Why together
In June 1994 the first edition of the “EUropean Congress on REgional GEOscientific Cartography and Information Systems - EUREGEO” was held in Bologna, organized by the three European regions, and the seventh edition is set to return to Bologna in June 2012.
This cooperation was formalized by a joint agreement signed by all three parties in 2004.
The shared objective of the three regions has always been to develop an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to applied Earth Sciences, and to popularize geo-environmental knowledge among European citizens in order to increase society’s awareness of related issues.
Regional policies support the need to develop a culture of the environment and territory as collective assets, in order to guide management choices towards an integrated and global approach to environmental matters and encourage individual behaviour towards respect for the environment and sustainable development.
To support this objective, the Secretariat of the European Soil Bureau Network and EuroGeoSurveys became members of the Scientific Committee since 2000.
These congresses entailed effective co-operation across Europe between the Regional Geological Surveys, brought together numerous participants from many European countries, and even from Northern Africa and Asia, and produced important innovations and solutions regarding geo-environmental topics and information systems.
Spontaneous cooperation between European regions has demonstrated that this could be a very effective way to bridge the gap between different traditions and methodologies and to begin sharing territorial and geo-environmental information at European level.
Common areas of interest
Topics like climate change, soil conservation, quality and quantity of groundwater, extent of natural hazards, access to energy and mineral resources and popularisation of geological knowledge represent the common areas of interest of Geological Surveys and are of the highest significance for Europe's growth and sustainable development.
Emilia-Romagna, Bavaria and Catalonia are particularly interested in developing and promoting an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to applied Earth Sciences and to further develop their on-line information systems (including metadata, data and thematic maps), in support of:
- policy making;
- environmental management;
- sustainable access to natural resources;
- the mitigation of the impacts of natural hazards of geological origin;
- the development of downstream services;
- the information of the general public.
To make this possible, these regions organise joint advanced technical and professional training activities to implement the available technologies and develop common methodologies.
At the last edition of the Congress (Munich 2009) the three regions undertook to structure their partnership, creating a number of working groups. Themes focused on by the groups are: geothermal energy, soil conservation, slope instability and popular geological cartography. Each working group is comprised of a representative from each region and develops a three-years plan.
The results of this activity will be presented officially at the EUREGEO 2012 Congress in dedicated sessions.
What is the role for Geological Surveys in XXI century?
Today an intimate understanding of the physical make-up of the territory and of its subsurface is vital for society, for the cities, business and industry as well as to ensure the continued functioning of the life-supporting ecosystems.
In every country this understanding is a fundamental pre-requisite to any form of land use management, of the sustainable use of natural resources and of the prevention and mitigation of natural hazards.
It is becoming increasingly evident that natural resources of geological origin, namely water, soil, mineral and energy sources are finite and precious, consequently their use must be governed by stringent criteria of sustainability. In the same way, sustainable development is not possible without assessing hazards, minimising risks and maximising awareness.
Earth’s scientists must play a fundamental role in the building of a sustainable world because they constitute the largest living database of information about the past and the present of planet Earth.
Loss of soil due to factors such as contamination, sealing, compaction, loss of organic matter or erosion impair the fertility of land, their proper functioning for the recharge essential groundwater resources, their buffer role in flood prone areas; coastal erosion threatens tourist areas; landslides in mountains and floods in plains endanger people, infrastructure and properties; over-exploitation of natural resources, including water, jeopardise the availability for future generations.
To manage these problems, planning authorities need, reliable information on geological settings, on subsurface resources and on natural hazards.
This need is likely to continue to rise in the coming years.
The role of Geological Surveys is therefore to acquire the necessary quality-controlled data, to turn it into information and knowledge and to disseminate it to support policy makers and other components of society (academia and research, engineering and consultancy firms, industry, insurance companies, investors, NGO’s, the general public…); to fill the gaps in knowledge, to refine data and improve their availability in interoperable and harmonised formats.
At the same time there is an increasing demand for information from the society.
European citizens ask to have more immediate access to the information they need for a better understanding of: the environment in which they live; the hazards they are potentially exposed to; the importance of preventing such hazards and of the necessity of a sustainable use of precious natural resources.
The development of an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to applied Earth Sciences, as well as the development of the interoperability and harmonisation of geoscientific data layers are necessary to support: - existing or forthcoming European policies, regulations and initiatives that involve the knowledge, the use and the management of the Earth’s subsurface resources as well as the threats generated by our living Earth; - national as well as regional or local policies and regulations addressing natural resources, geological hazards or the development and management of subsurface space; - to provide the above mentioned users with data, information and knowledge related to the mentioned themes.
7th EUREGEO Congress
The seventh edition of the "European Congress on Regional Geoscientific Cartography and Information Systems - EUREGEO" should represent an outstanding opportunity to progress towards these goals.
The Congress, with the subheading "Sustainable Geo-Management", will be held in Bologna on 12-15 June 2012, and will be structured in sessions and in workshops dealing with the following themes:
- Slope instability
- Soil and planning
- Subsurface geology (geothermal energy, CCS, 3D modelling)
- Popularisation of geoscience and geoheritage
- Coastal system management
- Water resources
- Urban geology
- Mining and natural aggregates resources
- Seismic risk
- Regional geochemical mapping and its environmental application
The contents of the next edition of the Congress are of the highest significance for Europe's growth and sustainable development. They are strongly related to many European, or EU supported, policies, (existing Directives, legislative initiatives and programmes).
The Congress wants to offer to the participants an opportunity to assess how the European Geoscientific Community can best support:
- the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)10-years implementation plan
- the EU Sustainable Development Policy
- the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme
- the Water Framework Directive and the Directive on the Protection of Groundwater against pollution
- The Raw Materials Initiative and the European Technology Platform on Sustainable Mineral Resources
- the INSPIRE Directive
- the Directive on the geological storage of CO2
- the EC's Marine Observation and Data Experts Group (MODEG)
- The European Technology Platform on Geological Disposal of Radioactive Wastes
- the European needs for energy and mineral resources.
Representatives of the European Commission and of other European institutions, as well as from National and Regional authorities are invited to participate to the Congress.
The aim of the Congress is to stimulate the discussion between the geoscientific community and its stakeholders on the future data and services that it is required to provide, at all scales from local to European, in support of Europe’s Sustainable Development, in support to policy making; regulatory developments and implementation/ evaluation and sustainable growth.
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