Brown Areas illustrate the extent of poorly productive bedrock aquifers in the Republic of Ireland. (Image Courtesy of the Groundwater Section, Geological Survey of Ireland.)

Poorly productive bedrock aquifers underlie over 60% of the Island of Ireland.  Scarce relevant data suggests that many of these units are highly heterogeneous and need to be investigated in detail if site-specific conditions are to be extrapolated to the catchment scale.  Current geochemical and geophysical survey data provide a useful foundation to up-scale these data.  This project investigates hydrogeological and hydrochemical conditions in bedrock and their inter-relationship with shallower geological units.  Integration of site-specific data with regional survey results is anticipated to permit more realistic hydrogeological models of bedrock units to be developed.  These models will be used to evaluate future climatic/human impacts on groundwater in bedrock aquifers.

For further Information, please contact:

Dr Raymond Flynn
Environmental Engineering Research Centre (EERC)
School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering
Tel: +44 (0) 28 9097 4044
E-mail: r.flynn@qub.ac.uk

or

Dr Ulrich Ofterdinger
Environmental Engineering Research Centre (EERC)
School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering
Tel: +44 (0) 28 9097 4517
E-mail: u.ofterdinger@qub.ac.uk