15th International Karstological School –

Management of transboundary karst aquifers

June 18th – 22nd Postojna, Slovenia

Managing transboundary karst

aquifers: “some myth and more magic, than
logic?”
Shammy Puri
Senior Consultant UNESCO Division of Water Science
IHP & ISARM

Postojna June 2007

 What its about

● ‘…some myth and more magic, than logic…??’

● Perceptions of Karst: the scientist vs the ‘man on the
street’
● Why science to policy for transboundary aquifers?
● The ISARM process, and some outcomes so far
● Global environmental gains & aquifers
● Aquifers’ link to sustainable land use
● Case study approach: DiKTAS
● Complex non homogenous aquifers & sustainable
environmental management
● Looking ahead to the 16th School – some reflections

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 Many pathways to solve the karst labyrinth
puzzle… ?

99% of global
freshwater lies
hidden in
aquifers … out
of sight and out
of mind
UN WWDR

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 Perceptions: karst of the
scientist, karst of the people

Proteus anguinus

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 Karst landform, protection
● IUCN’s suggested reasons for protection of national karst
regions include:

– As habitat for endangered species of flora and fauna.

– As sites containing rare minerals or unique land forms.
– As important sites for the study of geology,
geomorphology, palaeontology and other# disciplines.
– As culturally important sites, both historic and prehistoric.
– As spiritual or religious features.
– For specialised agriculture and industries.
– As "windows" into understanding regional hydrology.
– As sources of economically important materials.
– For tourism and its associated economic benefits.

● Similar principles accordingly adjusted could also

apply to transboundary karst regions

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 Defining the systems
Methodology
that addresses
in-homogeneity
in typical karstic
systems – see
application in
the Tara
National Park,
Western Serbia
(Zinanovic, et
al)

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 Karst research & its scope

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 Science to policy in the IHP
Transition of IHP’s phases: continuity with change
1990-1995 IHP IV
Hydrology and Water Resources Sustainable Development
in a Changing Environment

1996-2001 IHP-V
Hydrology and Water Resources Development
in a Vulnerable Environment

2002-2007 IHP-VI
Water Interactions:
Systems at Risk and Social Challenges

2008-2013 IHP-VII (proposed)

Water Dependencies:
Systems under Stress and Societal Responses

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 Water Dependencies: systems under
stress & societal responses (IHP-VII)

THEME 1:
Adapting to the Impacts of Global Changes
in River Basins & Aquifer Systems Key Theme:
Shared water I
resources: THEME II:
ISARM & PccP Strengthening Water Governance
for Sustainability

THEME III:
Ecohydrology for Sustainability
New Initiatives:
THEME IV: II, III, IV, V
Water and Life Support Systems

Hydrological Water Resources

THEME V:
Research Water Education Management
for Sustainable Development

Education & Capacity Building

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 Transboundary Aquifer: no guidance for countries

3D bulk flow

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 Global freshwater: in ice caps, rivers
& aquifers UN 1997 Water
Convention applies
essentially to these !

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 Global Aquifer distribution…

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 The ISARM Programme (2000 – 2007):
Multi disciplinary integrated approach
Inventory process well advanced,
70 in Americas, >30 in Africa, 90 in Europe, ?? In Asia
Under preparation: UN
‘Convention’ on the Use of
Transboundary Aquifers

Sharing countries will work

together… to ensure the
continued, sound functioning
Current focus, till the of aquifer systems and will
culmination of the reduce the risks to the integrity
Programme of an aquifer system

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 Transboundary Aquifer typologies: limited
#1
applicability of the UN Convention Model #3
Model #2

STATE A
STATE A ble STA
STATE B Ta TE STA
iver ate
r e r A TE le
er R ord ab
le B ab
Bord nd
W
s-B rT iver rT
rou ran ate stic"
R te
G STA T e r W me Wa
TE Riv nd "Do nd
B ou ou
Gr Gr

ifer
Aqu
e r
ye
r Aquif if er
a Aqu
eL er
bl ay
r
Imperm ea ye
eable L rm eL La
ayer pe bl e
Im Imperm ea bl
eable L rm Imperm ea
ayer pe eable L r m
Im ayer pe
Im

