"INWATCO - Integrated Water Management in Former Coal Mining Regions"

About - inwatco

The Project ‘Integrated Water Management In Former Coal Mining Regions (INWATCO) is expected to lead to the development of European best practice related to the incorporation of large coalfield draining systems into river catchment basement management plans.

Background

With the decline of the coal mining industry throughout Europe many regions are witnessing the effects of coalfield abandonment and consequent recovery of mine-water levels that have been artificially depressed for many years.
Current approaches to mitigation of hydrological and environmental problems in coalfield areas are based on attempts to predict emergence of water at surface and implementation of ‘end of pipe' treatment systems.

Project Objective

To ‘demonstrate and evaluate innovative techniques and procedures for integrated management of groundwater resources in former coal mining areas’.

Specific Aims

To develop methodologies to reduce risks and uncertainties associated with strategies for integrated management of water resources, at a river basin scale, in former coal mining regions. The INWATCO project is based on catchment scale demonstration programmes in the UK and supporting activities in Romania together with evaluation of applicability in all major European coal mining regions.

The UK site is the primary focus of the demonstration activity due to the large amount of data that is already available. The Romanian demonstration activity is based in a single coalfield containing a number of abandoned mine workings, considered to be most representative of mine drainage in the region. The majority of the management and control procedures will be demonstrated in the UK and subsequently tested at the Romanian site.

State Of The Art

The project aims to deliver a more sustainable approach to water resource management in coalfield areas including the following advances over current state-of-the-art:

Improved understanding of geo-structural controls on mine drainage system evolution.
Increased understanding of surface-water and groundwater relationships in mine-water discharge locations.
The potential for mine-water resource management.
Strategies for environmental risk management associated with regional mine-water control.

Expected Results

The INWATCO project will lead to significant improvements in the understanding of hydrological relationships between surface water and groundwater in coalfield drainage systems; this increased understanding will enable the definition of methodologies for accommodating such systems into water management strategies.

The project will be of considerable benefit to Member States preparing integrated river basin management plans to meet the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive and will be of particular relevance to pre-accession countries working towards harmonisation with EU environmental legislation.

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Work Plan and timeline for the INWATCO Project 2002 – 2005

Tasks	Task Description	Timeline
General project management	Develop INWATCO Website Establish Stakeholder Consultative Committee INWATCO Meetings Romanian Project coordination Project Administration	September 2002 – Project completion
Hydro-geological and geographical characterisation of the study areas, UK and Romania	Hydro-geological Characterisation of ground/surface water in the INWATCO study area, modelling and analytical studies, to enable the specification of the hydrological monitoring equipment and the geographical location Collection, collation and review of all available meteorological, hydrological, environmental data in relation to catchment water management Develop the catchment based Hydrological/Geographical Information systems (GIS) and related database. Identification, specification and selection of hydrological instrumentation and telemetry systems	September 2002 – March 2004
Installation of monitoring systems	Procurement and installation of: – Hydrological monitoring systems Monitoring boreholes Computer control centre and data management facilities Water management/treatment facilities including, Lime treatment, settling ponds, balancing chambers and an extensive reedbed system	April 2003 – September 2004
Coalfield drainage management demonstration and evaluation, UK and Romania	Design and implementation of the hydrological monitoring test programme Continuous analysis, evaluation and interpretation of the real time data	September 2004 – September 2005
Evaluation of factors related to wider European implementation	Define Europe wide coalfield water management evaluation procedures Preparation of a technical report on the impact of the Europe wide approach to implement the Water Framework Directive in Former Coalfield regions and the potential to implement new management strategies Programme of consultations and meetings with relevant European government ministries and other organisations to review hydrological Coalfield management Issues Europe Wide and evaluate applicability of test programme findings	September 2004 – March 2005
Development of European Best Practice	Preparation and publication of final best practice guide Organisation and implementation of consultations meetings and discussions with European stakeholders	January 2005 – May 2005
Dissemination, UK and Romanian	Establish and manage visitor exhibition Design and disseminate e-brochure Establish and maintain Website Prepare technical articles for relevant journals	September 2002 – May 2005

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The Hydrological Monitor Network

Groundwater Monitoring

Hydrological data will be monitored at 4 boreholes within the INWATCO demonstration area; the data will be monitored in real-time. Water levels, conductivity and hydro-chemical data will be captured and recorded from the groundwater monitoring network, and transmitted to the computer control centre (hydrological database system) located at the National Coal mining Museum.

Surface-water Monitoring

Surface water will be monitored at around 15 sites with in the INWATCO catchment. These sites comprise of a mix of adits, pumping stations, dipping shafts and pre-existing boreholes which have all been use for hydrological monitoring in the past by the coal authority. Water levels, water flows, hydro-chemical and conductivity monitoring will take place at all of the sites seen on the Interactive Map.

Please go to the map of study area for an illustration of the demonstration area and hydrological monitoring sites. The map will be updated throughout the three year INWATCO project. More information and detail will be added when the hydrological network is commissioned 2004.

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