In recent years, important groundwater-relevant research results have been achieved and emerging issues have been defined. Now the hydrogeological issues and challenges have to be elaborated under the pressure of new developments as well as their solutions and measures. There is a great need to ensure a continuous competence building and to promote an exchange of results, protocols, infrastructure and field and test equipment as well as hydrogeological data. A key role in being able to address current and future groundwater-related issues will be played by hydrogeologic observatories.
The study areas are complementary in terms of geology, use, and scientific as well as practical objectives. It should be noted that study areas are used by different project partners. Basically, the study areas are heavily instrumented for long-term hydraulic and chemical groundwater observations. These long-term observations are and should be supplemented by field experiments and investigations. It is envisioned that synergies will be created to promote joint and future experiments by a wide variety of research groups. The developed experimental and numerical protocols, methods and advancement in infrastructure/equipment shall be communicated and shared through CH-GNet.
Linkage, exchange, and transfer to other observatories will be encouraged due to CH-GNet's bridging function, technical support, and data hierarchization. Data archiving and data sharing between project partners is a key task of CH-GNet. The network is committed to further develop the "Open Data Policy". This development will be positive for science, among others, because it will allow a new culture of reproducibility of scientific experiments and ensure a continuous competence building.
Regular working meetings are an essential part of the observatories as i) technical and experimental knowledge is exchanged, ii) scientific and practical orientation of the observatories is defined, iii) latest results can be discussed and, iv) a discussion on new questions or methods is stimulated. In addition, observatories can be an important tool to train students. Research groups have the opportunity to practically demonstrate different areas and approaches, to show the "real" working conditions with groundwater and to use the available infrastructure as well as the latest technical investigation and modeling approaches.
The hydrogeological observatories are still under construction! We gladly accept suggestions and remarks!