International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC)
The World's groundwater resources are of key importance to sustainable development. However, making full benefit from the available groundwater resources and controlling effectively the ubiquitous groundwater-related problems are very demanding tasks. Sharing groundwater information and experience on a world-wide scale would be of great help in this respect. This is what IGRAC supports and promotes. IGRAC is dedicated to groundwater information and knowledge in the widest sense, on a world-wide scale and on a non-commercial basis.
The International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC) will contribute to the assessment of the groundwater resources of the world in order to encourage and enhance the conjunctive and sustainable utilisation of both groundwater and surface water and elucidate the impact of groundwater on other ecosystems of the Earth.
IGRAC has defined three main fields of activity:
- Development of a Global Groundwater Information System (GGIS) for various categories of stakeholders. The System is envisaged as an interactive and transparent portal to groundwater-related information and knowledge. The GGIS will be publicly accessible through the Internet.
- Development and promotion of guidelines and protocols for the assessment of groundwater resources. This activity aims to stimulate the proper acquisition of sufficient and comparable groundwater data world-wide. It pays special attention to monitoring of time-dependent groundwater data.
- Participate in or contribute to global and regional projects in need of groundwater-related inputs.
Website: http://www.un-igrac.org/