At the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey, that took place in March 2009, the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC) presented an updated version of the Transboundary Aquifers of the World map at a scale of 1:50,000,000.
Globally, the vast majority of countries share aquifers and/or aquifer systems with their neighbors. Political, socioeconomical, cultural, and other differences among countries make the assessment and the management of internationally shared aquifers more difficult, compared with national ones. Insufficient knowledge of transboundary aquifers and a lack of coordinated management can lead to undesired changes in groundwater flow, level, volume, and dissolved substances. Therefore, an appropriate assessment of transboundary aquifers is required to prevent or mitigate groundwater, problems and to improve the overall benefit from groundwater.
The Transboundary Aquifers of the World map (2009 update), compiled by IGRAC, shows the present state of information regarding the occurrence and extent of transboundary aquifers on a global scale. The intention of the map is to provide a global overview of these important shared water resources and to encourage their further assessment. Cooperation and information exchange among aquifer-sharing states is a prerequisite for appropriate transboundary aquifer assessment and management.
The map is based on the most recent inventory results from UNESCO's Internationally Shared Aquifer Resources Management (ISARM) Initiative, and the initiative's partners involved in transboundary aquifer assessment and/or management at regional and continental scale. The backside of the map contains an introduction to a methodology for the assessment of transboundary aquifers.
View the map. (2.5 KB PDF)
For more information and to request a print version of the map. visit the IGRAC Web site.