Model #5
Model #4

RECHARGE
Line ZONE
of C
STA onfi
TE nem nd le
A ent ou ab
Gr er T
STA STA at
TE TE W
B A
STA
TE
B

ater Table ayer

Ground W Imperm eab
le L
rm
eable L
ayer Impe

e r
Aquifer s Confin
e dA
quif
ma tion d Aqu
ifer fine
For Con
k ayer
Roc Imper
eab
le L
eable meab
le Lay erm
Imperm er Imp

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 ISARM Inventories – examples Americas & Balkans
Extensive regional
consultation with expert
groups: Africa, Med,
Balkans, Asia, MENA…

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 Global environmental losses –
ascertained from inventories
● Pollution: some water unusable, local disease burden
● Wasteful Water Use, Droughts, Competition for
scarce water resources
● Over fishing in freshwater systems: Livelihoods & $
60 billion of trade in jeopardy
● Millennium Ecosystem Assessment confirms threats
● MDGs might not be met because of water
mismanagement/unresolved conflicts
● Peace, stability, security at risk, in varying degrees, in
many areas
● Climate variability a new & uncertain factor for
aquifer management, especially in transboundary
context

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 Global environmental gains – through a new
transboundary water law / convention
Sovereignty vs integrity –
● International freshwater law remains immature due to
the polarisation between the doctrine of absolute
territorial sovereignty (Harmon Doctrine) and absolute
territorial integrity (permits a country to use all water
within its territory as long as it does not harm a co-
riparian)
● An emerging doctrine of limited territorial sovereignty
requires riparians to share water based on equitable
utilisation
● The principle of subsidiarity promotes resolution of
issues at their most appropriate level, be they at
community group level, or in sub hydrographic units
● International freshwater agreements can be traced back
2500 years, when Lagash & Umma (Mesopotamian City
States) ended their conflict
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 International law – negotiated conventions
● Customary international law recognises that riparian states have
legal rights to international watercourses…limited territorial
sovereignty is becoming a customary rule … adopted by the
International Court of Justice (in the 1990’s)
● YET – countries remain polarised between the doctrines of
absolute territorial sovereignty and absolute territorial integrity –
linked also to investment in national infrastructure … drawing on
IFI funds, such as development banks
● In the ’50’s the W’Bank would not lend to projects where
countries were in dispute over international waterways…by 1985,
taking the cue from developments in international law, the policy
became more flexible…project finance became available to
borrowing Countries.
● To address such issues, closely connected with economic
development (irrigation, power generation, navigation), UN
institutions began to consider international legislation…. & after
27 years of negotiation produced a Convention on the Non
Navigational Use of International Water Courses…
● …. Why 27 years ?? Why ‘non navigational’ and what about
shared aquifers… ??

Postojna June 2007

 The major stumbling blocks
The no-harm rule
● As in the case of neighbouring land owners, States may not take
actions on their territory, that would cause damage to neighbours
● “actions” includes a whole range of neighbourly relations,
including protection of the environment and the allocation of
water among their competing demands

Equitable & Reasonable Utilisation

● This principle governs the prior allocation of the water and gives
complete priority to existing activities.
● Low lying fertile lands tend to have been intensely developed
from antiquity (Nile, Indus, Ganges);
● Mountainous regions requiring high investment costs (eg dams),
tend to be developed only after long economic performance,
● So prior allocation would deprive mountainous (=upstream)
countries of their water resources….. slowing down their
economies – the notions of ‘shared’ vs ‘transboundary’

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 1997 UN Convention vis a vis
transboundary aquifers – gap analysis
Investment for national economic development
● Bank Loan, Algeria (1990), NSAS – the borrower will take all
necessary measures to ensure that the use of aquifer resources
in the region shall be planned in accordance with ….. asking
Tunisia’s no objection
● Bank underwriting of risk to a BoT on the Disi-Amman project
(1998) that draws from the Rum Saq transboundary aquifer …
no objection requested from Saudi Govt

UN Convention and the gaps on application to aquifers:

● Only those groundwater that form a physical part of surface
waters
● Part of a unitary whole,
● Normally flows to a terminus that is common to surface flows
● Has parts of the system located in different states

