Support for integrated groundwater/surface water monitoring and assessment for sustainable catchment management

Sustainable management of groundwater at the catchment scale requires conceptual and possibly subsequent numerical and/or analytical models to be developed. These depend on an understanding of the key hydrological, hydrogeological and geomorphological process interactions. Recent initiatives have indicated: 1) a shortage of the basic data relating to these processes, 2) uncertainty as to what additional data may be required, how and where to collect them. A new research initiative will develop and test methodologies to produce guidelines for monitoring and assessment at the catchment scale. This will be achieved by addressing key scientific and technical issues in a series of carefully instrumented lowland permeable catchments.