and Infrastructures

THE NETHERLANDS

Mrs Tirza Van Daalen Geological Survey of the Netherlands

NORWAY Mr Jan Høst Norwegian Geological Survey

POLAND Mr Wojciech Brochwicz-Lewiński

Polish Geological Institute

PORTUGAL Mrs Rita Caldeira Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia

ROMANIA Mr Stefan Marincea Geological Institute of Romania

RUSSIA FEDERATION

Mr Vitaly Shatov A. P. Karpinsky All Russia Geological Research Institute

SERBIA Mrs Aleksandra Gulan Geološki zavod Srbije

SLOVAK REPUBLIC

Mr Alena Klukanová State Geological Institute of Dionyz Stur

SPAIN Mr Manuel Regueiro y González-Barros

Instituto Geologico y Minero de España

SWEDEN Ms Lisbeth Hildebrand Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning

SWITZERLAND Mr Peter Hayoz Bundesamt für Landestopografie swisstopo Landesgeologie

UKRAINE Mr Boris I. Malyuk Geoinform of Ukraine

UNITED KINGDOM

Ms Vicky Hards British Geological Survey


CHAIRMANSHIP AND DEPUTY-CHAIRMANSHIP OF THE EGS EXPERT GROUPS

MINERAL RESOURCES EXPERT GROUP (MREG)Chair: Nikos Arvanitidis (SGU, Sweden) – Responsible for EC RMSG and Responsible for EC Ad-

Hoc CRM WGDeputy-Chair: Daniel Cassard (BRGM, France) – Responsible for Map of European CRM and

Responsible for ETP SMRDeputy-Chair: Gerry Stanley (GSI, Ireland) – Responsible for relations with PERC

GEOENERGY EXPERT GROUP (GEEG)Chair: Serge van Gessel (TNO, Netherlands)Deputy Chair (for CCS): Kris Piessens (GSB, Belgium)Deputy Chair (for Fossil Fuels): Peter Britze (GEUS, Denmark)Deputy Chair (for Geothermal Energy): VACANT

EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOHAZARDS EXPERT GROUP (EOEG)Chair: Gerardo Herrera (IGME, Spain)Deputy Chair (for GeoHazards): Eleftheria Poyiadji (IGME, Greece) Deputy Chair (for Earth Observation): Marian Prytucka (PGI-NRI, Poland)

GEOCHEMISTRY EXPERT GROUP (GEG)Chair: Clemens Reimann (NGU, Norway)Deputy Chair: Anna Ladenberger (SGU, Sweden)Deputy Chair: Philippe Negrel (BRGM, France)

SPATIAL INFORMATION EXPERT GROUP (SIEG)Chair: Francois Robida (BRGM, France)Deputy Chair: Jarmo Kohonen (GTK, Finland)

MARINE GEOLOGY EXPERT GROUP (MGEG)Chair: Henry Vallius (GTK, Finland)Deputy Chair: Alan Stevenson (BGS, UK)

WATER RESOURCES EXPERT GROUP (WREG)Chair: Klaus Hinsby (GEUS, Denmark)Deputy Chair: Hans-Peter Broers (TNO, Netherlands)

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT TASK FORCE (ICDTF)Chair: Marek Graniczny (PGI-NRI, Poland)Deputy Chair: Dirk Kuester (BGR, Germany)

SUPERFICIAL DEPOSITS TASK FORCE (SOIL RESOURCES) (SDTF)Chair: Rainer Baritz (BGR, Germany)Deputy Chair: Florence Quesnel (BRGM, France)

Key People



GEOCHEMISTRY EXPERT GROUP

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The EuroGeoSurveys Geochemistry Expert Group and the EGG, GEMAS and URGE Project Teams, which include 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 2015, firstly, in promoting the two volumes GEMAS atlas with the title “Chemistry of Europe’s Agricultural Soils”, which was published in April 2014, and secondly with the 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.

MISSION AND VISION

Sound scientific data must be in the forefront for planning and political decision-making. The mission of the EuroGeoSurveys Geochemistry Expert Group is, thus, (i) to provide high quality geochemical data of near-surface materials, (ii) to develop harmonised databases for multi-purpose use, (iii) to offer independent expert advice to the European Commission, and (iv) 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 “hard-copy” books and on-line publications), which are freely available, and can be used in (a) state of the environment reports (including monitoring), (b) mineral exploration, (c) agriculture, (d) forestry, (e) animal husbandry, (f) environmental medicine (including epidemiology) and medical geology, (g)

forensic medicine, (h) determination of natural background values for environmental risk assessment and spatial planning, etc.

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

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 with various specialties (e.g., environmental, exploration, ground water geochemistry) 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 and radiogenic isotopes, Mid-InfraRed spectroscopy (MIR), Mobile Metal Ion analysis (MMI®), Magnetic

The shape of our business


measurements, 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 routines 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.

ACTIVITY REPORT

4.1. 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 strict external quality control procedures. The GEMAS project provides for the first time fully harmonised data for element concentrations in agricultural and grazing land soil and properties known to influence the bioavailability and toxicity of 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; EC 1907/2006). GEMAS data can be efficiently used for various European pieces of legislation related to metals in soil, e.g., Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (96/61/EC), Sewage Sludge Directive (86/27/EEC), Mine Waste Directive (2006/21/EC), Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC), INSPIRE Directive (2007/2/EC) and the pending Soil Protection Directive.

A two-volume geochemical atlas with an accompanying DVD was published in April 2014 (Fig. 1), comprising 28 chapters in total: • Reimann, C., Birke, M., Demetriades, A.,

Filzmoser, P. & O'Connor, P. (Editors), 2014. Chemistry of Europe's agricultural soils – Part A: Methodology and interpretation

of the GEMAS data set. Geologisches Jahrbuch (Reihe B 102), Schweizerbarth, Hannover, 528 pp. (www.schweizerbart.de/publications/detail/isbn/9783510968466), and

• Reimann, C., Birke, M., Demetriades, A.,

Filzmoser, P. & O'Connor, P. (Editors), 2014. Chemistry of Europe's agricultural soils – Part B: General background information and further analysis of the GEMAS data set. Geologisches Jahrbuch (Reihe B 103), Schweizerbarth, Hannover, 352 pp. (www.schweizerbart.de/publications/detail/isbn/9783510968473/Geologisches_Jahrbuch_Reihe_B_Heft_B103_Chemistry).

Book sales since publication in April 2014: 468 copies of Part A and 465 of Part B were sold, and 173 copies sent to library institutions through BGR’s library exchange programme; overall total 647 sets.

During 2015, new data were generated on the GEMAS agricultural soil samples, i.e., C, N, S (TU Bergakademie Freiberg) and magnetic properties, and complete magnetic profiles were measured at the University of Kazan, Russia. Thus, the GEMAS project has now reached a total of 70 cooperation partners.

The GEMAS project was presented at various national and international meetings,


Figure 1. Front covers of the two volumes of the GEMAS atlas ‘Chemistry of Europe’s Agricultural Soils’.


conferences and workshops, i.e., 7 oral presentations and 6 poster presentations. Further, 8 scientific papers were published, and 1 is in press. In total, 27 scientific papers were published.

For policy-making, two GEMAS workshops were organised in Brussels. The first at the EuroGeoSurveys office on the 5th of February 2015 with participants from the EGS Brussels office, and selected European Commission officials (SANTE, ENV, GROW, AGRI, JRC). The second at the DG ENV office with participants from the EGS Brussels office and European Commission officers.

An innovative way of dissemination and promotion of the GEMAS project results are the three periodic tables: (i) GEMAS Periodic Table of Elements in Agricultural soil, (ii) GEMAS Periodic Table of Elements in Grazing land soil, and (iii) GEMAS Periodic Table of Mineralisation & Mineral deposits, which are very popular, especially also with school teachers.

The GEMAS brochure was translated into the following languages: Danish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish, and will be available for downloading from the GEMAS project website, hosted by the Geological Survey of Austria.

Another very good and extensive review of the GEMAS atlas was published in Elements (2015, vol. 11(4), p.291; www.elementsmagazine.org/archives/e11_4/e11_4_dep_bookreview3.pdf).

4.2. 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. 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 studies from different urban areas around Europe, USA, Africa and Far East. In total, the book has 33 Chapters. Book sales since publication in April 2011: 582 copies.

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 to distinguish between the natural and urban (anthropogenically modified) geochemical background, and produce in a harmonised manner comparable data sets across Europe. Phase I of the URGE project was completed at the end of 2014, and each country is responsible for publishing the results independently. The results will also be published in a special issue of the Journal of Geochemical Exploration at the end of 2016 or early in 2017. Since, this is an important project for the European Community, a well-coordinated URGE Phase II is recommended, provided, of course, if the necessary funding can be found. This project can be used for constraining good policies, for example, within Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (96/61/EC), Sewage Sludge Directive (86/27/EEC and INSPIRE Directive (2007/2/EC).

For the purposes of phase II of the URGE project a manual was written by Demetriades, A. & Birke, M., 2015. Urban Topsoil Geochemical Mapping Manual (URGE II). EuroGeoSurveys, Brussels, 52 pp.



(www.eurogeosurveys.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/EGS_Urban_Topsoil_Geochemical_Mapping_Manual_URGE_II_HR_version.pdf). In addition, another more detail urban geochemical methods manual was written by Demetriades, A. & Birke, M., 2015. Urban Geochemical Mapping Manual: Sampling, Sample preparation, Laboratory analysis, Quality control check, Statistical processing and Map plotting. EuroGeoSurveys, Brussels, 162 pp. (www.eurogeosurveys.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Urban_Geochemical_Mapping_Manual.pdf).

Apart from the two manuals, there were two oral and one poster presentation in international conferences, and 1 scientific paper published. In total, 17 scientific papers were published.

4.3. EUROPEAN GROUNDWATER GEOCHEMISTRY PROJECT (EGG)

In Europe, ca. 1900 ‘mineral water’ brands are officially registered and bottled for drinking. Bottled water is collected from groundwater 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. Book sales, since publication in August 2010, reached 888 copies (www.schweizerbart.de/publications/detail/artno/001201002#).

This book is the first state of the art overview of the chemistry of groundwater 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 hydrochemical laboratory, under strict quality control with high internal and external reproducibility, affording a 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.

Because of the wide geographical distribution of the water sources across 40 European countries, the bottled mineral, drinking and tap waters characterised herein may be used for obtaining a first estimate of ‘groundwater geochemistry’ at the scale of

the European Continent. The data published here allow for the first time to present a comprehensive overview of the natural distribution and variation of the determined chemical elements and additional status parameters of groundwater at the European scale. This database provides valuable information for different pieces of European legislation, e.g., Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (96/61/EC), Sewage Sludge Directive (86/27/EEC), Mine Waste Directive (2006/21/EC), Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC), and INSPIRE Directive (2007/2/EC).

In 2015, there was 1 oral presentation at a meeting, and 3 scientific papers were published, two on tap water geochemistry, and a policy-oriented article. In total, 35 scientific papers were published.

4.4. 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 (http://weppi.gtk.fi/publ/foregsatlas/). Many European Union institutions, national and local authorities, and Universities still use the produced data, because they provide geochemical background in many surficial materials.



The FOREGS atlas can be used to support European legislation related to metals in soil, e.g., Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (96/61/EC), Sewage Sludge Directive (86/27/EEC), Mine Waste Directive (2006/21/EC), Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC), INSPIRE Directive (2007/2/EC) and the pending Soil Protection Directive.

One scientific paper was published in 2015. In total, 25 scientific papers were published on the FOREGS atlas data, and another 30 in the preceding period.

4.5. SUBMISSION OF A PROJECT PROPOSAL

A proposal was submitted in August to GEO-X (Group on Earth Observations – AfriGEOSS) with the title “Africa Global-scale Geochemical Baselines for mineral resource and environmental management: Capacity-building phase”. The proposal is a joint effort with the IUGS/IAGC Task Group on Global Geochemical Baselines. FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

Among the future perspectives, the following harmonised data sets have been identified as 'missing' in the eyes of the Geochemistry Expert Group:

• Modern isotope systems on GEMAS samples • Harmonised and coherent

lithogeochemistry of Europe (complementary to the parent material map of Europe)

• URGE - urban geochemistry phase II

– towards the production of homogeneous and representative urban data sets (for this purpose a brochure was written)

• Tap/Surface/Spring water geochemistry • Low density geochemistry of the European

shelf • Forest soil geochemistry • Geochemistry of the North Atlantic Basin

(for this purpose a brochure was written in collaboration with EGS Marine Geology Expert Group).

• Biogeochemistry • Coal and oil geochemistry database • Internally consistent geochemistry database

of European mineral deposits geochemistry (complementary to the ProMine and Minerals4EU databases)

• GEMAS Follow-up projects

• Use of the GEMAS data as ground proofing data set for remote sensing

• GEMAS eBook to be published in 2016

A one-page project description is available for most of the proposed project ideas. Further, the development of the tasks has been allocated to different Task Groups.



LIST OF MEMBERS

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

Annual report compiled by Alecos Demetriades, Clemens Reimann, Anna Ladenberger and Philippe Negrel14th January, 2016


COUNTRY Survey Name

ALBANIA AGS Agim Mazreku

AUSTRIA GBA Sebastian Pfleiderer

Gerhard Hobier

Albert Schedl

BELGIUM GSB Sophie Decree

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 Gyögy Falus

IRELAND GSI Ray Scanlon

ITALY ISPRA Marco Falconi

Gianluca Pirani

LITHUANIA LGT Virgilija Gregorauskiene

LUXEMBOURG SGL Robert Maquil

COUNTRY Survey Name

NORWAY NGU Clemens Reimann

Belinda Flem

POLAND PGI Aleksandra Dusza-Dobek

Pawel Kwecko

PORTUGAL LNEG Maria Joao Batista

Rita Caldeira

Joao Matos

ROMANIA GIR Adriana Ion

SLOVAK REPUBLIC SGUDS Dusan Bodis

Daniela Mackovych

Igor Slaninka

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

Paul Boogart

UNITED KINGDOM BGS Joanna Wragg

UKRAINE UkrSGRI Boris Maliuk

Volodymyr Klos

Marina Vladimirova


GEO-ENERGY EXPERT GROUP

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Activities within the GEEG are mainly focused on the design and implementation of common strategies for EGS members to be able to integrate and harmonize pan-European geological datasets and models, and using these for mapping and estimating the resource potential of the various geo-energy applications. The GEEG covers a wide range of subsurface energy resources including conventional and unconventional hydrocarbons, geothermal energy production, CO2 storage and energy storage.

During 2015 the members of the GEEG were involved in several major projects related to Energy Storage (ESTMAP), Shale gas (EUOGA, JRC shale gas and oil assessment) and Geothermal Energy (DanReGeothrem-DATA). The latest developments for the GEEG are focusing on establishing a cross-thematic ERA-NET on applied geosciences, in which the GEEG intends to set-up activities with regard to establishing harmonized information on geo-energy resources for all of Europe.

Besides the joint research projects, the GEEG is seated in various technical workgroups including the EU Science and Technology

Network on conventional hydrocarbons, the Hydrocarbons BREF and the UNFC workgroup on geothermal resource classifications. Members of the GEEG are represented in several related European associations and networks including CO2GeoNet and ENeRG. Collaboration with these networks takes place in several joint initiatives.

During 2015 the role of Chair passed on to Mr. Serge van Gessel (TNO) with assistance of the new co-chairs Ms. Annamária Nádor (MFGI) and Mr. Peter Britze (GEUS). The group has been grown to 53 Members from 28 surveys. The members participated in two bi-annual meetings of the Geo-Energy Group as well as several other technical project meetings and workshops.

MISSION AND VISION

Europe faces key challenges to secure its access to clean, affordable and reliable energy, whilst reducing climate effects of energy consumption and production. These challenges are among others reflected in commitments of the European Union to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80–95 % below 1990 levels by 2050. In alignment with this target, the EC has the ambition to increase the share of renewable energy to over 75% in the same period.

With regard to these ambitions, the subsurface provides essential resources and storage capacities. During the current transition towards a clean and renewable energy system there is still a key role for fossil fuels in securing energy supply where natural gas is a relatively clean alternative to coal. Geothermal energy is an upcoming clean and renewable subsurface energy resource that serves both heat and power demand. Energy can be converted into different types of carriers that are suitable for temporary subsurface storage in porous media and caverns, thereby providing options to balance fluctuations in energy supply and demand. And last but not least, the subsurface delivers large capacities for storing CO2 that is being emitted by power plants as well as by CO2-intensive industries

Geological information and knowledge is crucial to understanding the nature and distribution of geo-energy resources and capacities as well as to predicting potential effects, interferences and competitions related to their exploitation. The investigation and assessment of geo-energy resources is one of the core tasks and competences of the National Geological Surveys of Europe. The EuroGeoSurveys Geo-Energy Expert Group (GEEG) brings these efforts to a Pan-European level by integrating national research and datasets in order to advance the understanding of subsurface geo-energy



resources and uses in Europe and to support policy decisions with actionable and harmonized information. The national geological surveys that are joined under EuroGeoSurveys are the primary and most comprehensive source for providing public information and expertise.

The general mission of the EGS Geo-Energy Expert Group (GEEG) is to initiate and coordinate collaborative activities by its members in order to provide and publish impartial, scientifically robust and harmonized information and expertise to advance the understanding of fossil fuel and geothermal energy resources, and CO2 and energy storage capacities in Europe. This information is used to analyze and facilitate possibilities for responsible and sustainable use of geo-energy resources in Europe, thereby contributing to securing access to energy in Europe.

The Geo-Energy Expert Group aspires a leading role in providing geological and geo-technical information and advice on geo-energy topics to European policy makers and relevant stakeholders. A key position within European information networks on geo-energy is envisioned.

