"Groundwater is monitored around the world by measuring groundwater levels, groundwater abstraction rates, spring discharge and groundwater quality. Globally, there is no sufficient knowledge about the state and trends of groundwater resources, primarily due to:
• insufficient monitoring
• limited accessibility to monitoring data/outcomes
Monitoring of groundwater is more challenging than monitoring of surface water (river and lakes): initial investments(e.g. drilling a borehole) are larger, spatial representativeness of monitoring points (due to hydrogeological heterogeneity) is smaller and assistance of remote sensing (so helpful to surface water observations) is limited." (IGRAC 2020)
International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC). 2020. “National Groundwater Monitoring Programmes: A Global Overview of Quantitative Groundwater Monitoring Networks.”
With increasing populations, groundwater abstraction also increased as about half of the global urban population access their water through aquifers (Foster et al., 2020). With 74% of the world population depending on it for safe drinking water services and sanitation (WHO and UNICEF, 2021), groundwater plays a vital role in health.
