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The district of Mansfeld-Südharz in Saxony-Anhalt that is particularly affected by drought and flooding, shows what anticipatory groundwater management could look like. A project group led by the ISOE – Institute for Social-Ecological Research has now produced a pioneering paper on this subject: All stakeholder groups, from the agricultural sector and water suppliers to state companies and the environmental administration, have jointly developed solution proposals for the sustainable protection of groundwater.
The “2040 Groundwater Guidelines – Objectives and Measures for Sustainable Groundwater Management in the Mansfeld-Südharz District” will be presented to the district administrator on June 7, 2024.
Groundwater bodies should be in good condition which is what environmentalists are demanding with the aim to preserve them as an ecological habitat. Their call is shared by farmers and foresters, who need groundwater as a basis of livelihood for their crops and by water suppliers, who provide drinking water for the population. However, as a result of climate change and human impact, the quantity and quality of groundwater in Germany is not in all cases sustainably secured.
Back in 2018, the local water supplier in the district of Mansfeld-Südharz decided to connect to long-distance water supply following the detection of uranium in the groundwater. Since then, the district has been largely dependent on the Rappbode Reservoir as its only source of supply. Due to the loss of water protection areas and the effects of climate change, groundwater resources could in future be significantly impaired and thus the performance of important functions such as an emergency supply might no longer be guaranteed.
These challenges and uncertainties paved the way for the ISOE junior research group regulate when, in 2021, it attempted to bring all relevant stakeholders to the table. Due to the situation at hand, the stakeholders also recognized the need for preventive groundwater management on site and joined the project group for a duration of four years.
Conflicting interests brought together constructively
On the subject of water, farmers’ associations, foresters, water suppliers, environmentalists, state flood protection and water management agencies as well as the administration are often irreconcilably opposed to each other in everyday political life. Thus, bringing together all parties that share an interest in water use was a groundbreaking success for the project group. Dr. Fanny Frick-Trzebitzky, co-project manager at ISOE, accordingly put it as follows: “We have succeeded in jointly formulating solution proposals for the sustainable protection of groundwater. The participants of the project are now actively communicating the results within their associations and institutions.” And this makes it much easier for the district administration to tackle the implementation.
More protection, more cooperation: These recommendations are included in the guidelines
In order to safeguard the quantity and quality of local groundwater until 2040 and beyond, the jointly developed guidelines recommend
- expanding the network of monitoring stations to obtain a better database on the availability of groundwater as well as on man-made pollution,
- centralizing data management so that authorities, suppliers, representatives from agriculture as well as scientists can jointly use the available data,
- raising the water abstraction fee (“water cent”) to finance protective measures and for example compensate farmers who do not fertilize and thus protect the groundwater,
- establishing groundwater protection zones and unseal resp. not reseal areas, and
- making the value of groundwater tangible for private individuals by means of environmental education.
The participants are particularly urging for the establishment of a permanent working group (“Mansfeld-Südharz Water Council”) to better support the proposed measures.
Kick-off for the implementation process
According to Frick-Trzebitzky from ISOE, the list of measures that was handed over to the deputy district administrator, Ms Christiane Beyer today, is to be understood as a broad recommendation for action that will require the mobilization of “some resources”. Steffen Hooper from the Mansfeld-Südharz district environmental office added: “Additional money and personnel are now needed to determine priorities, prevent conflicts in the day-to-day administration and achieve at least a selective implementation of the guidelines.”
The origins of the “2040 guidelines”
The “2040 Groundwater Guidelines – Objectives and Measures for Sustainable Groundwater Management in the Mansfeld-Südharz District” were developed between 2021 and 2024 as part of the research project “regulate – Regulation of groundwater in telecoupled social-ecological systems”. Telecoupling refers to the ecological and social effects of using resources in one place with subsequent effects in another. ISOE – Institute for Social-Ecological Research is heading the project.
Besides the researchers from ISOE, Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main and from the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU), the following stakeholders were involved in the development of the guidelines: the environmental office of the Mansfeld-Südharz district, Fachbereich Stadtentwicklung und Bauen der Stadt Sangerhausen, Bauernverband Mansfeld-Südharz e.V, Wasserverband Südharz, Landesbetrieb für Hochwasserschutz und Wasserwirtschaft Sachsen-Anhalt Agrargesellschaft Riestedt mbH & Co. KG, Biosphärenreservat Karstlandschaft Südharz, Forstbetrieb Beyme GbR and Fernwasserversorgung Elbaue-Ostharz GmbH.
The guidelines are available for download (German version only):
https://www.isoe.de/fileadmin/Edit/PDF/Pr/regulate/isoe_regulate_Leitbild-2040-G...
Dr. Fanny Frick-Trzebitzky
Head of the Practices and Infrastructures Hub,
Head of the Junior Research Group regulate
ISOE – Institute for Social-Ecological Research
Hamburger Allee 45
60486 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
Tel. +49 69 707 6919-55
frick(at)isoe.de
www.isoe.de
https://www.isoe.de/en/research/junior-research-group-regulate/
https://regulate-project.eu/
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