Tackling illegal groundwater drilling and abstractions (TIGDA)

This report, the final one of the IMPEL TIGDA project, provides a summary of recommendations on methods, data, infrastructure, and capacity building for tackling illegal groundwater use. It outlines four levels of awareness for detecting illegal activities, ranging from filtering potential activities (Level 1) to providing sufficient evidence for automatic fines (Level 4). The report details recommended methods, data sources (including Earth Observation), equipment, software, and operational aspects for achieving each awareness level.

Sharing knowledge and good practices on how to manage groundwater drilling and abstractions are the main goals of the TIGDA-project. This would include specific permitting conditions, accreditations as well as enforcement tools and methods in place in different member states to reduce illegal drilling and groundwater (over)abstraction. Lessons learned in the member states (good ones as well as bad ones) are useful to share and collect.