The vision of GEEG is to significantly improve pan-European information on geo-energy potential in the coming five years. Through funded Pan-European and interregional

projects, GEEG will be able to close some of the key knowledge gaps as geological models and resource assessments will be better integrated and harmonized in cross border focal areas.

SCOPE AND FOCUS

EGS/GEEG is an association of National Geological Surveys whose objective is to facilitate the establishment of harmonized and functional pan-European geological datasets, models and knowledge bases on existing and potential future geo-energy resources and capacities. Activities within the GEEG are mainly focused on integrating activities from their respective national geoscience programmes.

There are important technical challenges with regard to reducing inconsistencies and model heterogeneities across country borders and to developing state of art assessment methodologies that can be applied to establish interoperable pan-European resource estimates. The GEEG aims to highlight scientific gaps for energy resource assessments, based on shared national experiences and studies and proposes common actions in order to fill these gaps (e.g. competition, induced hazards and environmental issues). Knowledge and information from the GEEG is intended to serve as essential and objective building

blocks for supporting policy decisions on Europe’s energy future.

Within the geo-energy context the EU currently has a strong focus on unconventional hydrocarbons, geothermal energy production, CO2 storage and energy storage. The GEEG has a unique position to cover the scientific geological aspects of these topics and to deliver essential data and know-how to improve the understanding of these resources.

ACTIVITY REPORT

Key projects and initiativesMembers of the GEEG are collaborating in various transnational projects and programmes. Below a short summary of key projects is given:

• ESTMAP Energy Storage Mapping And Planning: The Geological Surveys joined under EGS and institutes joined under the ENeRG network participate as subcontractors in a EU project ESTMAP, to support the development of a Pan-European database on subsurface and above ground energy storage potential. The project was awarded by end of 2014 and started in January 2015 with TNO as overall project coordinator and WP Leader for the database and BRGM (assisted by CGS) as WP Leader for the subsurface data collection. External partner



ECOFYS (Netherlands) assisted by VITO (Belgium) is WP Leader for above ground energy data and the Pan-European energy systems analyses. The Geological Surveys joined in two technical subsurface workshops in Vienna (April 15th) and Prague (October 18th). TNO currently finalizes the database for publication and further use in the energy systems analysis. All participating surveys will receive a copy of the GIS energy storage database.

• EUOGA European Unconventional Oil and Gas Assessment On May 18th 2015 GEUS submitted a proposal on behalf of EGS in response to the call JRC/PTT/2015/F.3/0027/NC: Provision of a geological evaluation of potential unconventional oil and gas resources in Europe. The project proposal was awarded on June 25th, 2015 and incorporates the characterization and spatial compilation of European shale gas and shale oil resources, as well as a quantitative assessment of these resources, based on readily available and public information at the Geological Surveys. GEUS acts as a coordinator on behalf of EGS while the other geological surveys participate through subcontracting (currently over 23 Surveys have confirmed to contribute to the project and some are in the process of joining). TNO is a main partner responsible for carrying out the resource assessment.

The total project duration is 2 years with a budget of 700.000 Euro. On December 7th and 8th, all participating surveys participated in a technical kick-off meeting at GEUS, Copenhagen. Potential data sources, country overviews and the approach for the database and resource assessment have been presented and discussed. In the coming period the main focus will be the data collection and processing. A technical workshop on the resource assessment is planned at TNO in October 2016.

• Cross-thematic ERA-NET on applied geosciences IIn the Horizon 2016/2017 programme the EU invites subsurface institutes for submitting a proposal on the LCE-026 call Cross-thematic ERA-NET on applied geosciences. This ERA-NET focuses on establishing Pan-EU databases and information systems on geo-energy, groundwater and mineral resources. The projects should support future planning of subsurface resources by EU policy makers and relevant stakeholders. The funding of the programme is based on a 33% refund of in-kind contributions defined by eligible work in national geo-science programmes. TNO, BGR and GEUS are coordinating the set-up of the proposal.

The GEEG has the task to provide the thematic proposal for assessing geo-energy resources, which amounts a total of 12 MEuro (including a 4 MEuro refund from EU). According to the current developments, part of the budget will be allocated to develop a common cross-thematic spatial information system. The contents of the geo-energy programme were presented and discussed during the GEEG-meeting at GEUS (Copenhagen) on December 8th and 9th. Main topics are fossil fuels (conventional and unconventional), geothermal energy, solid fuels, CO2 storage and energy storage. The surveys under EGS are now in the phase of elaborating and finalizing the proposal. Deadline for submitting is April 9th 2016.

• DanReGeotherm-DATA The DanReGeotherm-DATA project (Data support for the enhanced use of deep geothermal energy in the Danube Region 05_PA02-C1) was running from April 1st to December 31st, 2015 and funded by the START – Danube Region Project Fund. This fund is a new pilot initiative of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, which provides seed money for the development and implementation of future Danube Region projects (www.danube-region.eu/) The aim of DanReGeotherm-DATA was to overview available geoscientific data



relevant for the assessment of deep geothermal energy potential in 6 countries: Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Romania and the Czech Republic, and to elaborate a concept for a future joint database that would support such potential assessments. The coordinator of the project was the Geological and Geophysical Institute of Hungary (MFGI), and the partners were the national geological surveys of the participating countries (Geological Survey of Croatia, Geological Survey of Federation of B&H, Geological Institute of Romania, Geological Survey of Czech Republic. From Serbia the University of Belgrade participated. By infilling a detailed and well-structured online questionnaire, all national geological surveys – as managers of national datasets – provided an excellent overview of relevant geoscientific data and their availability, and provided sample datasets which made it possible to elaborate a concept of a future joint database concept. The results can among others be directly linked to the Geoscientific ERANET GeoEnergy tasks related to geothermal energy.

• Geothermal ERANET This FP7 project was launched by program managers and program operators in the field of geothermal energy of Iceland, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Slovak

Republic, Hungary, Switzerland, Italy and Turkey with the aim of deepening European cooperation at national and administrative levels, enabling the integration of national research programs and developing agendas for a coherent European geothermal R&D program. During the course of the project 2 national geological surveys – as program managers - joined the project: Geological and Geophysical Institute of Hungary, and Geological Survey of Slovenia. One of the key activities of the project is to prepare and implement “Joint activities”, which serve the basis for future calls. These activities are thematic clusters of earlier identified key challenges, such as mitigating operational problems, developing new reservoir concepts, expand funding opportunities, raise the awareness of deep geothermal applications, as well as developing the European Geothermal Information Platform (EGIP) with the purpose of sharing information on legal and regulatory aspects, policies, measures, institutions, research projects and data. The project with a 2.2. million euro budget is running from 2012 to 2016.

• GEOMOL Project The GEOMOL project concerns the assessment of subsurface potentials in Alpine Foreland Basins for sustainable planning and use of natural resources.

Both national and regional Geological surveys have been involved in the development of harmonized transnational 3D geological models based on common workflow and methodologies, with the aim to produce the assessment of subsurface geopotentials (e.g. geothermal energy, CCS) and geohazards (seismicity). A geo-data infrastructure enables the full interoperability of 3D geological information among the GSOs; a map viewer provides off-the-shelf map applications for planners, regulatory bodies and decision makers; a 3D browser-analyst enables visualisation and query of open source 3D models. The GeoMol project was coordinated by LfU – Bayern and ended June 2015. From GEEG/EGS the following members were involved: BRGM (France), ISPRA (Italy), GeoZS (Slovenia), GBA (Austria), RER - SGSS (Italy) and SwissTopo (Suisse). Other partners were Oberösterreich (Austria), Baden-Württemberg (Germany), Freiberg University and Canton Geneve.

• Other cross-border projects GEEG members are regularly working

together in cross-border initiatives related to geological mapping and geo-energy assessments. Some examples are:

- SolCav (GBA-Austria and CGS-Czech Republic): Subsurface Energy Storage

- H3O (Netherlands, Belgium, Germany):



3D interregional mapping for hydro-geological and geo-energy purposes.

RELATED NETWORKS

GEEG member surveys are represented in the following major networks and associations that are relevant to geo-energy. The work and knowledge in EGS is mostly complementary to the objectives and mission of these networks. The cross-connection provides additional scope for collaboration in EU programmes.

• CO2GeoNet 11 members surveys in GEEG (Austria

– GBA; Belgium - RBINS-GSB; Czech Rep. – CGS; Denmark – GEUS; France – BRGM; Germany – BGR; Hungary – MFGI; Netherlands – TNO; Poland - PGI-NRI; Spain – IGME; UK – BGS) participate in CO2GeoNet which is a non-profit scientific Association joining together 26 research institutes spanning 19 European countries. CO2GeoNet is the independent European scientific authority dealing with all aspects of geological storage of CO2. The Association pools more than 300 experts, researchers and postgraduate students. CO2GeoNet started as a Network of Excellence under the EC 6th Framework Programme (2004-2009) and became a non-profit scientific Association in 2008

registered under French Law. EGS, CO2GeoNet and also ENeRG have cooperated at several times under establishing projects under EC, e.g. FP6 project EU GeoCapacity (coordinator GEUS), the FP7 project CGS Europe (coordinator BRGM), EC contract: CO2StoP project (coordinator GEUS). EGS also cooperated with CO2GeoNet organising a side-event in the blue zone of the COP21.

•ENeRG Within EneRG 10 GEEG member institutes

from Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Slovak Republic, Slovenia and the Netherlands, work together with 35 other technical and geological institutes on geo-energy research topics. The ENeRG is an informal contact network open to all European organisations which have a primary mission and objective to conduct basic and applied research and technological activities related to the exploration and production of energy sources derived from the Earth’s crust. . Within the ESTMAP project the GEEG and ENeRG members combined their excellence in order to gather available information on subsurface energy storage.

ASSOCIATED RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND PROJECTS

GEEG members participate in the following

research programmes that relate to the field of geo-energy:

• EERA Shale Gas Joint Programme: TNO-Netherlands, GSB-Belgium, GEUS-Denmark, PGI-Poland, LNEG-Portugal, IGR-Romania, IGME-Spain, BGS/UKERC – Great Britain

• M4Shale: TNO-Netherlands, LNEG-Portugal, GEUS-Denmark, IGME-Spain, PGI-Poland, CGS-Czech Republic, BGS – Great Britain

• EERA-CCS Joint Programme: BGS-UK, BRGM-France, IGME-Spain, PGI-Poland, TNO-Netherlands, BGS/UKERC – Great Britain

• ECCSEL-CCS: BGS-UK, BRGM-France, PGI-Poland, TNO-Netherlands

• FP7 UltimateCO2: BRGM-France, BGR-Germany, BGS-UK, GEUS-Denmark, TNO-Netherlands, and non-GEEG: SWISSTOPO-Switzerland)

• EERA-Geothermal: BRGM-France, GSB-Belgium, GEUS-Denmark, IGR-Romania, IGME-Spain, PGI-Poland, LNEG-Portugal, BGS-UK,

EU-SUPPORT AND REPRESENTATIONS

• Unconventional Hydrocarbons S&T – JRC Various members of the GEEG participated

in meetings of Workgroup 1 and 2 of the Science and Technology Network on Unconventional Hydrocarbons (February



23rd/24th 2015, June 10th 2015 and November 5th 2015). Workgroup 1 addresses the identification and collection of information from relevant exploration and development projects in the field of unconventional hydrocarbons and is chaired by Mr. Gregory Pienkowski from the Polish Geological Institute, PGI. Workgroup 2 addresses the identification and reporting of innovative techniques to reduce the impacts of unconventional production and hydraulic fracturing.

• EU Recommendation HVHF On May 28th 2015 the GEEG was

interviewed by Milieu-Belgium in order to provide input for the consultation on the Effectiveness of Commission Recommendation (2014/70/EC) on minimum principles for the exploration and production of hydrocarbons (such as shale gas) using high-volume hydraulic fracturing. The Chair (Mr. Serge van Gessel, TNO) and Co-chair (Mr. Kris Piessens, GSB) provided the interview and associated response documents including contributions from several member surveys.

• EFBW On July 17th 2015 the Chair (Mr. Serge van

Gessel) participated in a conference at Spa-Belgium, organized by the European Federation of Bottled Water industry. He gave a keynote presentation on the subject

of shale gas and hydraulic fracturing. Subsequently a discussion panel formed by Mr. Philippe Charlez (IOGP), Mr. Patrick Jobé (Spadel Group), Mr. Jim Marshall (Water UK), Mr. Christian Wimmer (DG-ENV) and Mr. Serge van Gessel (TNO) responded to questions regarding the Effectiveness of Commission Recommendation (2014/70/EC) on minimum principles for the exploration and production of hydrocarbons (such as shale gas) using high-volume hydraulic fracturing, in relation to the protection of natural mineral water resources.

• UNECE-UNFC From April 28th – May 1st 2015 Ms.

Annamária Nádor (MFGI) represented GEEG at a 6th UNECE EGRC meeting in Geneva. She presented the results of a questionnaire survey among the GEEG members (responses from 17 countries), addressing the experience, knowledge and implementation of the UNFC classification system.

• EU - BREF on Hydrocarbon exploration and production

EGS participates in a Technical Working Group led by the company Amec Wheeler Foster, focusing on the development of a Best Practices Reference document for exploration and production of hydrocarbons. EGS is represented by

Mr. Serge van Gessel, Chair of the GEEG, Ms. Jurga Lazauskienė (LGT-Lithuania) and assisted by Ms. Christeline Mottet, Junior Science Officer of the EGS Secretariat. The GEEG is asked to assist in providing access to relevant public information resources and reviewing the BREF documents. Ms. Christeline Mottet was present at the 13-15 October Kick-Of meeting in Brussels. The BREF workgroup expects to deliver the final results in 2018 (final meeting in May)

• H2020 CCS Article On request of H2020 magazine “Portal”

Mr. Serge van Gessel (TNO) and Mr. Niels Poulsen (GEUS) published an article on CCS. The article explains what can and must be done to alleviate the barriers towards CCS deployment and make it a global, fully matured technology. The article can be downloaded at: www.horizon2020publications.com (Issue 8, October 2015).

BI-ANNUAL MEETINGS AND JRC COLLABORATION

The GEEG convened during two bi-annual meetings:

• April 14th - 15th 2015 at GBA in Vienna

• December 8th – 9th at GEUS in Copenhagen



Furthermore the majority of the GEEG-members was represented at three main technical workshops:

• ESTMAP project: April 13th 2015 at GBA in Vienna

• ESTMAP project October 18th at CGS in Prague

• EUOGA project: December 7th – 8th at GEUS in Copenhagen

FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

ERA-NET

The main future perspective for GEEG is definition of a joint call for proposals on geo-energy in the Cross-thematic ERA-NET on applied geosciences (LC_026). This call will address most of the relevant topics covered in GEEG and lay out the foundations for a common geological framework that can be extended and used for geo-energy support to the EU Commission, national governments and society as a whole. Currently the GEEG is involved in writing the proposal that will form the basis for the ERA-NET programme.

HYDROCARBONS

While the GEEG is now carrying out the geological mapping and assessment of shale

gas and shale oil occurrences in Europe, the results will provide opportunities to extend the work into a comprehensive atlas. Further activities relate to the evaluation and gathering of knowledge concerning hazards and impacts.

GEOTHERMAL

Together with the activities in ERA-NET, GEEG will focus on realizing goals and activities mentioned in the new road map for geothermal energy. These actions should lead to a better insight in the current knowledge and information gaps and serve as a basis for future funded projects by EGS members.

CCS

GEEG activities on CCS will mostly be defined within the framework of the ERANET on geosciences and, where relevant, aligned with activities in other CCS research programmes (among others EERA CCS, ERA-NET CCS).

ENERGY STORAGE

In 2016 the ESTMAP project will continue with major focus on Energy Systems Analysis. As this field of application is still relatively new and in development, it will be evaluated how the ESTMAP results can be extended and used in potential future research programmes on energy storage assessment and planning.




COUNTRY Survey Name

Austria GBA Piotr Lipiarski

GBA Gregor Götzl

Belgium GSB Estelle Petitclerc

GSB Kris Piessens

Croatia HGI-CGS Adriano Banak

C.Republic CGS Vit Hladik

Cyprus GSD Niki Koulermou

Cyprus GSD Christos Christofi

Cyprus GSD Philippos Katsouris

Cyprus GSD Theothosia Herakleous

Denmark GEUS Peter Britze

GEUS Jens Stockmarr

GEUS Niels Poulsen

Finland GTK Samu Valpola

France BRGM Didier Bonijoly

BRGM Philippe Calcagno

BRGM Isabelle Czernichowski

Germany BGR Harald Andruleit

BGR Stefan Ladage

BGR Birgit Kuhns

BGR Peter Gerling

Greece IGME Dr. George Vougioukalakis

IGME Apostolos Arvanitis

Hungary MFGI Annamária Nádor

Ireland GSI Taly Hunter

GSI John Morris

GSI Brian McConnell

Italy ISPRA Fernando Ferri

ISPRA Pio Dimanna

ISPRA Chiara D'Ambrogi

Emilia-Romagna

Fabio Molinari

Lithuania LTI Jurga Lazauskiene

Malta MRA

Norway NGU Jan Host

Jan Cramer

Poland PGI Grzegorz Ryzynski

PGI Grzegorz Pienkowski

PGI Hubert Kiersnowski

PGI Monika Konieczyńska

PGI Adam Wojcicki

PGI Monika Skrzeczkowska

Portugal LNEG Zélia Pereira

Romania IGR Mircea Ticleanu

Slovak Republic SGUDS Radovan Černak

Slovenia GeoZS Miloš Markič

GeoZS Andrej Lapanje

GeoZS Dušan Rajver

GeoZS Nina Rman

Spain IGME Roberto Martinez Orio

Sweden SGU Mikael Erlström

SGU Linda Wickström

Netherlands TNO Serge van Gessel

TNO Johan ten Veen

United Kingdom BGS Michael Stephenson

BGS Ed Hough

LIST OF MEMBERS

As of January 2016, the GEEG consists of 54 members from 28 surveys. In 2015 the composition of the expert group coordination team was defined as follows:

Chair: Mr. Serge van Gessel (TNO)Co-Chairs: Ms. Annamária Nádor (MFGI)

Mr. Peter Britze (GEUS)Key Topic Leaders: Mr. Peter Gerling (BGR)

Mr. Ed Hough (BGS)Mr. Kris Piessens (GSB)

The table below provides a full listing of all members and institutes:


MARINE GEOLOGY EXPERT GROUP

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Marine Geology Expert Group (MGEG) includes representatives from 25 EuroGeoSurveys’ member organisations. The group held their Annual Meeting in Brussels, Belgium on 23rd October 2015 at the EuroGeoSurveys office. Since 2009, the group has provided marine geoscience information to the European Commission’s European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) and is now in the third full year of the current phase (October 2013- October 2016). The NAG-Coast group has continued collaboration between the members of the Northeast Atlantic Geoscience Group and has produced a White Paper in 2015. MGEG members have contributed to several EC-funded projects and taken part in meetings with EC officials. The group plays a lead role in the trans-national Atlantic Research Alliance between the EU, the USA and Canada, and is involved in several Horizon 2020 projects and proposals. The MGEG collaborated with the EGS Geochemistry Expert Group in issuing a document proposing ideas to investigate the ‘Geochemistry of the North Atlantic Basin’. Several sub-groups of MGEG members have

met during the year to discuss issues of regional importance either under the EMODnet project (for example in the Adriatic) or independently, such as an initiative to strengthen links between the national marine mapping programmes of Norway, the UK and Ireland.

