GEOMATICS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Efficient environmental resource management, attempts to balance between needs and resource availability and it is strongly based on documented decisions. Effectiveness of actions towards a sustainable resource management and protection is built on spatial information availability, reliability and accuracy. Aspects of these parameters including essential requirements, EU provisions, existing problems and potential solutions focusing at groundwater, are presented and discussed. Within this context, the increasingly important role of Geomatics technologies is presented as an example analysis of protection and management of groundwater resources. Technologies applied include remote sensing, desktop and Cloud GI Systems, and Web Services provided by integrated information systems. As it is shown, contemporary Geomatics technologies provide the tools to support efficient groundwater and in principle, any natural resource, protection and management. There are essential requirements which must be met in order to promote sustainable resource management and protection, especially in Cross border areas (CBA). These include the harmonisation of data and of the methodologies adopted, data sharing over web services and competencies/knowledge transfer to establish cooperation and to build competencies.