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 Territorial sovereignty &
transboundary aquifer flows

● States have absolute sovereignty over their

‘soils / rocks’ – but do they have the same
sovereignty over the water that is contained,
and flows within them ???
● The UN ILC had decided to defer its work on
groundwater, as a topic to be later addressed
within the scope of “shared natural resources
(confined groundwater) & single geological
structures of oil & gas”

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 Transboundary rivers, homogenous &
hetereogenous aquifers
Rivers Aquifers (h) Aquifers (in-h)

• Long linear features • Bulk 3-dimensional • 3-d with ‘random’

systems
• Use of resources • Resources may be • Uncertainty in
generally limited to extracted from and used
vicinity of the river extensively over outcrop
channels & subcrop
• Replenishment • Replenishment may
always from take place from any, or
upstream sources. all of 3-dimensions.
• Rapid & time • Replenishment could be
constrained gain slow, net gain can be
from replenishment drawn upon over longer
periods
flow paths
location of source
works
• Mis match between
discharge &
‘catchment’
• Replenishment
could ‘cease’ with
geotechnical change

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 Factors relevant to equitable use
Indicative factor for aquifers
The natural characteristics
Contribution to recharge &
replenishment
Social and economic needs of States;
Population dependent on resources
Effects of the utilization in one State on
another
Development, protection and
conservation & the costs of measures
adfopted
The availability of alternative sources
Aquifer system in the related ecosystem.
The comparative size of the aquifer in
each aquifer State
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Explanation of the factor
Addressed in a ‘conceptual model’ approach
Integrates rainfall, soil moisture changes &
infiltration – sustainable land use
Requirements for potable. agricultural & industry,
hydropower
Population that draws on the resources
The transboundary impacts through repeated
observations
The long term joint aquifer management plan
withdrawal rates, rates of replenishment, capital
investment, O&M & financial recovery
Cost benefit analysis of alternative resources
An economic and social assessment of the value
of any groundwater dependent ecosystems,
Proportion of aquifer area found in each aquifer
system State
 ILC’s work on shared natural
resources: aquifers (2002)
● ‘shared’ vs ‘international’ vs ‘transboundary’
● ‘Aquifer Systems’ approach – more
technically & legally precise, allows
consideration of the matrix, the water
contained within it & inter related strata
● Scope: regulates the “uses of transboundary
aquifer systems and other activities that are
likely to have an impact, and to measures of
protection, preservation & management

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 Aquifer functions that are not covered
by Multilateral Conventions

How to incorporate
integrity into policy?

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 Integrity of the aquifer system
The ‘integrity’ of the aquifer system refers to
● the aquifer rock matrix, the hydrostatic conditions of the water
within the matrix, the hydrochemistry of the water;
The integrity of the system is at risk when any of the following
have been over stressed:
● the recharge process that ensures adequate replenishment,
● the discharge process that ensures baseflow to streams and
coastal areas (including mangroves, lagoons),
● the hydrostatic relationship throughout the rock matrix that
determines flow and the hydrochemical process that determines
water quality.
The integrity of an aquifer can be destroyed, if for example saline
intrusion (resulting from significantly disturbed hydrostatics)
invades to such an extent, that the aquifer system stops
functioning and cannot effectively be rejuvenated.
We need to increasingly consider resilience of aquifers &
ecosystems..

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 Resilience, what is it?
● Going from Conventional to Adaptive freshwater management
for human and ecosystem compatibility
● Ecosystem resilience is
– capacity of an ecosystem to cope with change and perturbation, such as
storms, drought and pollution.
– loss of resilience leads to more vulnerable systems, and
– to possible ecosystem shifts to undesired states that provide fewer
ecosystem goods (like fish and crops) and services (like food control and
water purifcation).
● Such loss of resilience can be caused by, for example,
– pollution, climate variability, loss of biodiversity or altered freshwater
flows.
● With decreased resilience, clear lakes can suddenly turn into
murky, oxygen-depleted pools, grasslands into shrub-deserts,
and coral reefs into algae-covered rubble.
● Resilience is the capacity of a system both to
withstand pressures and to rebuild and renew itself if
degraded.

