Re-interpreting renewable and non-renewable water resources in the over-pressured Pannonian Basin.

With climate change, population growth and the resulting escalating water shortage, humanity is increasingly turning to non-renewable and even fossil groundwater resources, which poses a major challenge to sustainable water management. In this study, 2D basin-scale numerical simulations were carried out on the COMSOL Multiphysics finite element numerical platform to identify non-renewable water resources in the Central Pannonian Basin (Central Europe, Hungary) based on the lack of hydraulic connection to recharge areas. The concept and boundary conditions (fixed water table configuration at the top, pressure-elevation profiles on the lateral sides, and constant pressure on the bottom) were derived from a previous basin-scale hydraulic data evaluation study, while the hydrostratigraphic subdivision was based on seismic and well log interpretations.

Delimiting sub-areas in water bodies using multivariate data analysis on the example of Lake Balaton (W Hungary).

The main aim of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000) is to commit European Union Member states to the achievement of good qualitative and quantitative status for all water bodies by 2015. To achieve this, a reference state has to be determined and appropriate monitoring has to be carried out. Based on the fact that the WFD classifies Lake Balaton, the largest shallow freshwater lake in Central Europe, as one water body, and due to the lack of funds, the number of sampling locations on the lake was decreased.