The Eawag “Groundwater Assessment Platform”, funded by SDC, has been launched www.gapmaps.org
Over 300 million people worldwide use groundwater contaminated with arsenic or fluoride as a source of drinking water. The Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) has developed a method whereby the risk of contamination in a given area can be estimated using geological, topographical and other environmental data without having to test samples from every single groundwater resource. The research group’s knowledge is now being made available free of charge on an interactive Groundwater Assessment Platform (GAP). www.gapmaps.org enables authorities, NGOs and other professionals to upload their own data and generate hazard maps for their areas of interest.
Under GAP Maps you can view arsenic and fluoride hazard maps and overlay these maps with climate, geology, socioeconomic, soil, topography and water quality layers. GAP Wiki is a wikitool where you can find information on geogenic contamination and contribute your own material. The GAP team has started GAP Wiki with content from the Geogenic Contamination Handbook. Eawag invites all users to contribute articles to GAP Wiki and join online discussions. We are particularly interested in learning about mitigation options and their application.
For more see eawag.ch/gap