44th IAH Congress in Dubrovnik, Croatia: “Groundwater Heritage and Sustainability”

The INOWAS Group attended from 25 to 29 September 2017 the 44^th Annual IAH Congress in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The motto of this year’s event was “Groundwater Heritage and Sustainability” and comprised pre-conference workshops, pre-, mid- and post-congress excursions, as well as plenary and parallel sessions on the following topics: Groundwater heritage – passing benefits to current and future generations, Sustainable management of groundwater resources, Groundwater modeling, Groundwater in karst systems, Island and coastal hydrogeology, Groundwater and dependent ecosystems, Hydropower and geothermal energy, and Mineral waters and Human health. The INOWAS Group was represented in Dubrovnik by Jana Glass, Ralf Junghanns, Aybulat Fatkhutdinov and Catalin Stefan with four oral presentations and two posters. With this occasion, the free INOWAS DSS was pre-launched, including a presentation of the MODFLOW-based numerical modeling and one introducing the web-based implementation of empirical and analytical equations for groundwater management. Further presentations included the application of a genetic algorithm for the multi-objective optimisation of aquifer storage, transfer and recovery (ASTR) systems, as well as a multi-scale perspective for modelling managed aquifer recharge schemes at different scales and boundary conditions. Besides participation in technical sessions, the INOWAS Group provided an update on the annual work progress of the Working Group “Global MAR Inventory” during the annual plenary meeting of the IAH Commission on Managed Aquifer Recharge (IAH-MAR), and also attended the UNESCO – IAH-MAR Publication Planning Workshop and the GRIPP Meeting. The conference provided thus an excellent platform for networking and synergies, promotion of INOWAS activities and identification of potential future collaborations.