An innovative monitoring system for sustainable management of groundwater resources: objectives, stakeholder acceptability and implementation strategy

The paper presents the preliminary results of a scientific initiative aiming at the definition and implementation of innovative management options to mitigate the environmental impacts of groundwater pumping in coastal aquifers. In fact seawater intrusion in such aquifers is very often caused by the over-exploitation of groundwater mainly due to the increasing water demand in the agricultural sector in the last decades in most semiarid or arid countries of the world. Consequently, the sustainable management of groundwater under the principles of transparent and efficient water use has highlighted the issue of measuring and accounting the water volumes withdrawn from the groundwater. The objective of the research activity is the design of an innovative monitoring system for sustainable groundwater exploitation. Such an ambitious target requires an accurate analysis of existent and potential stakeholders' conflicts. These conflicts are crucial for the implementation of strategies and activities by the different institutions that are involved in the management of water resources. Therefore, a central role in the development of the project is the stakeholder involvement, with particular emphasis on conflict assessment. In this work, conflicts analysis has concerned both the acceptability of groundwater protection measures and the feasibility of groundwater monitoring strategies.