Menyanthes in Oezbekistan

Uzbekistan is confronted with problems caused by high groundwater levels. The groundwater in the country has always been close to the surface, but over the last few years it has risen by about 1.5 meters. Finding a solution to this problem is a matter of urgency.

HydroMonitor helps address Uzbekistan’s groundwater problems

At the invitation of Eijkelkamp, which supplies measurement instruments to KWR and is our partner in the TKI lysimeter project, the HydroMonitor with be ‘flown in’ to Uzbekistan to carry out analyses and modelling on the monitoring data. This will provide better insight into the groundwater problems that frequently occur in the country. In October, Jos von Asmuth will be travelling to Uzbekistan to give a multi-day training programme on groundwater data analysis and the use of the HydroMonitor. At same time, Eijkelkamp will install a monitoring network, calibrate the data stream and give a training on the installation and maintenance of the monitoring network itself.

Extra challenging

The problems involved are not only groundwater flooding, but also the very extensive salinisation of the groundwater. The situation in Uzbekistan is not comparable to that of the Netherlands, which makes the project extra challenging, instructive and useful to all parties involved.

A delegation from Uzbekistan and Eijkelkamp makes a get-acquainted visit to KWR (15 October 2013).

Results

Royal Eijkelkamp has installed groundwater monitoring wells throughout the city of Urgench, each well equipped with state of the art dataloggers. Data from these loggers is automatically sent to a central control room in near real time, from where engineers use it for hydrological analysis and forecasting, using KWR’s software tool Menyanthes. Apart from delivering this software, KWR has extensively trained the engineers of O’zgashkliti Institute in hydrological modelling and data management.