Focus Area Rural Water and Food Security

The overall objective of Lot 2: Rural Water and Food Security (PI RURAL) is to support formulation and implementation of Chinese policies, legislation, standards and measures, which will enable better management, use and protection of groundwater resources and increased coverage of safe groundwater-based water supply and to ensure sustainable food production in rural areas. The approach will take departure in EU policies and the thinking behind the Water Framework Directive, the Groundwater Directive, and the Nitrates Directive thus providing a good basis for introducing European solutions and technologies in the Chinese Market.

PI RURAL is implemented by a consortium led by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland and the Aarhus University (AU), University of Cordoba (UCO) and the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) as associates.

PI RURAL comprises 7 work packages (WPs) with the following specific objectives:

  • WP1: Efficient management of EU PI grant for improved rural water and food security
  • WP2: Enabling Chinese policies, legislation and socio-economic priorities for sustainable water management, efficient use, restoration and protection of groundwater resources in rural areas of China affected by water scarcity
  • WP3: Providing knowledge base for protection and restoration of groundwater dependent eco-systems (GDEs) in karst areas and for adding GDE aspects to integrated management tools for the water cycle
  • WP4: Develop and test integrated measures to protect groundwater quality against diffuse pollution from agriculture, including water cycle monitoring systems, data bases, modelling concepts and mitigation measures
  • WP5: Increased irrigation and socio-economic efficiency of water allocations for irrigated agriculture in areas with high competition for water
  • WP6: Introduce European innovative technologies and integrated solutions to deliver safe groundwater-based domestic water supply and village-level wastewater treatment systems in rural areas affected by groundwater pollution
  • WP7: Further develop and adapt Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) systems to restore severely depleted groundwater aquifers

Scoping and Focusing the Policy Dialogues on Groundwater Management

The PI RURAL work program includes 3 policy dialogues:

  • 2019    Groundwater Quantity Management
  • 2020    Groundwater Quality Management
  • 2021    Groundwater allocation and sustainable use.

The purpose of the dialogues is to assemble Chinese and European opinions and recommendations, which can form the basis for policy recommendations and road-maps for China and EU Member States to move further towards long-term sustainable abstraction and priorities for use of groundwater resources.

Contact Information

Geological Survey of Denmark

Consortia Leader: Mr Bjørn Kaare Jensen (bkj@geus.dk)

Policy Dialogue: Mr Lars Skov Andersen (chinarm@mail.dk)