European co-operation in specific scientific fields - The Rhine Valley groundwater
Recommendation 772
(1975)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 9 October 1975 (18th Sitting) (see Doc. 3656, report of the Committee on Science and Technology). Text adopted by the Assembly on 9 October 1975 (18th Sitting).
The Assembly,
1. Recalling its Orders Nos. 310 (1971) and 323 (1972), in which it instructed its Committee on Science and Technology to promote European cooperation in specific scientific fields, and to strengthen links between the scientific and parliamentary worlds ;
2. Welcoming the establishment by the Committee on Science and Technology of the Working Party on the Rhine Valley Phreatic Water (
Doc. 3392, Appendix II) on 28 September 1973 ;
3. Having noted with interest the progress reports submitted by the Working Party on the Rhine Valley Phreatic Water at the meetings of the European Joint Committee on Scientific Co-operation, and in particular the accounts of the work done by its four research groups :
The research group for the joint preparation of a synthetic map of the Rhine Valley between Basle and Mannheim,
The research group to draft a manual on the different cases of hydrocarbon pollution and ways of dealing with it,
The research group on hydrodynamics and the physico-chemical and biological problems connected with the aquifer,
The research group on the ecological problems of groundwater ;
4. Welcoming the fact that the Working Party on the Rhine Valley Phreatic Water has helped to reinforce the co-operation existing between scientific laboratories in the riparian countries, particularly between the Geologisches Landesamt of Baden-Württemberg at Freiburg and the Service de la carte geologique d'Alsace et de Lorraine ;
5. Recalling its
Recommendation 629 (1971), in which it called on the governments concerned to take the action necessary to control and eliminate the sources of pollution of the Rhine Valley groundwater ;
6. Regretting the considerable delay which has occurred over the signing of the European Convention for the Protection of International Watercourses against Pollution ;
7. Convinced of the importance and urgency of the measures proposed in
Recommendation 754 (1975) on the organisation of the protection of fresh water, and in particular of the need for the rapid establishment of a European Water Agency responsible for managing and protecting European water resources,
8. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :
a call on the member governments to promote the harmonisation, at European level, of the hydrometrics of groundwater such as :
hydro-meteorology,
surface hydrology,
subterranean hydrology,
ecology - environment ;
b instruct the Secretary General of the Council of Europe to prepare, within twelve months and on the basis of the studies effected by the Working Party on the Rhine Valley Phreatic Water, proposals for the harmonisation of procedures and methods for the measurement and collection of hydrometric data relating to the waters of the Rhine Valley water table and covering :
methods of acquisition,
the spacing of observation points,
frequency of measurement,
standardisation of indexes carrying hydrometric data ;
c call on the governments directly concerned by problems relating to the Rhine Valley groundwater to act on the proposals submitted to them by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe ;
d call on the governments directly concerned to establish a European bank of hydrometric data on the Rhine Valley groundwater, to collect and process hydrological measurements relating to the water table. In practical terms, this data bank could start to operate as follows :
8.4.1 Over an initial three-year period, a hydrometric basis would be laid by compiling three indexes containing the following data on the Rhine Valley groundwater between Basle and Bingen :
8.4.1.1 Index 1 :
8.4.1.1.1 An inventory of the sampling points, with the following information : location of points, geological cross-section, equipment at stations etc.
8.4.1.2 Index 2 :
8.4.1.2.1 Piezometry : piezometric level of the Rhine Valley water table.
8.4.1.3 Index 3 :
8.4.1.3.1 The Service de la carte geologique d'Alsace et de Lorraine, which already operates a computerised index of this kind, could be appointed to provide a basis for this European data bank.
8.4.1.3.2 These indexes would later be used in the preparation of collections of data and charts (charts of the most important features, piezometric charts for low and high water etc.).
8.4.1.3.3 This material would be published by the Council of Europe Secretariat and circulated to the relevant scientific and technical services ;
e At a later stage, the European data bank's mandate could be extended to other parameters, covering the entire Rhine hydrographic basin and culminating in the preparation of forecasting models valid for the whole aquifer.
