Global Groundwater Vulnerability to Floods and Droughts

The Global Map of Groundwater Vulnerability to Floods  and Droughts at the scale of 1: 40 000 000 (‘Global Groundwater Vulnerability Map F.D.’) is the result  of a joint effort of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) International Hydrological Programme (IHP) project ‘Groundwater for Emergency Situations’ (GWES), the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) and the ‘World-wide Hydrogeological Mapping and Assessment Programme’ (WHYMAP).

The GWES project has been implemented under the sixth (2002–2007) and seventh (2008–2013) phases of the UNESCO IHP. The aim of the GWES project is to consider extreme natural disaster events that could adversely influence human health  and life, and to identify potential safe, low-vulnerability groundwater resources that can replace damaged or polluted public and domestic water  supplies in emergency and post-emergency situations, and thus make drinking water  rescue activities more rapid  and effective.

The concept of groundwater vulnerability is based on the assumptions that the physical environment may provide some degree of protection to groundwater from natural and human impacts, and that some aquifers are more vulnerable to external impacts than others. The map is intented to support planning, regulation, management and making environmentally sound decisions regarding land use and groundwater protection. It may also assist in the formulation of disaster risk assessment and risk mitigation policy.

The Global Map of Groundwater Vulnerability to Floods  and Droughts combines the related reliable data known or published so far to show the relative vulnerability among the aquifers studied and does not represent absolute values. It presents intrinsic vulnerability of a groundwater system and the sensitivity or resistance of that system to natural disasters.

A CD of the Explanatory notes is included with the map.