Postojna June 2007

 Regional efforts have been
underway, but….
● The Barcelona Convention
– (1974) Slovenia-Italy-Croatia: tidal areas of the Adriatic Sea,
influential coastal areas [ratification 1997 – 1992]
– (1978) Slovenia-Italy water management of frontier water courses
[ratification 1978 – 1992]
● The Danube Convention
– (1954) Slovenia-Austria – the Drava river & the Mura river –
hydropower, management & pollution
– (1994) Slovenia-Hungary: management, data exchange
– (1996) Slovenia-Croatia – Sava, Drava, Mura, Kolpa, & Sotla (Black
Sea); North Adriatic Coast & Med karst
● BUT ….. Limited or no reference to shared aquifers…
● …. And no linkage to sustainable land use, which is intrinsive
to the underlying aquifer systems

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 Where we are at…in 2007
● Draft Articles presented to the Sixth Committee at the 61st Session
of the UN General Assembly (Dec 2006) – quotes from
deliberations………..

● Delegations have welcomed the Articles – though still not clear on

whether to place them into a Convention, guidance or rules…..
(Austria, China, Hungary, Argentina, New Zealand, Malaysia,
Romania,)
● The international regulation of the uses of and impacts on shared
natural resources was considered of the highest significance
(Netherlands), particularly for those States with transboundary
aquifers, such as the Guaraní Aquifer. (Uruguay, Brazil,)

● However, a view was expressed that the draft articles went well
beyond current law and practice and that context-specific
arrangements might be preferable in light of the wide variety of
groundwater resources and the relative scarcity of information
regarding them. (United States of America)

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 Sustainable land use
Land use patterns & changes can
have significant / far reaching
impacts on replenishment; with
climate variability increasing,
hydrological cycle accelerating,
early land use changes are
essential

Source: Bakalowicz, 2004

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 Connecting Water to EcoSystem services

‘EcoSystem
services could
not operate
without water !

Degradation of
ecosystems =
degradation of
water

Using the MA
Framework in
IWRM, applied
to conjuctive
use

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 EcoSystem goods, values in
IWRM
Eco sys goods & services in
IWRM – flood control, stream Discharge of groundwater to
base flow, groundwater dependent ecosystems in
recharge rivers & wetlands

Valuation of these goods & services

being introduced as policy tools for
IWRM
Negative externalities have led to
loss of aquifer storage

Can we value the sound functioning of aquifers? To ensure

integrity & build up resilience to greater climate variability….

Postojna June 2007

 Non homogenous aquifers & environmental
sustainability Dinaric Karst
Transboundary
Aquifer System

What driving forces

do we need to
harness, so that
•The karst aquifer
system continues to
function
•The ecosystems
dependent on it, are
sustainable
•The cooperative
efforts can be
catalysed for
measurable benefits

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 Case Study - DiKTAS
Component A: Scientific
Implementation of a Karst assessments &
Programme of Action based on an hydro-environmental
agreed TDA and a SAP to reduce analyses
impact of stress

Component B: Integration of
Establishment of a DiKTAS national
Collaborative Mechanism policies for
regional
collaboration

Component C:
Innovative
Demonstration Projects aimed at
solutions providing
stress reduction at key locations
multiple benefits

Component D:
Consistent hydro Data sharing and exchange facility
environmental for long term joint management and
data from stressed monitoring of the DiKTAS
zones for joint
management

INTEGRATION OF THE DINARIC KARST TRANSBOUNDARY AQUIFERS INTO SUSTAINABLE

ECOSYSTEMS OF THE BALKANS

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 Looking ahead..16 Schoolth

● Risks & uncertainties in transboundary karst

aquifer management
● Hazard identification & risk reduction
● Climate variability in the context of karst
aquifer dependent ecosystems
● Globalisation impacts: on the resilience,
vulnerability, and adaptability
● Economic issues in national & transboundary
context – sharing a ‘basket’ of benefits

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 If we miss opportunities to raise the
issues into policy dialogue…

…the waiting
could be too
long for
many people
on our planet
!!

Thank you for your

attention !

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