MISSION AND VISION

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 the MGEG’s 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.

SCOPE AND FOCUS

The group’s strategy does not depend solely on EC funding, but is guided by the Commission’s marine strategy. The six years of participation in the EMODnet programme has placed the marine departments of the geological surveys at the centre of providing geological advice and information to the EC. The group has also been active in initiatives such as the EuroGeoSurveys Northeast Atlantic Geosciences group (NAG), in which members are currently exploring options to develop the activities of the NAG-Coast Group. The MGEG continues to look for opportunities 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 expands its geographical scope whenever possible, as the issues that affect the European seas are not constrained by national boundaries. The involvement of several MGEG Group



members in the EC-US-Canadian Atlantic Seabed Mapping International Working Group, which was established at the end of 2014, is an example of how these aims have been furthered. The group met three time during 2015 in Brussels (February), Cork, Ireland (June) and St John’s, Canada (October).

ACTIVITY REPORT

4.1 EMODNET-GEOLOGY

Of the 36 organisations involved in EMODnet-Geology, 23 are EuroGeoSurveys members. The project started on 16 October 2013 and since then the project team has made good progress in compiling information for all European sea areas 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 is available through the project portal (www.emodnet.eu), which also makes information available to other geoscience information systems using Web Map Services (WMS).

The EMODnet activities included a major conference attended by almost 400 people, including several representatives from the EC, in Ostend, Belgium on October 20th

2015, during which the results of the EMODnet-Geology project were presented. The days after the Conference were also an opportunity for all of the EMODnet projects to meet and to discuss collaboration. The EMODnet Steering Group, consisting of the Project Co-ordinators and the Secretariat, also met several times during the year, including meetings at the Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy at which discussions took place with representatives from INSPIRE. The Group also participated in an open meeting for JRC staff.

4.2 NAG-COAST

A white paper to establish NAG-Coast was finalized in early 2015. NAG-Coast is an initiative of the Northeast Atlantic Geoscience (NAG) group of EuroGeoSurveys and intends to tackle the white ribbon that marks the transition between land and sea. The group has investigated ways to further the aims of coastal science in northern Europe, and will consider a COST Action proposal in 2016.

4.3 OTHER EC-FUNDED PROJECTS

Members of the MGEG have participated in a range of EC-funded projects. These include EMODnet-Bathymetry; GLANAM (Glaciated North Atlantic Margins: Initial Training Network); SASMAP (development of marine

tools for locating and assessing cultural heritage); CASE – Arctic Holocene Climate Variability; ODIP (ocean data interoperability): EMSO-DEV (European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water-column Observatory Development); FLOWS (Impact of Fluid circulation in old oceanic lithosphere on the seismicity of transform plate boundaries); ASTARTE (Assessment, Strategy and Risk Reduction for Tsunamis in Europe); the COST MIGRATE Project (promoting knowledge of the potential for gas hydrates as an energy resource) and the COST Action MEDSALT (Uncovering the Mediterranean salt giant) . MGEG members also took part in a number of H2020 proposals either submitted or currently in development, some of which towards the end of the year were awarded funding are now in contract negotiation, such as the ATLAS Project (A Trans-AtLantic Assessment and deep-water ecosystem-based Spatial management plan for Europe).

4.4 EUROPEAN OCEAN OBSERVING SYSTEM AND EUMETSAT

During the year, the Chair and Deputy Chair attended meetings that aimed to promote observation and monitoring of the oceans, climate and environment. The MGEG Chair, Henry Vallius, attended a meeting of the Sentinel-3 Copernicus marine service information day, EUMETSAT, in Darmstadt Germany in September 2015. The MGEG



Deputy Chair, Alan Stevenson, attended a meeting in Brussels in May 2015 to consider the mechanisms to deliver a European Ocean Observing System (EOOS). The meeting was co-organised by the European Marine Board and the European Global Ocean Observing System (EOOS). The concept of an EOOS is now largely accepted and the group of 21 invited ocean observing experts were asked to conduct horizon scanning for the scope and rationale of implementing a EOOS and to map out a process to develop an integrated and sustained system in the context of international initiatives (GOOS, GEO, GEOSS). The members of the MGEG are recognised as having the relevant expertise to provide the geological input to the development of the observing system.

4.6 NATIONAL MARINE GEOLOGY PROGRAMMES/CROSS-BORDER COLLABORATION

The members of the MGEG continue to deliver a wide range of science outputs, databases and marine operations facilities at a national and international level. Topics studied in national science programmes include seabed geology and geomorphology, sedimentary processes and depositional systems, geohazards (e.g. assessment of earthquake and tsunami risks), marine habitats, mineral exploration, , hydrothermal activity, paleolandscapes/geo-archaeology,

infrastructures (windfarms, cable and pipelines routes), sand and gravel extraction, climate studies, ice-sheet and glacial dynamics, fluid escape structures and gas hydrates, coastal behaviour, paleoceano-graphy, geochemistry, tectonics and evolution of continental margins, and geological storage of carbon dioxide. MGEG members also serve on national and international committees (such as International Council for the Exploration of the Seas - ICES -Working Groups) and provide marine geological expertise to the national implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the INSPIRE Directive. Most of the MGEG members are involved in PhD supervision. Each year the group compiles a list of national reports that provide details of MGEG partners’ activities.

In 2015, several long-term national marine research programmes have continued, such as INFOMAR in Ireland and MAREANO in Norway. The MAREANO Programme celebrated its 10th Anniversary in 2015 with the publication of a book ‘The Norwegian Sea Floor – New Knowledge from MAREANO for Ecosystem-Based Management’. Members of the INFOMAR, MAREANO and UK MAREMAP programmes met in Trondheim, Norway in December 2015 to discuss collaboration between the programmes on a range of topics. Many

other countries have continued to collaborate with universities, industry and national hydrographic, biological and oceanographic research organisations to provide marine geoscience outputs in programmes such as the MUKSU Project, part of GTK’s seafloor mapping programme in Finnish waters; the RGF-Plateau Continental Project (France); YPOTHER (Marine geology and mineral exploration on the continental shelf and other areas of the Aegean Sea; Greece); the UK Marine Environmental Mapping Programme (MAREMAP) and the Hydrographic and Oceanic Research Programme of the Spanish Exclusive Economic Zone. Members of the geological surveys, such as IGME, Spain, have been involved in proposals and presentations to extend continental shelf limits to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.

Several mapping activities involve cross-border collaboration, such as the Transnational and Integrated Long-Term Marine Exploitation Strategies (TILES), which involves MGEG Members from OD Nature of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and the Geological Survey of the Netherlands who are creating a transnational geological knowledge base, which will develop 4D resource models that can serve as decision support tools. The SEDGOF Project to assess ecosystem-based



management of the marine environment in Estonian waters is being conducted by the Geological Survey of Estonia and other Estonian research organisations with support from the Geological Survey of Norway. IGME (Spain) and the Laboratorio Nacional de Energia e Geologia (LNEG) from Portugal published a new version of the Geological Map of Spain and Portugal at 1 to 1 million scale in October 2015, which for the first time included the offshore geology.

4.7. INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMES/ACTIVITIES.

MGEG member organisations contribute to the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) through membership of the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD). The geological surveys of Finland, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Sweden provide representation on the ECORD Council and the Science Committee (ESSAC). The British Geological Survey manages the mission-specific platform (MSP) expeditions as part of the ECORD Science Operator. Scientists from the geological surveys of the Baltic countries presented the results of IODP Expedition 347: Baltic Sea Paleoenvironment at a number of conferences, including the EGU meeting in Vienna in April 2015. MGEG members also participate in a number of projects associated to IODP expeditions, for example the CISU

(Climate Ice-sheet Interactions project) a collaboration between Finland (GTK, the Academy of Finland, Helsinki University) and Russia (VSEGEI) and IGME (Spain) is involved in studies related to the IODP Mediterranean Outflow Expedition.

Scientists from many of the MGEG partners regularly contribute to the organization of the GeoHab (Marine Geological and Biological Habitat Mapping) Conferences and publications and several took part in the 2015 meeting in Brazil. The 2016 meeting will be held in Winchester, UK with MGEG members involved in both the local and international organizing committees. MGEG members have proposed sessions on Ocean Mapping to the AGU Ocean Science Meeting to be held in New Orleans, USA in February 2016 (accepted), and at the International Geological Congress (IGC) in Cape Town, South Africa on August/September 2016.

BGR (Germany) signed an exploration licence with the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in May 2015, which will allow them to explore for massive sulfides in the Indian Ocean for the next 15 years. BGR have also carried out mineral exploration surveys in the Pacific Ocean. BRGM (France) have carried out surveys off New Caledonia and French Guiana.

4.8 MGEG ANNUAL MEETING 2015

The annual MGEG meeting was held in Brussels, Belgium on 23rd October 2015, hosted by EuroGeoSurveys. The meeting, which was the 30th official meeting since the group’s inception, took place following the EMODnet-Geology Project Meeting held during the previous two days in Ostend, which allowed representatives from 22 MGEG members to attend.

FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

At a European level, the main collaborative focus of the marine departments of the geological surveys will continue to be the EMODnet Programme. New calls to extend the programme beyond the current phase (2013-2016), are expected to be issued during the early part of 2016. The next phase of the programme is likely to continue until the end of 2020 and there is an expectation that EMODnet will continue after this date to underpin ‘Blue Growth’, the European Commission’s long-term strategy to support sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors as a whole. The seas and oceans are seen as drivers for the European economy and have great potential for innovation and growth. Blue Growth is the maritime contribution to achieving the goals of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.



The 'blue' economy represents roughly 5.4 million jobs and generates a gross added value of almost €500 billion a year. The EC consider that further growth is possible in a number of areas which are highlighted within the strategy; aquaculture, coastal tourism, marine biotechnology, ocean energy and seabed mining with marine knowledge, maritime spatial planning and integrated maritime surveillance as an essential component to providing knowledge, legal certainty and security in the blue economy.

The MGEG members address the Blue Growth strategy in many of their activities and play central roles both nationally and internationally in the key areas with potential for growth. For example, relevant science will develop from the NAG-Coast initiative. Participation of three MGEG members (including the current Chair) in the Atlantic Seabed Mapping International Working Group, established as part of the Atlantic Research Alliance between Europe, Canada, the USA (the Galway Statement), will continue to maintain the group’s influence in such strategic marine programmes. The development of the joint MGEG/ Geochemistry Expert Group document proposing ideas to investigate the ‘Geochemistry of the North Atlantic Basin’ was aimed at stimulating interest in this topic within the Atlantic Research Alliance, for which EGS can provide a wide range of expertise.

Areas that continue to gain interest related to the EC’s strategy include mineral research and exploration and assessments of the sea-floor to support marine renewable industry infrastructures. The MGEG continues to communicate with the EuroGeoSurveys Mineral Resources Expert Group on the topic of marine minerals. During 2015, the MGEG Chair attended the NordMin workshop on marine minerals in Reykjavik, Iceland in March and, in his role as a member of the Advisory Board on the EC-funded Blue Mining Project, attended the project General Assembly in Lisbon in June/July. MGEG members have been involved in studies of submarine mineral deposits (e.g. BGR, Germany and IGME, Spain). A number of national projects are addressing the needs of the renewable energy sector.

Several geological surveys or their parent bodies will continue to participate 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 EuroGeoSurveys members provide geoscientists to all aspects of IODP scientific objectives.

The MGEG members will continue to address issues such as 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). By their continued participation in the EMODnet Programme, conducting national/international mapping and research projects related to the wide range of topics described in section 4.6 of this report, and by developing operational technologies to improve data acquisition and using the latest delivery mechanisms for making marine geoscience information more accessible, the MGEG members will provide outputs that are relevant to Europe for the foreseeable future.

LIST OF MEMBERS

The Chair and Deputy Chair of the MGEG acknowledge the contributions of all group members 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 and annual meetings are also shown for some organisations:

• Henry Vallius* (GTK, Finland) MGEG Chair• Alan Stevenson* (BGS, UK) MGEG Deputy

Chair • Arben Pambuku* (AGS, Albania)• Vera Van Lancker*, Lars Kint (RBINS,

Belgium)



• Slobodan Miko* and Nikolina Ilijanić (HGI_CGS, Croatia)

• Zomenia Zomeni* and Eleni Georgiou Morisseau (CGS, Cyprus)

• Jørn Bo Jensen* ,Jørgen Leth* (GEUS, Denmark)

• Sten Suuroja* (GSE, Estonia)• Aarno Kotilainen*, Anu Kaskela and Ulla

Allanen (GTK, Finland)• Fabien Paquet* (BRGM, France)• Lutz Reinhardt*, Annemiek Vink*, Christian

Reichert*, Christoph Gaedicke* and Kristine Asch (BGR, Germany)

• Irene Zananiri*, Panagiotis I Tsombos and Aspasia Zalachori (IGME, Greece)

• Koen Verbruggen*, Archie Donovan, Janine Guinan, Maria Judge and Charise McKeon (GSI, Ireland)

• Andrea Fiorentino*, Silvana D’Angelo* and Loredana Battaglini (ISPRA, Italy)

• Aldona Damusyte* Jolanta Čyžienė and Vytautas Minkevicius (Geological Survey of Lithuania)

• Charles Galea* and Albert Caruana (Continental Shelf Department, Ministry for Transport & Infrastructure, Malta).

• Sytze van Heteren*, Denise Maljers* and Tamara van de Ven (TNO, The Netherlands)

• Reidulv Bøe*, Jan Höst*, Odd Harald Selboskar and Terje Thorsnes (NGU, Norway)

• Szymon Uscinowic*, Dorota Kaulbarsz* and Piotr Przezdziecki*, Wojciech Jegliński and Mateusz Damrat, (PGI-NRC, Poland)

• Pedro Terrinha* and Nuno Lourenco (IPMA, Portugal)

• Constantin Costea*, Diana Persa, Stefan Marincea and Delia Dumitras (GIR, Romania)

• Daria Ryabchuk*, Vladimir Zhamoida and Victor Snezhko (VSEGEI, Russian Federation)

• Bogomir Celarc* and Špela Kumelj* (GeoZs, Slovenia)

• Teresa Medialdea Cela*, Luis Somoza Losada *, Adolfo Maestro González *, Julia Gimenez Moreno and Ricardo Leon (IGME, Spain)

• Lovisa Zillén Snowball*, Johan Nyberg* and Ola Halberg (SGU, Sweden)

• Boris Malyuk* (UkrSGRI, Ukraine)• Robert Gatliff* (BGS, UK)

Non-EGS organisations associated with the MGEG.

• Institute of Oceanology, Bulgaria. Lyubomir Dimitrov

• Hydrographic Institute of Croatia. Ranko Crmaric

• Jardfeingi, Faroe Islands. Lis Mortensen and Bartal Højgaard

• Ifremer, France. Laure Simplet• Bundesamt fuer Seeschifffahrt und

Hydrographie (BSH), Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency, Germany. Manfred Zeiler and Maria Lambers-Huesmann

• ISOR, Iceland, Ögmundur Erlendsson,

Árni Hjartarson and Skuli Vikingsson• Latvian Environment, Geology and

Meteorology Centre (LEGMC). Antra Eihenberga, Daiga Pipira, Agnese Jansone and Ieva Bukovska

• Geological Survey of Montenegro. Slobodan Radusinovic.

• GeoEcoMar, Romania. Gabriel Ion.• Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey. Günay Çifçi,

Mustafa Ergun and Erdeniz Ozel.• Prichernomorske State Regional Geological

Enterprise, Sergey Osharin and Valerii Rokitskyi



MINERAL RESOURCES EXPERT GROUP

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Minerals Resources Expert Group (MREG) held plenary meetings in Uppsala and Vienna during the year, as well as holding bilateral (and indeed trilateral and multilateral) meetings on the side of other meetings and dedicated videoconferences.

The MREG participates in working groups, projects, networks, conferences and meetings which further benefit the overall aims of the Group. Most meetings take place in Europe but MREG representatives were also active on the wider world stage advancing international cooperation. MREG Members provide access to essential and critical raw materials information within EU Member States and through research, development and innovation contribute to the Commission’s goal of developing a more sustainable minerals supply within and for Europe.

