ENeRAG project on the 46th IAH Congress in Malaga 2019

ENeRAG was present at the largest and most prominent hydrogeology related worldwide event, the 46th IAH Congress (22-27 September 2019, Malaga, Spain). The congress of this year devoted special focus on Groundwater Management and Governance: Coping with Water Scarcity. The ENeRAG project sponsored a session, named ‘Advanced modelling tools for subsurface hydrology: from the vadose zone to deep environments’, and co-sponsored with RGFC-IAH another, titled ‘Innovative approaches for understanding groundwater flow systems’. Among the session’s convenors were Daniele Pedretti (UMIL), Stefania Stevenazzi (UMIL), Marco Masetti (UMIL), Ádám Tóth (ELTE) and Judit Mádl-Szőnyi (ELTE), ENeRAG project participants. The sponsored sessions dealt with wide range of methodologies applied in Hydrogeology from the more conventional technologies (such as hydrogeological mapping, hydrodynamics, hydrochemistry, isotopes, tracers, etc.) to the most innovative new trends in modelling.

ENeRAG supported the participation of numerous project members. Judit Mádl-Szőnyi, Kamilla Modrovits and Petra Baják presented their newest results at the Monday’s poster session. Anita Erőss, Veronika Iván, Petra Kovács-Bodor, Marco Masetti, Daniele Pedretti, Licia Pollicino, Zsóka Szabó, Stefania Stevenazzi, Márk Szijártó and Ádám Tóth held oral presentations during the week. Besides the inspiring plenary lectures and fruitful discussions during the oral and poster sessions, many social events were organized in order to facilitate networking, such as the Ice-Breaker Party, City Walking Tour, ECHN Event and the Gala Dinner. These programs provided perfect opportunities to review the progress of the on-going ENeRAG projects and discuss the further steps and new project ideas. Beside these, participants had the chance to attend the IAH General Assembly and the different IAH commission meetings as well. On Wednesday various interesting field trips were organized through the Province of Malaga. The ENeRAG project members attended field trips about the characteristics of alluvial, coastal and carbonatic aquifers, karst springs, karstic caves and other exokarst landforms.

All in all, due to the high importance of the event and to the large number of participants, the 46th IAH Congress was an inspiring and great opportunity to present the first results of the ENeRAG collaboration, to personally discuss the further tasks, and to engage in networking.