BURVAL – Ancient groundwater reservoirs in buried valleys (BurVal) – sustainable water resources for the future
Country / Region: Groningen Valley, The Netherlands, Cuxhaven Valley, Germany, Ellerbek Valley, Germany, Rødekro Valley, Denmark, Tyrsting Valley, Denmark, Bording Valley, Denmark
Begin of project: March 1, 2004
End of project: December 31, 2006
Status of project: December 31, 2006
BurVal project
Source: BurVal Working Group
Buried valleys, or – more correct – buried Pleistocene subglacial channels, are in the interest of geoscientists since their discovery more than hundred years ago. For more than thirty years their groundwater occurrence is known and becomes increasingly of interest for the water supply. The main reason is that deep reservoirs are generally better protected to pollution than near-surface aquifers.
The project BurVal (www.burval.org)
has been established to study systematically buried valleys of the North Sea Region. The BurVal Working Group was constituted during a workshop on buried valleys, held in Flintbek in September 2001. A project application was submitted to the Interreg North Sea Programme Secretariat in September 2003 and the activities of BurVal started January 2004. Since then intensive investigations have been conducted in six pilot project areas that would not have been possible without the co-funding by the European Union. The transnational aspect allowed the possibility to test and compare a wide range of methodologies.
The aim of the project BurVal is to develop tools for the mapping of buried valleys under the aspect of the groundwater supply, to test and demonstrate these tools at selected Pilot project areas, and to show how these mapping results can contribute to a sustainable use of the water resources.
BurVal project areas
Source: BurVal Working Group
The project areas are:
1 Bording Valley, investigations coordinated by Ringkjøbing Amt
2 Tyrsting Valley, investigations coordinated by Vejle Amt
3 Rødekro Valley, investigations coordinated by Sønderjyllands amt
4 Ellerbeker Rinne, investigations coordinated by LANU and BSU
5 Cuxhavener Rinne, investigations coordinated by GGA
6 Groningen Valley, investigations coordinated by TNO.
BGR activities took place in four survey areas: Tyrsting Valley (DK), Groningen Valley (NL), Ellerbeker Rinne (D), and Cuxhavener Rinne (D).
The results and findings of the project are presented in a handbook:
BurVal Working Group, 2006. Groundwater Resources in Buried Valleys – a Challenge for Geosciences. Leibniz Institute for Applied Geosciences, Hannover.
The project has been part-financed by the European Union.
Poster downloads:
Siemon et al.: Helicopter-Borne Electromagnetic Investigations of Buried Valleys (PDF, 3 MB)
Steuer & Siemon: Airborne Electromagnetics at Buried Valleys: Frequency or Time Domain? (PDF, 266 KB)
Rumpel et al.: Hydrogeophysical Characterisation of the Cuxhavener Rinne (PDF, 15 MB)
Project contributions:
Literature:
Project website: http://www.burval.org
Gabriel, G., Kirsch, R., Siemon, B. & Wiederhold, H., 2003. Geophysical Investigation of Pleistocene Valleys in Northern Germany. J. Appl. Geophys., 53, 159-180.
Siemon, B., Eberle, D.G. & Binot, F., 2004. Helicopter-borne electromagnetic investigation of coastal aquifers in North-West Germany. Zeitschrift für Geologische Wissenschaften, 32 (5/6), 385-395.
Siemon, B., 2005. Ergebnisse der Aeroelektromagnetik zur Grundwassererkundung im Raum Cuxhaven-Bremerhaven. Z. angew. Geol., 1/2005, 5-11.
Eberle, D.G. & Siemon, B., 2006. Identification of buried valley using the BGR helicopter-borne geophysical system. Near Surface Geophysics, 4 (2), 125-133.
Steuer, A. & Siemon, B., 2006. Airborne electromagnetics at buried valleys: frequency or time domain? In: 18th International Workshop on Electromagnetic Induction in the Earth, 17.-23.9.2006, El Vendrell, Spain, S6-25.
Siemon, B., Röttger, B., Rehli, H.-J., Voß, W. & Pielawa, J., 2005. Airborne geophysical investigation of buried valleys – Survey area Brædstrup, Denmark, 2004. Interreg IIIB Project: “Ancient Groundwater Reservoirs in Buried Valleys – Sustainable Water Resources for the Future“, BGR Report, Archiv-Nr. 0125946, Hannover.
Siemon, B., Röttger, B., Rehli, H.-J., Voß, W. & Pielawa, J., 2006. Airborne geophysical investigation of buried valleys – Survey area Onstwedde, The Netherlands, 2004. Interreg IIIB Project: “Ancient Groundwater Reservoirs in Buried Valleys – Sustainable Water Resources for the Future“, BGR Report, Archiv-Nr. 0126198, Hannover.
Siemon, B., Eberle, D., Rehli, H.-J., Voß, W. & Pielawa, J., 2006. Airborne geophysical investigation of buried valleys – Survey area Ellerbeker Rinne, Germany, 2005/2006. Interreg IIIB Project: “Ancient Groundwater Reservoirs in Buried Valleys – Sustainable Water Resources for the Future“, BGR Report, Hannover.
Partner:
Nine partners from Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands cooperated in this project, in geographical order from North to the South:
- GEUS – the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (Copenhagen)
- Ringkjøbing Amt (Ringkøbing)
- Vejle Amt (Vejle)
- Sønderjyllands Amt (Tønder)
- LANU – Landesamt für Natur und Umwelt Schleswig-Holstein (Flintbek)
- BSU – Behörde für Stadtentwicklung und Umwelt der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg
- BGR – Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (Hannover)
- GGA-Institut, Leibniz Institute for Applied Geosciences (Hannover)
- TNO – Geological Survey of the Netherlands (Utrecht).