Minerals4EU is MREG’s flagship project. It was coordinated by GTK, and was completed in August 2015. Through Minerals4EU, EGS Members aim to become the leading network for information and intelligence on European mineral resources, providing tools and expertise to enhance resource efficiency, safeguard minerals supply

and support sustainable minerals development within Europe. The organisation of the Permanent Body is in progress with the Statutes and the MoU almost agreed between the GSOs involved.

MREG has been actively involved in EC working groups contributing to policy and strategic initiatives aiming to create a sustainable supply of mineral raw materials within the EU.

MREG also carries out its work through smaller working or task groups. During 2015 five such task groups addressed specific issues, such as reserves and resources, cooperation with the JRC, mapping the European critical raw materials, identifying H2020 Calls of interest to MREG, and a compilation of National Programmes or Projects related to minerals.A significant achievement was the launch of ’Minerals Yearbook’ in October 2015.

MISSION AND VISION

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 at the European level, focusing on strengthening the position of the European

minerals industry towards resource sustainability and competitive growth. The EGS MREG aims to have a leading role within a European mineral knowledge base and information network, or other form of cooperation that will provide innovative tools and expertise to support a sustainable minerals supply for Europe.

SCOPE AND FOCUS

The main target of the MREG is to address the EU initiated strategies, in relation to raw materials, aiming to:

Reduce import dependency and promote the production and export of raw materials by improving supply conditions from EU.

(“Reducing Europe's import dependency on the raw materials that are critical to Europe's industries”).

Increase resource efficiency, including recycling, and alternatives 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”).



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 resources information sharing and networking by European Geological Surveys is essential. The Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) of the EIP RM (Fig.2) highlights the need to establish and maintain 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. The knowledge base can also facilitate specific objectives and targets of the EIP RM SIP actions.

Europe is under-explored, both with respect to the subsurface (particularly deeper than 150 metres) and the sea-bed within EU Member States' exclusive economic zones (EEZ). The latter possibly containing metals such as copper, zinc, gold, silver and rare earth elements.There is therefore a challenge to better understand ore genesis and to develop exploration models and technologies to locate mineral deposits at deeper levels of the Earth’s crust. This may be possible by developing and applying innovative

technologies such as predictive 3D and 4D models to understand and locate deep-seated deposits. Opportunities also exist within the EU today to develop small deposits.

The existence of mineral deposits on the sea-floor could lead to world-wide competition for marine mineral deposits – both within Member State’s EEZs and in international waters.

A framework of stable economic and legal conditions will facilitate the development of sustainable and resource efficient exploitation of minerals in Europe.

ACTIVITY REPORT

4.1 PLENARY MEETINGS

Two plenary meetings of the MREG were held during the year – one in Uppsala at the SGU on 22nd-23rd June, 2015 and the other in Vienna at the GSA on 24th November. The agendas and minutes for each meeting could be delivered upon request.

4.2 EU-FUNDED PROJECTS (FIG. 1)

Minerals4EU (www.minerals4eu/)The final meeting and related conference were held in Brussels at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences on 25th August,

2015. Minerals4EU requires setting up a sustainable network, beyond the project, that meets the needs of European industries and other stakeholders. This will be delivered by the “Permanent Body” - a Foundation style Company in Belgium and a less formal Network of Members willing and able to contribute data, technology and expertise. The Network is being put in place incrementally since September 2015 and is expected to become fully operational, subject to funding, from 2017/18 onwards. The MoU and Statutes concerning the organisation of the Permanent Body are both still proceeding. All Minerals4EU deliverables and final reporting were submitted, including the EU-MKDP (an essential brick of the future EURMKB) and foresight studies on schedule in August 2015. Minerals4EU delivered the European Minerals Yearbook, which was officially launched at the Raw Materials Diplomacy Dialogue between the EU and advanced mining countries held in Brussels at the BREY building on 15th October 2015.

EURARE (www.eurare.eu/)EURARE is a project funded by the European Commission for the 'Development of a sustainable exploitation scheme for Europe's Rare Earth ore deposits' that will safeguard the uninterrupted supply of REE raw materials and products crucial for EU industry sectors, such as automotive, electronics, machinery and chemicals, in a sustainable,



economically viable and environmentally friendly way. The Geological Surveys involved in the project have determined that Europe has a number of areas with suitable geology for REE deposits. During 2015 the information on major European REE deposits was completed and published on the project’s website. At the same time the Integrated Knowledge Management System for European REE exploitation was progressed through a strong synergy with the developments done in the Minerals4EU and ProSUM knowledge bases.

ProSUM (www.prosumproject.eu/)The aim of ProSUM project - Prospecting Secondary raw materials in the Urban Mine and mining waste is to create an EU Information Network (EUIN) that allows partners in the network to provide and use data in an inventory for waste streams with a significant potential to serve as a source of Critical Raw Materials (CRM). This includes waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), end of life vehicles (ELV), batteries and mine waste. Access to the inventory will be through the EU Urban Mine Knowledge Data Platform (EU-UMKDP) and web portal. During 2015 the waste terminologies and data harmonisation issues were progressed. Mine wastes protocols were addressed during a workshop held in Brussels at the EGS office on 24th April, where most Geological Surveys were present.

MICA (website under development)The MICA (Minerals Intelligence Capacity Analysis) project was approved in 2015 and is scheduled to commence in 2016 with a kick-off meeting in February 2016 in Copenhagen. MICA brings together experts from a wide range of disciplines in order to ensure that RMI (Raw materials Intelligence) is collected, collated, stored and made accessible in the most useful way to fulfill stakeholder needs. The goal for MICA is to provide stakeholders with the best possible information, in a seamless and flexible way using an ontology-based European Union Raw Materials Intelligence Capacity Platform (EU-RMICP) which will be incorporated into the European Union Raw Materials Knowledge Base (EURMKB) within a future permanent EU raw materials intelligence service In this regard, the MICA project has strong links to the efforts of the Minerals4EU project where an EU Minerals Knowledge Data Platform (EU-MKDP) was developed.

MINATURA 2020 (www.ninatura2020.eu/)MINATURA (Developing a concept for a European minerals deposit framework) project started in the beginning of 2015. The overall objective of this three-year project is to develop a concept and methodology for the definition and subsequent protection of “Mineral Deposits of Public Importance” (MinDoPI) in order to ensure their best use in the future with a view to being included in a

harmonised European regulatory, guidance or policy framework. Five Geological Surveys are included in the consortium.


Fig. 1


4.3 EIP AND RAW MATERIALS COMMITMENTS (RMC)

EUMINET CommitmentThe EUMINET – European Minerals Information Network- commitment is a contribution by Geological Surveys to the European Union Raw Materials Knowledge Base and intelligence capacity. Building on the ongoing EGDI-Scope and Minerals4EU projects, its general objectives are, by 2020, to stimulate investment in the exploration and exploitation of EU mineral resources, as well as to provide data, knowledge and tools for their sustainable management, and technological services across the minerals value chain. Some of these objectives are now covered by the MICA project, but there are other parts of EUMINET Commitment to be responded to by proposals addressing forthcoming calls.

REMIND CommitmentThe REMIND – EU Responsible mining demonstrations: best practice and capacity building – This is a commitment with BRGM, GSI, GTK, IGME SPAIN, SGU and GIR as partners.

The EIP RM SIP activities during 2015 were focussed on monitoring all RMCs to provide scoreboards and recommendations (Fig. 3) in order to update SIP actions. MREG delivered feedback on the SIP survey - gathering

information on more than 500 different projects. Based on this the MREG provided expert analysis on possible implementation gaps and made strategic recommendations for the next call for commitments and a possible future review of the SIP’s priorities.

The MREG is represented on two Operational Groups (OG): OG1, on exploration, and OG3 on knowledge base issues.

A new call for RMC was made in October 2015 with submissions to be made by 1st March 2016. Discussions are taking place among the MREG members to prepare three new RMCs which will address H2020 projects to be submitted in 2017.

Fig.2

4.4 EU RAW MATERIALS POLICY RELATED EFFORTS

• H2020/Challenge 5 Advisory Group (H2020/C5 AG) - A consultation report on “Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 5 strategic programming for 2016-2017: synthesis of H2020 SC5 Advisory Group discussions” was delivered. Through MREG participation it became possible for all members to receive information on WP 2016-2017 and the included calls addressing raw materials, already at the Uppsala meeting, almost 6 months before

the official launch by the Commission. Henrike Sievers (BGR) is the new MREG representative in the group – replacing Karen Hanghøj (GEUS).

• MREG responded to the JRC questionnaire on "the assessment of the methodology of developing the list of Critical Raw Materials”.

• MREG responded to the public consultation on the circular economy. The objective was to obtain a better understanding of obstacles and regulatory failures affecting the EU's waste markets.

• Critical Raw Materials ad hoc group. MREG contributed to the publication of a call for tender for the "study on the review of the list of critical raw materials".

• Raw Materials Supply Group (RMSG); Plenary meeting on 28th April attended and reported to all MREG members by Gerry Stanley, having discussed horizontal and other issues. EU-Greenland Workshop on Raw Materials in Brussels on 19th June.

• AU-EU Joint Session on Infrastructure for the Minerals Sector, Brussels, 19-20th March 2015

• European Investment Bank (EIB) launched the European Fund for Strategic



Investments (EFSI) financing mature projects including those in the field of raw materials (adopted in June 2015 and running in September 2015).

• Attended workshop on "Raw Materials in the Juncker Plan", on 20th May 2015.

• Participation to a DG GROW, DG RES, JRC, EGS meeting in June 2015 in Brussels, presenting the Minerals4EU results and more generally EGS' views regarding the Knowledge Data Platforms. Daniel Cassard and Isabel Pino were representing EGS.

• Raw Materials Diplomacy Dialogue between the EU and advanced mining countries organized by the European

Commission DG GROW and EASME in Brussels, 15-16th October 2015 which included a workshop on “best practices on mining policies and technologies”.

4.5 INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION & CONFERENCES

• World Materials Forum 2015, to take place in Nancy on June 23rd and 24thattended by Andrew Bloodworth.

• Invited to MINEX -1st EUROPEAN MINING & EXPLORATION FORUM, 17-18 November 2015 – Vienna, Austria. The MREG couldn’t participate.

4.6 PROJECT ADVISORY GROUPS

MREG members participated in the following project advisory groups:

• COBALT-Contributing to building of awareness, learning and transfer of knowledge on sustainable use of raw materials

• FAME - Flexible And Mobile Economic Processing Technologies

• MINATURA -Developing a concept for a European minerals deposit framework

4.6 ETP SMR RELATED ACTIVITIES

• New ExCom elected. Luca re-elected so EGS remains on the ExCom. Others include Corina Hebestreit (President, Euromines), Asmo Vartiainen (Vice-President, Outotec), Sabine Mayer (Bergforsk/University of Lulea), Mukund Bhagwat (Euromines/Aurubis), Thomas Drnek (RHI AG).

• EGS MREG & ETP SMR joint efforts to raise the profile of mineral raw materials at the EU e.g. H2020/C5 Advisory Group.

• Potential collaboration in ongoing and upcoming research programmes, and other initiatives (Horizon 2020, SIP for EIP on Raw Materials).

• VERAM-Vision and Roadmap for European Raw Materials- project, led by ETP SMR, was approved and started on 1st January 2016. MREG was not invited to participate in the project.


Results of the Call for Commitments:Distribution of partners by nationality

• Next calls in 2015, 2017 and 2019

Call for Commitments

50

Fig.3


• The ETP SMR has been invited to apply for a seat on the Commission’s High-level Expert Group on Energy-intensive Industries.

• Daniel Cassard replaced Karen Hanghøj as Executive Secretary of the ETP-SMR on behalf of EGS MREG.

4.8 TASK TEAM ACTIONS

Map of European CRM: Daniel Cassard, Guillaume Bertrand (BRGM, coordinator); Andrew Bloodworth, Gus Gunn, Evi Petavratzi (BGS); Duška Rokavec (GeoZS); Kostas Laskaridis (IGME-GR);, Daniel Oliveira (LNEG); and Henrik Schiellerup (NGU).

• The final version of the map was delivered and there are plans for official launching.

EGS JRC cooperation: Tom Heldal (NGU, coordinator); Henrike Sievers (BGR); Karen Hanghøj, Diogo Rosa, Jørgen Tulstrup (GEUS); Raimo Lahtinen, Saku Vuori, Asko Käpyaho (GTK); Santiago Martin, Manuel Regueiro (IGME-SP);, Michiel van der Meulen (TNO).

• Four sub-topics have been identified for collaboration namely: 1. Agreed methodology for assessing the risk of supply disruptions; 2. Raising public awareness on the vital needs of minerals and metals to European society;

3. Harmonised information on supply and demand data for raw materials; 4. Raw materials for energy applications, as per the outcome of the workshop in Brussels ((2nd – 3rd February 2015).

• BRGM, GEUS and GeoZS (the Minerals4EU WP5 IT core team) participated in a meeting with the JRC (Ispra, Italy) linked to the implementation of minerals related INSPIRE issues. The presentations made during this workshop were also the opportunity to present and discuss Minerals4EU achievements. Discussions also included the possibility of JRC support to fill the gaps in the Minerals4EU spatial coverage.

• The 3nd EGS-JRC Workshop will take place on 17th February 2016 in Brussels.

National minerals project list: Sebastian Pfleiderer (GBA coordinator); Petr Rambousek, Ivo Sitensky (CGS); Christodoulos Hadjigeorgiou (GSD); Barbara Radwanek-Bak (PGI); Lisbeth Hildebrand, replaced by Helge Reginiussen (SGU); Peter Balaz, Stanislav Soltes (SGUDS).

• The aim is to provide each NGS with a list of minerals related projects within each Member’s jurisdiction. (21 countries reported on 267 projects). Categories: Database resources; mining licenses;

resource management; mapping; data harmonization; processing technologies; environmental impact; historic mines (mining waste); secondary resources; geothermal use of mines; geothermal resources; CCS; statistics; web portal. DG Growth is interested in knowing what projects related to raw materials are being conducted within Member States.

Resource classification (merging of UNECE EGRC and PERC): Zoltán Horváth (MFGI, coordinator); Rognvald Boyd (NGU); Rainer Kündig (SGTK); Mark Simoni (NGU); Gerry Stanley (GSI); ,Andrew Bloodworth, Gus Gunn, Evi Petavratzi (BGS); Miko Slobodan (HGI_CGS); Manuel Regueiro (IGME-SP).

• A survey on the use of ore reserve and resources was undertaken. This formed the basis of a report which highlighted the need for common terms (harmonisation of international standards). EGS has sufficient knowledge to support the surveys and other institutions in the task of harmonisation. Members of the MREG will attend the next UNECE meeting (Expert Group on Resource Classification 7th Session, 27–29 April 2016 Geneva).

H2020 calls: Manuel Regueiro (IGME SP, coordinator); Lisbeth Hildenbrand (SGU); and Paul Bogaard (TNO) worked together to report on 2015 H2020 calls suitable for



the MREG community. During the Vienna meeting Andrew Bloodworth (BGS) and Henrike Sievers (BGR) were added to the task team with a view to identifying topics to which the MREG Community would respond collectively to Calls to be issued in 2016 and 2017.

4.9 ERA-NET ON APPLIED GEOSCIENCES

Preparatory activities (raw materials theme) related to ERA-NET on Applied Geosciences, were a key activity during 2015. Christian Burlet (RBINS); Henrike Sievers (BGR); Karen Hanghøj (GEUS); Gerry Stanley (GSI), Santiago Martin (IGME)’, Guillaume Bertrand or Daniel Cassard (BRGM); Nikos Arvanitidis (SGU) were appointed in Uppsala to draft the necessary documents from MREG to be included in the ERA NET proposal. A new team composed of Gerry Stanley (GSI, coordinator); Daniel Cassard (BRGM); Henrike Sievers (BGR); Guillaume Bertrand (BRGM); Zoltan Horvath (MFGI); Asko Käpyaho Asko, Raimo Lahtinen (GTK); Paul Bogaard, Hein Raat (TNO); Santiago Martin. (IGME SP); and Nikos Arvanitidis, (SGU) was appointed in Vienna to progress the work towards submission of the proposal. An updated version was delivered to ERA-NET drafting team, and close collaboration, in terms of meetings, videoconferences and discussions, will continue until the date of submission.

4.10 ONGOING H2020 CALLS RELATED TO RAW MATERIALS

• The content of the 2016 and 2017 H2020 work programme, using information from the Challenge 5 Advisory Group report, were presented and introduced to the Uppsala MREG meeting, on 22-23 June, 2015. Discussions took place on possible proposals from the MREG Community collectively However, no concrete ideas or actions for joint efforts were developed.

• At the Vienna meeting (24th November, 2015) the 2016 / 2017 H2020 Calls (Fig. and 5) were already published and a discussion on the strategy and options for the MREG community in response to these calls, took place. A document listing all H2020 Societal Challenge 5 calls of interest was distributed, almost a two months in advance of the meeting, describing them in detail and explaining which topics could be of interest to MREG. Some NGS had already been invited to join consortia in response to some of the calls and in some cases preparations of a proposal had already commenced. A discussion took place to determine which calls were suitable for the MREG community. One option would be to join an existing consortium as EGS MREG but this needed further discussion. There were different responses from various members and also possibilities for cooperation, for example:,

- EGS MREG discussed the options for joint efforts with European Federation of Geologists (EFG) in certain calls.

- If an MREG member joins a consortium EGS cannot be part of a competing one.

- We must join as an EGS when possible and this should be discussed among the members before any decision is taken. The third parties rule is a solution when the participation needs to be limited.

- A Survey may be invited to join a consortium as a full partner and it may not be in the interest of the Survey to decline the invitation.

- MREG can naturally make proposals, but it is up to each Survey to make its own decision in which proposals they participate. We must respect Surveys freedom to participate in a consortium they consider most suitable for them.

- In order to better organise the work, a Task Team was formed to deal with H2020 calls, and it was agreed that Manuel Regueiro, Henrike Sievers and Andrew Bloodworth will join the task team to follow the calls, the formation of consortia and further developments.

• During an MREG videoconference after the Vienna meeting the new H2020 WP 2016-2017 was discussed and there was a consensus about the calls to be addressed by EGS as a community.



Review of 2016 – 2017 H2020 Calls2016 Call title

SC5-13 New solutions for sustainable production of raw materials

(3-7 M€) Sustainable selective low impact mining (RIA)• mitigate environmental and social impacts? Resource efficiency?

(3-7 M€) New technologies for the enhanced recovery of by-products (RIA)

SC5-14 Raw materials Innovation actions

(8-13 M€) Intelligent mining on land (IA)

SC5-15 Raw materials policy support actions

(up to 3 M€) Expert network on Critical Raw Materials

SC5-16 Raw materials international co-operation

(up to 1 M€) Demand-supply forecast and raw materials flows at global level•The analysis of global raw materials flows and trends which can inform and enhance strategic decision and policy making.

(up to 1 M€) Advancing the idea of a World Forum on Raw Materials

SC5-17 ERA-NET Cofund on Raw materials

Fig. 4

Review of 2016 – 2017 H2020 calls2017 Call title

SC5-13 New solutions for sustainable production of raw materials

(3-7 M€) New sensitive exploration technologies (RIA)

SC5-14 Raw materials Innovation actions(8-13 M€) Processing of lower grade and/or complex primary and/or

secondary raw materials in the most sustainable ways (IA)(8-13 M€) Sustainable metallurgical processes (IA)SC5-15 Raw materials policy support actions(up to 1,5 M€) Good practice in waste collection systems (CSA)

(up to 1,5 M€) Optimizing collection of raw materials data in Member States (CSA)

(up to 1,5 M€) Linking land use planning policies to national mineral policies (CSA)

(up to 3 M€) EU network of mining and metallurgy regions (CSA)EU network of regions on sustainable wood mobilisation (wood supply)

SC5-16 Raw materials international co-operation

(up to 1 M€) International network of raw materials training centres (CSA)

Fig. 5



FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

5.1 RM CHALLENGES

• Sustainable supply of raw materials: The future of Europe’s industry and the quality of life of its citizens are clearly dependent on a reliable supply of raw materials.

• Standardised and harmonised data: In order to develop Europe-wide policies, data should be presented in a standardised manner.

• Spatial databases: The Minerals4EU project delivered a web portal which is founded on up-to-date spatial databases and systems.

• Enhanced ore deposit models: Genetic models (3D & 4D) and a greater understanding of mineral systems to locate deeper and also lower grade deposits.

5.2 AREAS OF APPLICATION

• Mineral raw materials intelligence: Pan-European maps (e.g. metallogenic, mineral exploration potential maps. Coherency and interoperability in data modelling (e.g., 3D/4D models and other spatial data).

• Assessment of European raw materials potential: (Re) assessment of primary deposits in Europe and the mining wastes potential.

• Policy advice: Framework for sustainable and resource efficient extraction of minerals. European surface and sub-surface land use planning and policy with regard to RM.

• RM Markets and trends: Evaluate and identify supply risks/bottlenecks and long term trends (mine production, exploration, political influences, etc.) trends in changing demand (e.g., those driven by emerging technologies).

5.3 THE WAY FORWARD

• Following up implementation of SIP EIP RM thematic priorities and actions, as well as related projects.

• Further raising the profile of minerals in Europe 2020 Strategy through active involvement in Research and Innovation (R&I) strategy initiatives and agendas, and participation to EU projects and networks, e.g. KIC, EURARE, ProSum, and MICA.

• Acting in Challenge 5 Advisory Group - reporting priorities to H2020 calls as part of coming Work Programmes.

• Working on highlighting the importance of resource efficiency and supply sustainability issues, through waste re-use, and also by securing the potential of primary mineral raw materials.

• Contributing to complete text of ERA-NET for applied geosciences proposal.

• Continuing and developing the activities of the MREG Task Teams.

• Progress of the EGS-African, Latin America and other possible international cooperation issues on mineral resources e.g. Partnership Instrument funding (Fig. 6 and 7).

• Progressing our cooperation agreement with JRC through MREG Task Team.

Active involvement in RMSG and its subgroups AGWG on CRM and ERECON.



Fig. 6

Fig. 7



LIST OF MEMBERS Chair: Nikos Arvanitidis (SGU)

Deputy Chair: Daniel Cassard (BRGM) Gerry Stanley (GSI)


COUNTRY SURVEY NAME

ALBANIA AGS Arben Pambuku

GSA Dashamir Gega

AUSTRIA GBA Maria Heinrich

GBA Albert Schedl

GBA Sebastian Pfleider

BELGIUM GSB Christian Burlet

CROATIA HGI_CGS Miko Slobodan

HGI_CGS Željko Dedić

CYPRUS GSD Christodoulos Hadjigeorgiou

CZECH REPUBLIC CGS Ivo Sitensly

CGS Petr Rambousek

DENMARK GEUS Jørgen Tulstrup

GEUS Diogo Rosa

Karen Hanghoj

ESTONIA EGK Mare Kukk

FINLAND GTK Asko Käpyaho

Raimo LAHTINEN

Saku VUORI

FRANCE BRGM Daniel Cassard

Patrice Christmann

GERMANY BGR Michael Szurlies

Henrike Sievers

Torsten Graupner

GREECE IGME Kostas Laskaridis

HUNGARY MFGI Annamaria Nador

MFGI Zoltán Horváth

IRELAND GSI Gerry Stanley

ITALY ISPRA Mauro Lucarini

ISPRA Fiorenzo Fumanti

ISPRA Marco Di Leginio

ISPRA Lucio Martarelli

ITALY Emilia-Romagna Maria Teresa DeNardo

LITHUANIA LGT Audrone Dumsiene

LUXEMBOURG SGL

MALTA MRA Michael Schembri

NORWAY NGU Tom Heldal

Jan Høst

Schiellerup Henrik

POLAND PGI Stanislaw Wolkowicz

Stanislaw MIKULSKI

Barbara Radwanek-Bak

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 Stanislav Soltes

SLOVENIA GeoZS Duška Rokavec

Žibret Gorazd

SPAIN IGME Manuel Regueiro

IGME Juan Locutora

IGME Santiago Martin

SWEDEN SGU Nikos Arvanitidis

SGU Lisbeth Hildebrand

SGU Helge Reginiussen

SWITZERLAND SWISSTOPO Rainer Kündig

THE NETHERLANDS TNO Paul Bogaard

TNO Hein Raat

UK BGS Evi Petavratzi

BGS Gus Gunn

BGS Andrew Bloodworth

UKRAINE SGSSU Boris Malyuk


INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT TASK FORCE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

EGS Task Force on International Cooperation and Development, chaired by Marek Graniczny (PGI - NRI) and Dirk Kuester (BGR) as deputy, is continuing its activities to intensify and improve international cooperation since 2011.

The capacity of EuroGeoSurveys to establish stronger ties with Geological Surveys outside Europe was discussed many times during several institutional meetings. This was based on assumptions that the growing demand for mineral resources in EU Member States, the bulk of which is located outside Europe, offers also opportunities for cooperation projects of geological surveys, due to their high potential to provide substantial information, expertise, capacity building and advice in the field of mineral resources, mapping, geoinformation, geohazards and geoheritage. The first goal was the African continent, where cooperation was established with the Organization of African Geological Surveys (OAGS). This year, another challenge appeared relating cooperation with geological surveys of Latin America associated within the Organization of

Ibero-American Geological and Mining Surveys (ASGMI).

MISSION AND VISION

The mission of the ICDTF is to make of EGS the European centre of excellence for geological cooperation with European countries which are not EGS members as well as with countries and organisations in other continents, so to bring EGS to gradually take the lead at global level in advancing geological cooperation and development.The vision of the ICDTF is to increase the quality, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the Geological Surveys of Europe science delivery and to capitalise on International Cooperation and Development (science) opportunities. Due to the cross-cutting nature of its mandate, the ICDTF will cooperate closely with the other EGS Expert Groups when topics of respective competence are concerned.

SCOPE AND FOCUS

The EuroGeoSurveys (EGS) International Cooperation and Development Task Force (ICDTF) acts as a tool for implementing projects beyond the European Union (EU) borders of high priority for EGS, especially those consistent with the current geology-related policies of the European Commission (EC).

An initial focus of the ICDTF is on:

• Assisting the EC in the implementation of the Industrial Policy Dialogues with partner countries;

• Developing a strategy to work with African geological administrations for strengthening the Organization of African Geological Surveys (OAGS) by realization of the first phase of the PanAfGeo project (2016 – 2019);

• Starting the cooperation with Latin American geological surveys (Organisation of Ibero-American Geological and Mining Surveys - ASGMI);

• In the longer term, developing the cooperation with South-East Asia (Committee for the Coordination of Geoscience Programmes in South-East Asia - CCOP) and other areas or the world with similar demands

ACTIVITY REPORT

• Realization of the feasibility study “Geoscientific knowledge and skills in the African Geological Surveys”.

- Continuation of preparation of the draft final report.



- Arrangement and organization of the project Final Workshop in Cape Town (South Africa).

- EGS-OAGS Workshop – 8th-9th February 2015 Cape Town, South Africa

The main aims of the Workshop were: - collection of any further comments on

the Report’s final draft; - approval of the final draft by African

partners; - discussion about the future

implementation of the project.

- Participation in the EGS Director’s Workshop - Geological infrastructures priorities in Africa and beyond (Brussels 25th March), and giving presentation Enhancing geoscientific knowledge and skills in African Geological Surveys by ICDTF Chairman.

- Submission the final report to DG DEVCO by EGS Secretariat.

Participating surveys: EGS Secretariat, BRGM, CGS, GeoSZ, GSI, GSU, GTK, IGME – Spain, ISPRA, LGT, PGI-NRI, SGU.

• Preparation of the future Pan-African Project – PanAfGeo 2016-2019

- Consultation on PanAfGeo budget between participants of future

consortium, EGS Secretariat and DG DEVCO.

- Elaboration of the preliminary budget and submission of this document to DG DEVCO.

- The members of consortium sent the “Letters of Commitment” to EGS Secretariat concerning participation in the future PanAfGeo project and specified their proposed role. Commitment Letters were signed by directors of respective surveys.

- It was decided to nominate BRGM as a future project coordinator. PGI – NRI will act as a technical coordinator.

- Organization PanAfGeo Consortium Meeting (Brussles 17 – 18 November) Main outcomes of the Meeting was the adoption of a further “road map”:

- Preparation of the official letter to OAGS Secretary, after getting “green light” from DG DEVCO.

- Fixing the African involvement in Project (INDABA Conference – February 2016).

- Costs validation of individual partners. - Eligibility costs of individual partners. - General Consortium Agreement of

European partners. - Signing the contract between DG

DEVCO and BRGM – May 2016 - Kick-off meeting of the project during

the International Geological Congress in Cape Town – August 2016

Participating surveys: EGS Secretariat, BRGM, CGS, GeoSZ, GSU, GTK, IGME – Spain, ISPRA, LGT, PGI-NRI, SGU.

• Opening cooperation between EGS and Latin America geological surveys associated in the Organization of Ibero – American Geological and Mining Surveys (ASGMI)

- Participation in Raw Materials Diplomacy Event in Latin America that took place on 22-23 September 2015 in Cartagena de Indias organised by the European Commission. The main purpose of this Conference was to increase the dialogue between the European Union and Latin American countries in the field of raw materials focused on the following three areas: (1) investment and technologies for the mining value chain, (2) education, skills and training opportunities, and (3) promote networking between Latin American regions and countries and the EU. Participating members: EGS Secretariat, ICDTF, EOEG, MREG.

- Participation in EGS – ASGMI Director’s Joint Workshop, Madrid 20 – 21 October, 2015 – Closer International Cooperation in Earth Sciences between Iberoamerica and Europe. During this Workshop after two days sessions, representatives of 18 EGS members and 11 ASGMI members expressed their will for mutual



cooperation. After this meeting Letter of Understanding was signed between EGS and ASGMI by Presidents and General Secretaries.

- 28th October 2015, a Proposal for funding to the European Partnership Instrument as a Policy Support Facility – Strengthening relations and capacity building between Latin America and European Geological Surveys was elaborated by PGI – NRI, IGME–Spain and EGS Secretariat, and submitted to EU.

• Elaboration of successful application to Coordinating and Integrating state-of-the-art Earth Observation Activities of North Africa, Middle East and Balkans, and Developing Links with GEO related initiatives towards GEOSS (GEO-CRADLE) in GEOSS - SC5-18b-2015 – Coordination and support actions. EGS Secretariat together with representatives of ICDTF and EOEG (PGI–NRI, IGME–Greece and IGME–Spain as third parties) took decision to join a consortium of 22 partners coordinated by National Observatory of Athens (NOA). The project will start on February 2016.

• Preparation of application to European Platform for international cooperation with raw materials producing countries and industry (EUraw), Topic: Strategic international dialogues and cooperation with raw materials producing countries and

industry (SC5-13f-2015). EGS Secretariat with GeoSZ, IGME–Spain, PGI–NRI and SGU as third parties took decision to join a consortium of 14 partners coordinated by the European Federation of Geologists (EFG). The application was rejected. However, after the complaint of the Coordinator, it will be reviewed again.

FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

• Beginning of realization of the PanAfGeo Project in May 2016.

• Preparation of application for realization of study titled “Strengthening relations and capacity building between Latin America and European Geological Surveys”. Expected time of realization – 24 months and budget around 400 000 Euro.

• Searching for the calls of the HORIZON 2020 related to SC5-16 “Raw materials international co-operation” which could be used for cooperation with Latin America.

LIST OF MEMBERS


CHAIR PGI Marek Graniczny

COUNTRY SURVEY NAME

ALBANIA GSA Rezarta Avxhi

C.REPUBLIC CGS Zdenek Venera

C.REPUBLIC CGS Vladislav Rapprich

C.REPUBLIC CGS Tomas Hroch

C.REPUBLIC CGS Ivana Svojtkova

DENMARK GEUS John Tychsen

FINLAND GTK Esko Korkiakoski

Mika Räisänen

FRANCE BRGM Christian Braux

BRGM Marc Urvois

BRGM Patrice Christmann

ESTONIA EGK Margus Raha

GERMANY BGR Kristine Asch

Birgit Kunhs

Markus Toloczki

Dirk Küster

Fabian Helms

GREECE IGME Kiki Hatzilazaridou

HUNGARY MFGI Zsuzsanna Plank

ITALY ISPRA Elisa Brustia

ISPRA Giuseppe Delmonaco

ISPRA Luca Guerrieri

ISPRA Francesco Traversa



LITHUANIA LGT Jonas Satkunas


POLAND PGI Agata Dunaszewska

PGI Izabela Ploch

PGI Marek Graniczny

PORTUGAL LNEG Luisa Duarte

LNEG Ruben Dias

LNEG Vitor Lisboa

LNEG Rita Caldeira

ROMANIA GIR Marian Munteanu

SPAIN IGME Enrique Diaz Martínez

IGME Javier escuder

IGME Manuel Reguerio

IGME Santiago Martin Alfageme

IGME Eusebio Lopera Caballero

Diana Ponce de León

Immaculada Gil

SLOVAKIA SGUDS Dusan Wunder

SLOVENIA Geo-ZS Jure Krivic

Žibret Gorazd

Duška Rokavec

Jasna Šinigoj

SWEDEN SGU Rune Johansson

SGU Joanna Lindahl

THE NETHERLANDS TNO Hans Doornenbal

Paul Bogaard

UK BGS Tim Duffy

Martin Smith

UKRAINE UkrSGRI Boris Maliuk


EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOHAZARDS EXPERT GROUP

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In order to address the heterogeneous and diverse activities reported by Earth Observation and Geohazards expert group (EOEG) members, two thematic working groups (WG) were created in 2015 with the aim of clustering and coordinating Geological Surveys activities around specific topics.

Landslides and subsidence WG was created to lobby for an EC Directive on the assessment and management of landslides and subsidence risks, and to propose a European landslide & subsidence database infrastructure. In order to do so, Geological Surveys are reviewing landslide & subsidence databases in Europe; exchanging practices on susceptibility and hazard assessment, and promoting the coordination of in-situ observation systems of landslides/subsidence test sites in different physiographic/climatic European environments. The Earth Observation and raw materials WG was recently created to focus on Earth Observation applications to minerals, mining and post mining activities. The objective of this WG is to provide a coordinated EGS response to funding opportunities (European

Partnership Instrument, H2020 raw materials calls, DG DEVCO, World Bank) on this topic in Latin America. In order to do so, this WG will need to increase EOEG activity in GEO participating in CA-06 EO data in mineral and non-renewable energy resources.

Earth Observation and Geohazards activities from Geological Surveys were presented in the EGS & Joint Research Centre meeting, the FP7 LAMPRE project workshop, the EGS & EPOS workshop, CERG project meeting, the EU- Latin America dialogue on Raw Materials, the EGS & ASGMI directors meeting, the GEO Ministerial Summit & GEO-XII Plenary. MinEnvMat project idea was coordinated and submitted as a response to a call for ideas for pilot/demonstration projects as part of Horizon 2020. GEO-CRADLE H2020 project proposal was granted and involves the participation of 14 GSs. CHARTES H2020 project proposal has been submitted and awaits for evaluation. EOEG is collaborating with the Mineral Resources expert group and the International Cooperation task force to elaborate the PanLatGeo proposal for funding to the European Partnership instrument, strengthening relations and capacity building between Latin America and European Geological Surveys.

MISSION AND VISION

The mision of the Earth Observation and Geohazards Expert Group from the Geological Surveys of Europe (EOEG) is to bridge the gap between technological and scientific Earth Observation (EO) capabilities and the delivery of harmonized pan-european information on geohazards, georesources and the environment, thereby improving the operational capacity and economic capabilities of governments, institutions, organizations, businesses and individuals.

Our vision is that EGS will increasingly become a key European organisation for Earth Observation and Geohazards through the application of innovative EO technology to applied geoscience research; the delivery of harmonized pan-european information on geohazards; the implementation of long term in-situ & EO observation systems. These actions will help the Group on Earth Observation (GEO) creating a Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS) in the framework of EC’s Copernicus initiative.



SCOPE AND FOCUS

The scope of EOEG is twofold: the application of the full range of EO tools (optical, hyperspectral, thermal, and radar) from various platforms (satellite, airborne, in-situ) to investigate? geohazards, georesources and environment; and the detection, mapping, monitoring and forecasting of geohazards.

Over the past five years, EOEG members have focused on numerous national and international projects related with Earth Observation and/or Geohazards (e.g. Terrafirma, Pangeo, Safeland, Evoss, EO-MINERS, Inqua, SubCoast, Doris, Lampre, EGDI-Scope, etc.).

ACTIVITY REPORT

02/02/2015 EGS-JRC meeting, Brussels: coinciding with the 34. NDs forum, an EGS-JRC meeting was held. The type of collaboration agreed for the topic Geohazards and Copernicus is exchange of information and invitation to scientific events (D1). No more interaction has occurred during 2015.

24/02/2015 Landslides and Subsidence working group KOM, Brussels: this meeting held at EGS headquarters with 20 Geological

Surveys (GSs) was useful to coordinate actions in landslides and subsidence topics. The following goals were identified and agreed:

• To review the status of European landslides/subsidence databases

• To review long term monitoring/forecasting of landslides/subsidence test sites

25/02/2015 FP7 LAMPRE project dissemination event: “Improved Landslide Mapping and Modelling for Preparedness and Mitigation and for Post-event Recovery and Reconstruction”, was hosted by the Geological Survey of Belgium and included the participation of 20 Geological surveys.

28/02/15 Submission of MinEnvMat project idea: In response to a call for ideas for pilot/demonstration projects as part of Horizon 2020 “Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials”, the GSs from Poland, Portugal and Romania submitted the project idea ´Mining towards environment monitoring and Materials recovery (MinEnvMat)´.

14/04/15 EGS-EPOS workshop, Vienna: Eleftheria Poyiadji presented EOEG recent activities explaining the need of integrating EOEG into EPOS Phase II project extension.

17/04/15 CERG project meeting, Vienna: Gerardo Herrera assisted to the CERG project meeting that is promoting Europe landslide susceptibility maps (ELSUS v1 and v2). CERG suggested EOEG interested members to validate ELSUS v2 map. It was agreed a joint re-submission of the slopehazard cost action in order to include EOEG members in the elaboration of ELSUS v3. This cost action has not been re-submitted in 2015.

21/04/15 GEO-CRADLE H2020 project proposal: The project GEO-CRADLE “Integrating North African, Middle East and Balkan Earth Observation capacities in GEOSS” led by the National Observatory of Athens has received grants worth 3 M€ and will start between November 2015 and January 2016, involving 14 GSs under EGS as the umbrella organization, with three of them defined as Linked Third Parties. The main objective is Coordinating and integrating state-of-the-art Earth Observation Activities in the regions of North Africa, Middle East, and Balkans and Developing Links with GEO related initiatives towards GEOSS.

27/08/15 CHARTES H2020 project proposal: Led by the University of Salerno, the project ´Cultural Heritage multi-hazard Analysis and Risk mitigation policy for a sustainable Transition towards a climate



resilient European Society (CHARTES)´ was submitted to “Disaster Resilience & Climate Change Topic 3: Mitigating The Impacts Of Climate Change And Natural Hazards On Cultural Heritage Sites, Structures And Artefacts” (Drs-11-2015). In the case that this project is successful EGS will act as the umbrella organization for the participation of the EOEG via the EGS members as Third Parties. The allocated budget for the proposal is 315k€ participating in the assessment of natural hazards impact affecting cultural heritage sites.

22/09/15 EU - Latin America dialogue on Raw Materials, Colombia: An abstract and a power point presentation were delivered with the title: “Mining and post mining Earth Observation applied research and technology from EGS”. Preliminary contacts were made with Latin America Geological Surveys (LATAM GSs) willing to collaborate in remote sensing application to mining environments: 1) hyperspectral analysis of mining environments; 2) radar interferometry applications to mining environments & geohazards. Additionally, a presentation was made to Colombia Geological Survey (SGC) to explore these possibilities and SGC presented a test site for potential collaboration.

22/10/15 EGS & ASGMI Directors meeting, Madrid: the presentation “Earth Obervation and Geohazards activities from EuroGeoSurveys” was delivered. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between EGS and the Iberoamerican Association of geological and mining surveys, ASGMI. Most important, we agreed on implementing the cooperation in practical terms, by applying for EU funding to carry out specific activities: the European Partnership Instrument, H2020 calls, DG DEVCO and the World Bank.

29/10/15 EOEG annual meeting, Granada: this meeting was participated by 18 Geological Surveys and 31 EOEG members.

• Prothego project: “Protection of European cultural heritage from Geohazards” was presented to EOEG. The project started on the 1st September 2015, was funded by the JPI 2º Call with 600.000 euros aprox. It is participated by ISPRA and IGME, being EGS member of the steering committee. In this project SAR techniques will be applied to UNESCO European world heritage sites potentially affected by geo-hazards (e.g. landslide, seismic, subsidence).

• Landslides and subsidence WG: The Progress on the review of the terrain motion

national inventories was discussed. EGS members account for 800.000 recorded landslide events and 130.000 subsidence recorded events, which is a unique dataset at European level. Future actions were decided.

• Earth Observation and exploration WG: A new working group was created focusing on Earth Observation applications to exploration, mining and post mining activities. This WG will be leaded by Veronika (CGS) with the collaboration of Michaela (BGR), Stephane (BRGM), Colm (BGS) and Gerardo (IGME).

09/11/15 Ministerial Summit & GEO-XII Plenary: Presentations were made in EGS side event “Let geologists tell you a story on how GEOSS Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs) benefit from cooperation between Europe and the Americas on soils, mineral resources or geohazards”, and also in AfriGEOSS side event. EGS statement in GEO-XII Plenary session was made by Gerardo Herrera. Collaboration synergies were identified with the USGS on the following topics: (1) monitoring of landslide and subsidence activity with radar interferometry techniques; (2) implementation of in situ monitoring networks to perform advanced numerical simulation of landslides; (3) application of hyperspectral Earth Observation techniques



to mineral mapping and monitoring of active/abandoned mining areas.

FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

The goal of the Landslides and subsidence working group is to lobby for an EC Directive on the assessment and management of landslides and subsidence risks, and to propose a European landslide & subsidence database infrastructure. In order to do so, based on the national inventories review performed in 2015, we intend to prepare two documents:

• The picture of the landslide & subsidence databases in Europe

• The annual review of the most recent landslide & subsidence events that have negative socio-economic impacts in the different countries.

Additionally, taking into account that H2020 ERANET recently published calls including geohazards as a necessary and horizontal component, EOEG will explore the possibility of including a task on Geohazards (subsidence is particularly suitable) in the themes Geoenergy and Groundwater.

In order to create a network to coordinate landslides/subsidence monitoring test sites in different physiographic/climatic European

environments a draft questionnaire will be circulated within EOEG.

The recently created Earth Observation and raw materials working group will focus on Earth Observation applications to exploration, mining and post mining activities. This WG will be led by Veronika (CGS) with the collaboration of Michaela (BGR), Stephane (BRGM), Colm (BGS) and Gerardo (IGME). In the short term goals and future actions will be defined and proposed from this working group to the rest of EOEG. The objective of this WG is to provide a coordinated EGS response to funding opportunities (European Partnership Instrument, H2020 raw materials calls, DG DEVCO, World Bank) on this topic in Latin America. In order to do so, this WG will need to increase EOEG activity in GEO participating in CA-06 EO data in mineral and non-renewable energy resources.

In order to improve the communication within EOEG towards the elaboration of project proposals it was agreed to create a database of projects (simple excel file) including submitted, approved and rejected project proposals. Each project should include information on the name of project, the GS partners involved, the date of submission, the call, the coordinator, and a short summary about it. PGI will lead this

action with the contribution of Maria Przyłucka.

The project GEO-CRADLE “Integrating North African, Middle East and Balkan Earth Observation capacities in GEOSS” will kick off in Athens February 2016 accounting with the participation of 14 Geological Surveys.

EOEG will support the elaboration of the PANLATGEO proposal for funding to the European Partnership instrument as a Policy Support Facility, strengthening relations and capacity building between Latin America and European Geological Surveys.

USGS expressed interest to start collaboration with EGS on Earth Observation and Geohazards. Further joint efforts will be framed in GEO, in order to increase the presence of Geological Surveys in the areas of Disasters and Raw Materials.



LIST OF MEMBERS


CHAIR IGME SP Gerardo Herrera

Deputy Chair CZS Veronika Kopackova

Deputy Chair PGI Maria Przylucka

COUNTRY SURVEY NAME

AUSTRIA GBA Robert Supper

AUSTRIA GBA Arben Kociu

BELGIUM GSB Pierre-Yves Declercq

Geological Survey of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (GSFBH)

GSFBH Cvjetko Sandić

CROATIA HGI_CGS Podolszki Laszlo

CYPRUS GSD Sylvana Pilidou

CYPRUS GSD Iordanis Demetriades

CYPRUS GSD Kleopas Hadjicharalambous

CYPRUS GSD Niki Koulermou

CZECH REPUBLIC CZS Jan Jelenec

CZECH REPUBLIC CZS Vit Baldik

CZECH REPUBLIC CZS Roman Novotny

CZECH REPUBLIC CZS Veronika Kopackova

DENMARK GEUS Jens Stockmarr

DENMARK GEUS Lisbeth Flindt Jørgensen

DENMARK GEUS Jorgen Tulstrup

DENMARK GEUS Signe Bech Andersen

DENMARK GEUS Karen Hanghoj

ESTONIA EGK Margus Raha

FRANCE BRGM G.Grandjean

FRANCE BRGM M de Michele

FRANCE BRGM S. Bernardie

FRANCE BRGM Francis BERTRAND

FRANCE BRGM Guillaume Martelet

GERMANY BGR Birgit Kuhns

GERMANY BGR Dirk Balzer

GERMANY BGR Thomas Lege

GERMANY BGR Dirk kuhn

GERMANY BGR Michaela Frei

GREECE IGME Demetrios Kanaris

GREECE IGME Marianthi Stefouli

GREECE IGME Eleftheria Poyiadji

IRELAND GSI Michael Sheehy

ITALY ISPRA Luca Guerrieri

ITALY ISPRA Alessandro Trigila

ITALY ISPRA Valerio comerci

ITALY ISPRA Eutizio Vittori

KOSOVO KGS Fahri Blakaj

KOSOVO KGS Fidaim Sahiti

LITHUANIA LGT Jolanta Cyziene

LITHUANIA LGT Vidas Mikulenas

MALTA MTI Albert Caruana

NORWAY NGU Jan Host

NORWAY NGU Thierry Oppikofer

NORWAY NGU Reginald Hermanns

NORWAY NGU John Dehls

POLAND PGI Zbigniew Kowalski

POLAND PGI Izabela Ploch

POLAND PGI Marek Graniczny

POLAND PGI Marcin Kulak

POLAND PGI Maria Przylucka

POLAND PGI Zbigniew Perski

POLAND PGI Tatiana Solovey

PORTUGAL LNEG Ruben Dias

PORTUGAL LNEG Daniel Oliveira

PORTUGAL LNEG Rita Caldeira

PORTUGAL LNEG Lídia Quental

ROMANIA GIR Octavian Coltoi

ROMANIA GIR Anca-maria Vijdea

ROMANIA GIR Constantina Filipciuc

ROMANIA GIR Raluca Maftei

RUSSIAN FEDERATION VSEGEI Olga Krutkina

RUSSIAN FEDERATION VSEGEI Aleksandr Kirsanov

SLOVAK REPUBLIC SGUDS Pavel Liščák

SLOVAK REPUBLIC SGUDS Peter Ondrejka

SLOVENIA GEOZS Jernej Jež

SLOVENIA GEOZS Mateja Jemec

SPAIN IGME Margarita Sanabria

SPAIN IGME Manuel Regueiro



SPAIN IGME Rosa Mateo

SPAIN IGME Gerardo Herrera

SPAIN IGME Juan Carlos Garcia

SPAIN

ICGC-Regional Survey Catalonia

Père Buxo

SPAIN


Jordi Marturia

SPAIN


Marta Gonzalez

SWEDEN SGU Colby Smith

SWEDEN SGU Mats Engdahl

SWEDEN SGU Cecilia Jelinek

SWEDEN SGU Lisbeth Hildebrand

SWITZERLAND SWISSTOPO/FOEN Hugo Raetzo


THE NETHERLANDS TNO Rob van der Krogt

UK BGS Colm Jordan

UK BGS Luke Bateson

UK BGS Francesca Cigna

UK BGS Vanessa J Banks

UK BGS Helen Reeves

UK BGS Francesca Cigna


SPATIAL INFORMATION EXPERT GROUP

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In 2015, the SIEG focused its activities on the following projects:

• EPOS : participation to the EPOS implementation project, with the lead of a “geology thematic service”,

• EGDI : proposal and launch of an implementation project based on voluntary contributions from the surveys,

• ERA-NET : proposal of an “information platform” topic to support the 3 thematic topics,

• support of the INSPIRE geoscience cluster,

• support of EGS projects (OneGeology-Europe, Minerals4EU,…).

It should be noted that these activities are only partly funded even if some of them constitute operational tasks for the benefit of EGS (such as EGDI implementation). Given the tension on the surveys budgets, this mode of operation is probably not sustainable for the long term.

MISSION AND VISION

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 implemen tation. 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 (ie Minerals4EU, EPOS,…).

The Expert Group has a mission to contribute to the definition of the European policies which aim at developing the European information infrastructure (INSPIRE, 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. The SIEG has also the responsibility to define how the EGS infrastructure can fit/collaborate with other

infrastructures (national spatial data infrastructures, GEOSS, 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.

SCOPE AND FOCUS

The main focus of the SIEG in the current period is to support the implementation of INSPIRE by the EGS members, and to implement EGDI.

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.



ACTIVITY REPORT

1.1 MEETINGS

The SIEG had 2 face to face meetings during the last period:

• 27 May 2015 in Lisbon (at the occasion of the INSPIRE conference),

• 11 January 2016 in Copenhagen (in conjuction with an EGDI meeting),

and one teleconference on 10 December 2015.

Members of the SIEG were also invited to different meetings related to EGDI, ERA-NET, EPOS (including a joint EGS/EPOS workshop at Fucino 21 April 2015), INSPIRE MIG, GEO/GEOSS, OneGeology, Euregeo (Barcelona)…

1.2. FROM EGDI-SCOPE TO EGDI-BRIDGE

EGDI has been defined as one of the three pillars of the EGS strategy in support of The European Geological Service. A description of what an EGDI could contain and how the implementation and operation of it could be organized has been described in the FP7 project EGDI-Scope (www.egdi-scope.eu) which was carried out in the period 2012 – 2014.

The General Assembly approved during the meeting in October 2014 that a small group

consisting of members from BRGM (leader), GEUS and TNO should coordinate the EGDI-Bridge, and the first initiative was to write the GNEISS proposal (coordination GEUS) to build an EGDI as part of a Virtual Research Environment. Despite a good evaluation and a score of 13.5 the proposal was rejected. This was however not a big surprise as the competition was very tough and only around 10% of the proposals were accepted.

Following the rejection of GNEISS proposal, the three surveys leading the EGDI-Bridge action (BRGM, GEUS, TNO) have prepared a draft plan for an implementation of a preliminary version of EGDI that will be developed through the contribution of the surveys. Substantial commitments have been made by many surveys in 2014, and need to be reactivated in the context of this proposal. A meeting was hosted by GEUS in January 2016 to formally start this project (led by GEUS), that plans to have a first version demonstrated during an event in Brussels in June.

One of the main objectives of this first phase of EGDI implementation is to give an “online” visibility to EGDI through a new portal. At the same time, the OneGeology-Europe portal will be closed but the maps will still be available, now on the EGDI-portal.

A way to sustain the EGDI in the longer term will also be proposed.

The project is very actively supported by a group of SIEG members with weekly teleconferences in order to meet the sharp deadline. The EGS/SIEG intranet is used as the main project coordination tool.

1.3. EPOS H2020 PROJECT

The connection between the EPOS community and EGS has permitted to EGS to lead a work package about geological services in the EPOS proposal to the INFRADEV-3-201 call (Individual implementation and operation of ESFRI project). Given the size of the project, the number of participating geological surveys has been limited. In coordination with the Secretariat, it was decided that BRGM would lead the work package on behalf of EGS (which is an Associate Partner), with participation of GEUS, GSI and ISPRA. Besides this contribution, it must be noted that BGS plays an important role in the development of the global infrastructure and core services of EPOS. This project will give the opportunity for EGS to enhance the relationship with the geological and geophysical research organisations in Europe. This project was formally kicked off in Rome in October 2016.



A MOU between EGS and EPOS in currently under finalisation. It will define the conditions of an efficient collaboration between EGDI and EPOS. EGS will a play major role in the operation of the “GEOLOGY THEMATIC SERVICE” of EPOS, and all efforts are made to “optimize” the efforts for the benefits of both initiatives.

All EGS members will be encouraged to publish their data services in the EPOS “GEOLOGY THEMATIC SERVICE” to facilitate their discovery and access by the EPOS communities of users.

INSPIRE THEMATIC CLUSTER

In the frame of INSPIRE maintenance, the JRC has defined clusters of data themes. EGS has been selected to chair/facilitate a “Earth Science” data themes (Geology, Soil, Natural Risk Zones, Mineral and Energy Resources) cluster platform (new INSPIRE FORUM) for exchanging information, best practices, guidelines to implement INSPIRE in a “harmonised- agreed” way, relevant global standards follow up and evaluation. The INSPIRE thematic clusters collaboration platform was developed and officially launched on 11/12/ 2014 (https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ ).

The initial contract of 6 months has been extended until March 2016, and its extension,

for a period of 2 years is now under discussion with JRC.

The “Earth Science” Thematic Cluster is facilitated by the nominated EGS experts. The new leader of the cluster is Amelia Baptie, from BGS (who replaced Tim Duffy). More than 120 experts are registered in this network, and more participants from the surveys are welcome.

Cookbooks to facilitate the creation of INSPIRE compliant services for geological maps have been produced under the coordination of BGS and the resources provided by the cluster are of great help to facilitate the INSPIRE implementation by the surveys.

ERA-NET PROPOSAL

Given the content of the text of the call for the Geoscience ERA-NET, the SIEG proposed to identify a “4th topic” to identify the common actions and developments that would support the development of the 3 thematic topics, facilitate interoperability between topics, and at the same time contribute to the implementation of EGDI. This proposal was accepted by the Directors and after discussion with the Commission, it was agreed that the proposal would contain a 4th topic on “information platform”.

A call for commitments for the 4 topics has

therefore be sent to all the surveys.

A joint meeting of the SIEG and the ERA-NET preparation team was organised in January in Copenhagen to identify the scope of the proposal for the topic in relation with the requirements of others.

FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

The geoscience information landscape is evolving quite rapidly:

• Evolution from 2D to 3D: in Europe as well as at global scale many countries are in the process of changing their workflows of geological information production from 2D (maps) to 3D/4D. The OneGeology consortium as well as the IUGS/CGI are also moving in this direction. The interaction with other 3D/4D representation of the planet has to be addressed by the geoscientific community.

• The development of large data/services infrastructures (such as GEOSS, INSPIRE, EPOS, EGDI,…) is becoming quite complex from a technical and from a governance perspectives.

• The continuous development of IT technologies such as “big data” challenges our organisations with the apparition of new actors.



• The traditional “virtual” frontiers between academic / surveys / companies / citizen are moving rapidly.

• …

These changes may have dramatic impacts on the future of the surveys in their positioning or even their capability to deliver their national mission, and for EGS to address the pan-European dimension.

SIEG members could provide expertise to clarify the challenges, provide and research agenda and contribute to the evolution of surveys and EGS strategies. The objectives and format of such a mission should be discussed within EGS.

LIST OF MEMBERS

In terms of organisation, after the resignation of Jarmo Kohonen from his position of Co-chair, two new co-chairs have been appointed:

François Robida (BRGM – France) – Chair

Jørgen Tulstrup (GEUS –Denmark) - Co-Chair

Jasna Šinigoj (GEO-ZS – Slovenia) – Co-Chair


COUNTRY SURVEY NAME

ALBANIA AGS Carlo Moisiu

ALBANIA AGS Olgert Jaupaj

AUSTRIA GBA Christine Hörfarter

AUSTRIA GBA Werner Stöckl

BELGIUM GSB Pierre-Yves Declercq

CROATIA HGI_CGS Akja Sorsa

CROATIA HGI_CGS Mario Dolić

CYPRUS GSD Zomenia Zomeni

CYPRUS GSD Ioulia Georgiadou

CYPRUS GSD Ioannis Panayides

CZECH REPUBLIC CZS Lucie Kondrova

CZECH REPUBLIC CZS Zdenek Venera

CZECH REPUBLIC CZS Dana Capova

DENMARK GEUS Jorgen Tulstrup

DENMARK GEUS Mikael Pedersen

ESTONIA EGK

FINLAND GTK Jarmo Kohonen

FINLAND GTK Juoni Vuollo

FRANCE BRGM François Robida

FRANCE BGRM Sylvain Grellet

FRANCE BRGM Agnès Tellez-Arenas

GERMANY BGR Kristine Asch

GERMANY BGR Tanja Wodtke

GERMANY BGR Rainer Baritz

GERMANY (STATES) Gerold diepolder

GREECE IGME A. Zervakou

GREECE IGME Nikos Androulakakis

HUNGARY MFGI Laszlo Sores

IRELAND GSI Mary Carter

ITALY ISPRA Valentina Campo

ITALY ISPRA Carlo Cipolloni

ITALY ISPRA Marco Pantaloni

ITALY ISPRA Maria Pia Congi

ITALY Emilia-Romagna Michela Grandi

LITHUANIA LGT Aliona Olsevskaja

LUXEMBOURG SGL Robert Colbach

MALTA MRA

NORWAY NGU Jan Host

NORWAY NGU Frank Haugan

NORWAY NGU Per Ryhaug

NORWAY NGU Frank Haugan

POLAND PGI Urszula Stepien

POLAND PGI Tomasz Nalecz

POLAND PGI Mr. Mateusz Hordejuk

PORTUGAL LNEG Teresa Cunha

PORTUGAL LNEG Gabriel Luis

PORTUGAL LNEG Judite Fernandez

PORTUGAL LNEG Lidia Quental

PORTUGAL LNEG Aureta Pereira

ROMANIA GIR Anca-Marina Vajdea

RUSSIAN FEDERATION VSEGEI Olga Shneider

SLOVAK REPUBLIC SGUDS Robert Cibula

SLOVAK REPUBLIC SGUDS Stefan Kacer

SLOVENIA GEOZS Matija Krivic

SLOVENIA GEOZS Jasna Sinigoj



SPAIN IGME Ángel Prieto Martin

SPAIN IGME Margarita Sanabria

SPAIN IGME Maria Mancebo

SPAIN Catalonia Xavier Berastegui

SWEDEN Nikolaos Aarvanitidis

SWEDEN SGU Andreas Gref

SWEDEN SGU Lars Kristian Stolen

SWITZERLAND SWISSTOPO Nils Oesterling


THE NETHERLANDS TNO Rob van Ede

THE NETHERLANDS TNO Rob van der Krogt

THE NETHERLANDS TNO Robert Jan van Leeuwen

UK BGS Mathew Harrison

UK BGS Garry Baker

UK BGS Amelia Baptie

UK BGS Katy Lee

UK BGS Tim Duffy


WATER RESOURCES EXPERT GROUP

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Water Resources Expert Group focuses on groundwater research, management, protection of groundwater resources and scientific support for decision and policy making. Its main activities are the support and advice to DG-ENV, the identification of groundwater knowledge gaps for the EU research agenda and the sharing of experiences of member states in implementing groundwater relevant EU Directives especially the Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) for the Water Framework and Groundwater directives.

The activities in 2015 focused on the following topics: 1) Preparation of the groundwater part of the ERA-NET on Applied Geoscience, 2) Co-chairing the development of a technical report on groundwater associated aquatic ecosystems (GWAAEs) in Working Group Groundwater within the common implementation strategy (CIS) of the Water Framework Directive (European Commission, 2015), 3) Participation in EU Shale Gas projects and meetings 4) Exploring collaboration possibilities with the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission 5) Leading the development of Groundwater Research Classification System

and the development of a guidance for a European Inventory of Groundwater Research (in the Horizon 2020 project “KINDRA”) 6) Conveners of five sessions at the annual meeting of the European Geoscience Union in Vienna in April and the annual meeting of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) in September in Rome 7) Contributions to the EGS book “Wonder Water”.

MISSION AND VISION

The focus of WREG is to support the European Commission and the Member States in the effective implementation of EU water policies mainly the Water Framework Directive, the Groundwater Directive, the Drinking Water Directive, the Nitrates Directive, the Floods directive and the Blueprint to Safeguard Europe’s Water.

In this context WREG strives to answer and improve our knowledge through co-ordinated research on the following key challenges for groundwater resource management and protection at regional to pan European scale:

• where are our groundwater resources and how well protected are they?

(e.g. hydrogeological mapping and modelling)

• what is their condition and how does it evolve?

(e.g. monitoring of groundwater quantity & quality, tracers, trends, groundwater dating, recharge and vulnerability)

• how do they interact with the wider environment and respond to change and pressures?

(e.g. coupled groundwater – surface water modelling, WFD and DPSIR analysis, climate change impacts, extreme events (floods and droughts), residence times, groundwater quantitative and chemical status based on good status objectives for dependent ecosystems

• what types of groundwater relevant data need to be stored, accessible and visualized for policy support and efficient management/protection of groundwater?

(e.g. gw/geoscience information platform, integrated visualisation systems).

Hence, the main focus of WREG is on groundwater management and protection in general specifically related to Common Implementation Strategy of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) including the Groundwater Directive (GWD 2006).



The main EU policy related activities are:

• Support and advice to DG-ENV on technical and policy-related issues

• Identify knowledge gaps for the EU research agenda

• Sharing experiences between member organizations in WFD and GWD implementation.

Quality standards /Thresholds linked to chemical status

Interactions with aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Links with surface water status and ecological standards

Prevent / Limit measures

Drinking waterAbstractionArt. 7 WFD

Run-off

Issues tackled jointly by the WFD and the new Groundwater Directive

Groundwater= natural resource to be protected against pollution and deterioration, in particular for dependent ecosystems and for use in water supply

Quality standards /Thresholds linked to chemical status

Interactions with aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Links with surface water status and ecological standards

Prevent / Limit measures

Drinking waterAbstractionArt. 7 WFD

Run-off

Issues tackled jointly by the WFD and the new Groundwater Directive

Groundwater= natural resource to be protected against pollution and deterioration, in particular for dependent ecosystems and for use in water supply

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

In addition WREG provides knowledge relevant for other important EU policies and directives such as the Drinking Water Directive, The Nitrates Directive and the Floods directive (e.g. climate change impact assessments etc.).

SCOPE AND FOCUS

The scope of WREG has been related to the groundwater aspects of the water framework directive (WFD, 2000) the negotiations of the groundwater directive (2006) and its subsequent implementation through the common implementation strategy (CIS) related to the assessment of groundwater quantitative and chemical status both with respect to groundwater legitimate uses (e.g. drinking water) and groundwater dependent terrestrial and groundwater associated aquatic ecosystems (see fig. 1.2) and the Technical Report on Groundwater Associated Aquatic Ecosystems (European Commission, 2015 – executive summary in appendix).


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


Since 2006, after the GWD was enacted, EuroGeoSurveys has played an active role in the overall discussions within Working Group C (now Working Group Groundwater) and in the implementation process by leading and participating in drafting groups for guidelines and technical report. For example, EuroGeoSurveys took an active role in the review process of the GWD in 2013 (see annual report over 2013). Recently (October 2015), the European Commission published a technical report by the initiative of and with a WREG lead author on Groundwater Associated Aquatic Ecosystems developed within Working Group Groundwater of the Common Implementation Strategy of the WFD (European Commission, 2015). Moreover, the Expert group continues the initiative and efforts of influencing the EU groundwater research agenda in order to explore groundwater research trends and close knowledge gaps that will be identified e.g. in collaboration with hydrogeologists and groundwater experts of the European Federation of Geologists (EFG) in the EU Horizon 2020 project “KINDRA” initiated by the European Federation of Geologists (EFG). In 2015the main issues were: 1) Preparation of the groundwater part of the ERA-NET on Applied Geoscience 2) Co-chairing the development of a technical report on groundwater associated aquatic ecosystems (GWAAEs) in Working Group Groundwater within the common

implementation strategy (CIS) of the Water Framework Directive,3) Participation in EU Shale Gas projects and meetings 4) Exploring collaboration possibilities with the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission 5) Leading the development of Groundwater Research Classification System and the development of a guidance for a European Inventory of Groundwater Research (in Horizon 2020 project “KINDRA”) 6) Conveners of five sessions at the annual meeting of the European Geoscience Union in Vienna in April and the annual meeting of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) in September in Rome 7) Contributions to the EGS book “Wonder Water”.

The WREG is very active in the EU Working Group Groundwater. Since 2006, when the GWD was enacted, EuroGeoSurveys has played an active role in leading drafting groups, writing guidance reports for the implementation of the GWD, contributing to, chairing or co-chairing drafting groups on:

• Technical report on groundwater associated aquatic ecosystems (chair, endorsed and published October 2015)

• Technical report on groundwater dependent terrestrial ecosystems (co-chair, endorsed and published in December 2011)

• Guidance on groundwater status and trend assessment no. 18 (chair/co-chair, 6 EGS members contributing, 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 guidance reports form the heart of the common implementation strategy of the Groundwater Directive, the two technical reports on groundwater dependent terrestrial and associated aquatic ecosystems are important contributions to assist proper implementation of the WFD.

The work in the period 2009-2013 focused on the preparation of the official review of the GWD in 2013. EGWR members Rob Ward (BGS) 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 subsequent two-day meeting of the EU Working Group C was much appreciated by the EU officials.

In 2014 and 2015 much attention was paid on the link between science and policy related to groundwater, by actively organizing session on actual societal themes such as shale gas extraction and groundwater on conferences such as the annual conference of EGU. Moreover, the working group contributed to the Collaboration Agreement with JRC, contributed to EGDI-Scope and prepared groundwater contributions the Geoscience ERANET and GNEISS proposals.

ACTIVITY REPORT


ACTIVITY WHEN? WHO?

Meeting with the EC on the contents and procedures of the new ERA-NET on Applied Geosciences, and preparation of text for the groundwater theme of the ERA-NET

January-March 2015 Klaus Hinsby

Kick-off of the KINDRA project – Knowledge Inventory for Hydrogeology Research and meeting with Joint Panel of Experts - Horizon 2020 project coordinated by Uni. Sapienza, Rome on behalf of the European Federation of Geologists.

January-March 2015 Klaus Hinsby (lead of WP3) + Rob Ward, BGS; Heidi C. Barlebo, GEUS; and Teodora Szocs, MFGI who are all in the joint panel of experts

Initial contact and Skype meetings with the JRC on collaboration regarding physically distributed coupled groundwater-surface water modelling based on both the International Hydrogeological Map of Europe and more detailed regional / national geological models with the aim of developing better models for e.g. climate change impact assessments, groundwater flow and transport, groundwater residence times / ages and groundwater – surface water interaction.

January-March 2015 Klaus Hinsby

Leading three sessions at the EGU 2015: HS 2.4.5: Monitoring Strategies: temporal trends in groundwater and surface water quality and quantity. HS 8.2.8: Physical, chemical, microbial and isotopic processes in groundwater; from soil contamination to shale gas impacts. HS 10.10: Natural backgrounds, indicators and ecological thresholds for groundwater and surface water in river basins and estuaries.

12-17 April 2015 Hans Peter Broers, Klaus Hinsby (conveners)

28th Working Group Groundwater Plenary meeting (in the Common Implementation Strategy of the Water Framework Directive), BrusselsPresentation and discussion of the status of the Technical Report on Groundwater Associated Aquatic EcosystemsPresentation and discussions related to Trends assessment within the WFD - Setting the scene and compiling information related to EU practices

14-15 April 2015 Klaus Hinsby,Laurence Gourcy,many members among participants



Contributions in the Science session in Working Group Groundwater under the CIS of the WFD on on-going EU research projects involving WREG members:MARS (Managing aquatic ecosystems and water resources under multiple stress)Soils2Sea (Reducing nutrient loadings from agricultural soils to the Baltic Sea via groundwater and streams)

March-June 2015 Rob Ward, Hans Peter Broers and Klaus Hinsby

Kick-off of the EU project M4Shalegas: Measuring, monitoring, mitigating & managing the environmental impact of shale gas

June 2015 Hans Peter Broers

Questionnaire on groundwater research in Europe developed by the KINDRA project (initiated through EFG) circulated to WREG members for identification of most important and relevant research areas

March-June 2015 Klaus Hinsby

Continuing work on preparations for the ERA-NET March-December 2015 Klaus Hinsby (GEUS), Hans Peter Broers (TNO), Anna Kuczynska (PGI), Nathalie Dorfliger& Laurence Gourcy (BRGM), Rob Ward (BGS) / all WREG members

Participation and contributions Technical Workshop “Baseline assessment and monitoring of water resources exposed to unconventional hydrocarbon exploration and extraction activities.Brussels

30 June 2015 Hans Peter Broers (TNO), Taly Hunter (GSI), Wolfram Kloppmann Wolfram (BRGM), Jurga Arustiene (LGT), Ole Stig Jacobsen GEUS and Thomas Himmelsbach (BGR)

Participation in EGS-EC meeting 7 July 2015 Laerke Thorling (GEUS)

Continuing work on preparations for the ERA-NET and circulation of Groundwater theme description to all WREG members for comments

July-Spetember 2015 Klaus Hinsby

Conveners for sessions at IAH2015 Congress: Aqua2015 – back to the future, RomeS5.1 Interaction between aquifers, rivers, lakes and estuaries: Flow and Transport (Klaus)S.6.1 How to link science and policy in groundwater governance (Teodora)And presentation of the Groundwater Research Classification System developed in the KINDRA project of Horizon 2020 (Klaus)

13-18 September 2015 Klaus Hinsby and Teodora Szocs (MFGI)


Convener for four sessions at Land Use and Water Quality Agricultural Production and the Environment, Vienna• Field research and data interpretation • Managing protected areas • Increasing system knowledge • Decision-making on and implementation of Programmes of Measures

21-24 September 2015 Hans Peter Broers, Laerke Thorling

Initiating the preparation of the 43th IAH congress to be held in Montpellier “Hydrogeology: groundwater and society: 60 years of IAH”

September-December 2015

Laurence Gourcy

29th Working Group Groundwater Plenary meeting (in the Common Implementation Strategy of the Water Framework Directive), LuxemburgPresentation and adoption of the Technical Report on Groundwater Associated Aquatic Ecosystems (proposed by WREG) Presentation on Groundwater threshold values based on good status objectives of Danish transitional and coastal waters Presentation of the syntheses of information collected with EU member states on trend assessment and discussions for finalization of the note Presentation of an update on MARS (Managing aquatic ecosystems and water resources under multiple stress)Summary of the workshop on Emerging Compounds

5-6 October 2015 Klaus Hinsby, Laerke Thorling, Laurence Gourcy, Manuel Sapiano,Ronald Kozel, many members among participants

Video conference on ERA-NET proposal 17 December 2015 Klaus Hinsby & Luca Demicheli, Isabel Pino, Patrick Wall + many WREG members



ACTIVITIES FORESEEN 2016

ACTIVITY WHEN? WHO?

WREG meeting in Brussels, focusing mainly on ERA-NET proposal, cooperation with JRC and EIP Water 20 January 2016 Klaus Hinsby, Isabel Pino + most WREG members

Drinking Water Seminar organised by DG Environment and the Dutch presidency, with two presentations by WREG members:Nitrate in Danish groundwater and health risk (DK);Drinking water protection: from hydrogeological knowledge to territorial planning (LT)

21 January 2016 Birgitte Hansen, Kestutis Kadunas, Klaus Hinsby, Anna Kuczynska + Many other WREG members

Presentation of the KINDRA Groundwater research classification and quality categories for the European Inventory of Groundwater Research at KINDRA workshop organised n Seville by the European Federation of Geologists (EFG) for national groundwater experts appointed by the Geological Societies of each member state

5 February Klaus Hinsby

Contribution to 3rd EGS-JRC Workshop, Brussels 17 February 2016 Klaus Hinsby

Contribution to the EGS Chairs meeting and ND forum Brussels February 2016 Klaus Hinsby

Attending 2 EU Working Group Groundwater meetings April and Oct 2016 Many members

Organizing Expert Group Meeting vis-à-vis EU WGG October 2016 Expert Group

Contributing to ERANET proposal writing Jan-December 2016 Klaus Hinsby (lead), Hans Peter Broers all in WREG

Organization of the 43th IAH congress to be held in Montpellier “Hydrogeology: groundwater and society: 60 years of IAH”

September 2016 Laurence Gourcy



ACTIVITIES

Jan-March

• 12/01/2016 SIEG meeting, Copenhagen: Participation in discussions with SIEG and GEEG on cross-thematic contents of GeoERA.

• 21/01/2016 First WREG and GeoERA partner plenary meeting on the groundwater contents of GeoERA, EGS, Brussels: Groundwater project ideas and organisation was discussed after a general introduction of the ERA-NET on Applied Geoscience by Paul Bogaard.

• 05/02/2016 Workshop on the European Inventory of Groundwater Research (www.kindra-project.eu): Presentation of the KINDRA groundwater research classification system.

• 16/02/2016 National Delegates Forum, Brussels: WREG activities and annual report was presented.

• 17/02/2016 EGS/JRC meeting at the commission on common research interests: WREG research interests were presented and discussed with the JRC.

April-June

• 11-12/04/2016 30th CIS Working Group Groundwater Meeting, Amersfoort, NL: All 4 WREG chairs were present. Hans Peter Broers (TNO) and Klaus Hinsby (GEUS) presented progress in the EU Horizon 2020 projects MARS and KINDRA and Laurence Gourcy (BRGM) the activities on trend assessment all relevant for the implementation of the Water Framework Directive.

• 18/04/2016: EGU2016, Vienna: HS 2.3.10: HS 8.2.6/ERE2.3: Physical, chemical, microbial and isotopic processes in groundwater; from soil contamination to shale gas impacts – H.P. Broers (TNO), convener.

• 21/04/2016, EGU2016, Vienna: Micropollutants, pathogens and nutrients in the soil-groundwater-river continuum: advances in modeling and monitoring– H.P. Broers (TNO), convener.

• 19/05/2016, GeoERA meeting between theme coordinators/expert chairs, Utrecht: Presentation and discussion of of tentative contents and common interests of the four GeoERA themes.

July-September

• 23/08/2016, GeoERA project coordination meeting, Hannover: Participation in plenary meeting and presentation of the organisation and interests of WREG and other groundwater partners in GeoERA focusing on cross-thematic collaboration with the other 3 GeoERA themes (GeoEnergy, raw materials and Geoscience Information Platform).

• 28/09/2016, IAH 60 years Anniversary Meeting, Montpellier: Public general presentation of the GeoERA project and procedures and call for project ideas.

• 30/09/2016, BRGM, Montpellier: Second WREG and GeoERA partner plenary meeting on further development of concrete project ideas for groundwater.

RESULTS AND IMPACTS

There is generally a great appreciation by the European Commission (e.g. DG Environment and DG Research) for the support and advice of WREG/EuroGeoSurveys). This was e.g. illustrated at the meeting with the Commission on the ERA-NET preparation (January 2015), where the commission (DG Research) mentioned that their requests for ERA-NET contributions on groundwater to a large extent was inspired by several



contributions on groundwater research gaps developed by WREG (DG Environment is funding the Commissions contribution to the groundwater part of the ERA-NET), and that WREG members in a significant number of consortia in the Framework programmes always have been active in knowledge provision and dissemination e.g. for member states through the Working Group Groundwater of the Common Implementation Strategy for the Water Framework Directive.

This role is to be continued through granted EU projects such as the MARS project (FP7). This project connects groundwater researchers and ecologists in a transdisciplinary collaboration, which indeed needs to be promoted and intensified as stated in the recent technical report on groundwater associated aquatic ecosystems developed by the initiative of WREG and published by the European Commission in 2015 (European Commission, 2015). In addition it is demonstrated in the Horizon 2020 projects KINDRA, where WREG members lead tasks and work packages and advices on the development of a classification system for European groundwater research and a European Inventory of Groundwater Research, which will serve as a basis for the analyses of current groundwater research trends and gaps; and the lead on a work package on case studies of the application

of subsurface water solutions for the control of salt water intrusion in coastal aquifers in order to pave their way to the market (SUBSOL, Horizon 2020).

FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

Future groundwater resources management requires sound knowledge of groundwater systems and the EuroGeoSurveys Water Resources Expert Group identified a number of issues that should be addressed in future research programs. The groundwater research needs that we identified are especially related to the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Groundwater Directive (GWD) but also related to EU policy initiatives on ‘Water Scarcity and Droughts’ and ‘Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation’. For example, the second and third River Basin Management Plans for the WFD and GWD are supposed to be fully climate-resilient by 2015. Moreover, different policy objectives may have contradictory effects; implementing the EU policy on renewable energy by introducing subsurface thermal energy storage, the storage of CO2 for example or the increased exploration of unconventional fossil fuel reservoirs, might have adverse effects on the protection of groundwater systems, which asks for a balanced groundwater management approach that include properly integrated subsurface and surface spatial

planning as is also an important focus of the ERA-NET on Applied Geoscience .

The WREG group will assess future possibilities for using the groundwater competences in the group in especially Horizon2020 calls on research and innovation projects in as well as outside Europe (Especially Asia, Africa and South America) involving and including both public and private partners, capacity building and networks projects.

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.

These are all in line with the groundwater societal themes that WREG has identified for the development of projects on groundwater in the ERA-NET on Applied Geoscience.



MEMBER LIST

WREG is chaired by Klaus Hinsby, (GEUS) and the vice-chairs Hans Peter Broers (TNO), Laurence Gourcy (BRGM) and Anna Kuczynska (PGI).

ReferencesEuropean Commission, 2015. Technical Report on Groundwater Associated Aquatic Ecosystems. European Commission, Technical Report no. 9, Technical Report 2015-093, Directorate-General for the Environment – Unit C1 - Water, Brussels, October 2015, 50pp.

APPENDIX

Executive summary of Technical Report on Groundwater Associated Aquatic Ecosystems developed by the initiative of WREG (European Commission, 2015)

COUNTRY SURVEY NAME

ALBANIA AGS Arben Pambuku

AUSTRIA GBA Gerhard Schubert

BELGIUM GSB

CROATIA HGI_CGS Josip Terzic

CYPRUS GSD Costas Constantinou

CZECH REPUBLIC CZS Renata Kadlecova

CZECH REPUBLIC CZS Eva Krystofova

DENMARK GEUS

DENMARK GEUS Klaus Hinsby

DENMARK GEUS Heidi Christiansen Barlebo

DENMARK GEUS Lærke Thorling

DENMARK GEUS Jens S.

DENMARK GEUS Birgitte Hansen

ESTONIA EGK

FINLAND GTK Antti Pasanen

FINLAND GTK Jarkko Okkonen

FINLAND GTK Olli Breilin

FRANCE BRGM [email protected]

FRANCE BRGM Nathalie Dörfliger

FRANCE BRGM Didier Pennequin

GERMANY BGR Dr. Jörg Reichling

GERMANY BGR Dr. Thomas Himmelsbach

BGR Jörg Reichling

GREECE IGME Mr. Vassilis Zorapas

GREECE IGME Kostas Kontodimos

HUNGARY MFGI Teodora Szocs

IRELAND GSI Taly Hunter

IRELAND GSI Caoimhe Hickey

IRELAND GSI Monica Lee

ITALY ISPRA Barbara Dessi

ITALY ISPRA Daniele Spizzichino

ITALY ISPRA Lucio Martarelli

Emilia-Romagna Paolo Severi

LITHUANIA LGT KESTUTIS KADUNAS

LUXEMBOURG SGL


NORWAY NGU Atle Dagestad

NGU Jan Høst

POLAND PGILidia Razowska – Jaworek (leader)

POLAND PGI Maciej Klonowski

POLAND PGI Anna Kuczynska

ALBANIA GSA Sonila Marku

PORTUGAL LNEG Ana Pereira

ROMANIA GIR

RUSSIAN FEDERATION

VSEGEI

SLOVAK REPUBLIC SGUDS Peter Malík

SLOVAK REPUBLIC SGUDS radovan cernak

SLOVENIA GEOZS Mitja Janza

SPAIN IGME Juan de Dios Gómez Gómez

SPAIN IGMEJuan Antonio de la Orden Gomez

SPAIN IGME Miguel Mejias Moreno

SWEDEN SGU Jenny McCarthy

SWITZERLAND FOEN Ronald Kozel


THE NETHERLANDS TNO Hans Peter Broers

THE NETHERLANDS TNO Ronald Vernes

THE NETHERLANDS 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 2015.

Membership and Staffing

EuroGeoSurveys represented a combined total of over ________ staff in 2015. This table shows the fluctuations of staff numbers within our membership over the past 12 years. Please note that data is not always available at time of collection.

In general, for most of the Surveys, we can notice a slight decrease of the staff number, linked to the economic downturn in Europe, which unfortunately continues despite a small recovery of numbers in 2010.

Total staff fluctuation over years

Statistics 2015

Country 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Albania 330 195 131 140 145 145 144 162Austria 114 107 107 108 112 113 111,65 111 110 117Belgium 44 33 35 38 36 36 32 27 21 394Croatia 113 108 110 111 110 112 111 114Cyprus 122 123 120 98 91 83 88 75 69 69Czech Republic 274 269 268 268 260 328,1 307 337 323Denmark 283 291 304 314 322 404 422 417 408 372Estonia 101 104 106 108 86 67 0 69 68 80Finland 818 713 713 675 648 615 602 581 561 533France 879 1023 1096 1077 949 958 935,9 928 916 905FYROM 20 20Germany 694 721 716 722 749 737 727 741 724 703Greece 684 660 545 491 405 332 286 265 338 266Hungary 143 114 114 114 119 103 0 158 227 215Ireland 60 55 47 42 65 65,05 57 75 80Italy 1262 1039 1039 142 123 143 168 156 147 144Kosovo 34 28Lithuania 117 117 116 107 100 99 108 105 143Luxembourg 15 14 12 12 12 13 13 13 13Malta 5 6 1 0 2 2Netherlands 353 388 212 218 272 252 240 225 222 241Norway 201 255 252 285 219 222 226 219 225 225Poland 735 726 746 741 773 786 798,36 853 858 853Portugal 911 804 217 202 175 172 134 120Romania 165 166 185 158 150 153 140 130 130Slovak Republic 291 246 256 244 243 230 238 237 246Slovenia 87 91 91 92 93 92 95 118 88 92Spain 510 525 528 487 465 424 397 375 381Sweden 322 333 335 300 268 258 286,8 252 251 238Switzerland 21 21 23 28 32 35 37 39 40 41Ukraine 9600 9600 9632 9500 9000 7000 4500 4100 3415 3047United Kingdom 808 831 785 769 783 657 655,2 654 635 617

Total staff f luctuation over years

20056,5 19671,5 18055,4 16278 16869,9 15712,6 11809,1 11674,6 11039,5 10914

Total staff fluctuation over years


Statistics 2014

Total staff per country in 2015 Total incomes per country in 2015

Total staff for each EGS Member (in orange), showing the proportion of permanent graduate researchers, scientists and engineers (in blue). For 2015, the total staff numbers reached , and a total of for the scientific staff.Denmark: In 2015 GEUS employed 372 people; 313 permanent staff and 59 temporary staff, mainly PhD students. The permanent staff is divided 217 graduate researchers and 96 other permanent staff.The Netherlands: Staff figures for TNO as a whole are not available.

The combined budgets of EGS Members totaled €915 million, less than the previous year


The national geological surveys throughout Europe receive funding from a number of different sources, which are mainly government state funding but also EU research funding, whilst some also receive private funding through commercial activities. Denmark: The external Funding and contract research decreased signifi cantly whereas the government state budget was stable.Kosovo: Capital investments for laboratory KGS, invested from the government are 600000 EuroSerbia: GZS is Governmental institution fi nanced by the allocated appropriate Government budget.Malta: the functions of the survey are carried out by the Continental Shelf Department within the Ministry for Transport and Infraestructure. The income sources are usually funds received through the Department and participation of EU projects.

The total number of peer reviewed publication on international scientist journals is almost 2000. Highlight that Slovak Republic, while small survey, is the third one in the publication ranking.

Statistics 2014

Breakdown incomes per country in 2015 (in %) Per rewiewed publications in 2015


Statistics 2014

EGS activities in 2015 Breakdown activities in 2015 (in %)

Expertise can be called upon to address a broad range of topics, from the more common geological issues like geological mapping or geohazards, to less obvious areas such as how to deal with glaciology or even geotourism.

Subdivision of the activities by topics area. Basic Geological Research and environment seem to be the most addressed ones.Moldavia: no dataFYROM: only international activities


Statistics 2014

Supervising governmental bodies in 2014

Supervising governmental bodies in 2015

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 Energy/Industry and Economy (previously it was the Ministry of Environment). We noticed also a slight decrease of NGS under the supervision of Research and Sciences Ministry and Energy/Industry/Economy



PublicationsWONDER WATERTHE VALUE OF WATER

The latest EuroGeoSurveys publication “Wonder Water – the Value of Water” has been launched on the 15th March 2016, at the Scotland House of Brussels, during the EuroGeoSurveys 40th General Meeting.

“Wonder Water – the value of water” is an educational/entertaining book on groundwater. We are often spending our free time at hot springs or SPA resorts, but we rarely have the chance to know why these places are so special for our well-being The book brings you on a fantastic geological journey around Europe through mineral springs, thermal baths, SPAs, pools, etc. The reader finds out more about the health benefits of groundwater, on which geology has a mayor impact, and some of the most beautiful places where they can enjoy this important resource.

and give you the possibility to explore fantastic places and discover the health benefits of groundwater on which geology has a mayor impact. For instance, at the Clémentine spring of Spa in Belgium, calcium-bicarbonate water, once ingested, purifies the liver and facilitates digestion. Alkaline springs such the one of Troodos, Cyprus, are thought to have beneficial effects

on healing rheumatic and skin diseases. Bath of sulphuric waters, such as at the Latvian health resort of Jaunķemeri, increase body tone, improve circulation of blood and metabolism. All these water’s properties are connected with particular geological situations (terrains, rock types, climate, etc.), reflecting a wide geological diversity across Europe. Special attention is given to myths and stories. In Finnish mythology, vedenväki (‘water folk’) were water spirits, nymphs, etc. said to dwell in lakes, rivers, rapids, the sea and even springs and wells.

Through “Wonder Water” EuroGeoSurveys renewed its commitments in engaging with the wider public to communicate geology by showing how our groundwater, essential in our daily life, is used and enjoyed. Indeed, it has been estimated that 75% of European Union citizens depends upon groundwater for their water supply. As the EGS President Mr Koen Verbruggen underlines:«Our valuable groundwater is out of sight and thus often out of mind. This valuable geological resource often provides the only water supply for our major towns and communities and needs to be understood and protected, which is a key role of our national geological surveys. This latest EGS popular book helps raise awareness of groundwater by looking at its most visible and enjoyable use in baths and springs and I heartily recommend it!»

32 Geological Surveys contributed to this publication through the work of geologists of the EGS Water Resources Expert Group.

EuroGeoSurveys - The Geological Surveys of Europe36-38, Rue Joseph II - 1000 Brussels, Belgium

Tel +32 2 888 75 53Fax +32 2 503 50 25

Email: [email protected] 9789082254730

www.eurogeosurveys.org

Won

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Wonder waterTHE VALUE OF WATER


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

Design & production : www.tango-grafix.be

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

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

This EuroGeoSurveys Annual Report is a publication of :

Documents

’16 - - ...’16 ANNUAL REPORT The EuroGeoSurveys Annual Report 2016 refers to information related to the year 2015. Pioneering research for Society’s benefi t since 1971 A workforce