Desirable Groundwater and Surface Water Regime in the Netherlands (GGOR): situation in 2001

Provincial authorities must determine the Desirable Groundwater and Surface Water Regime (GGOR) no later than 2002. The desirable regime must be appropriate for the intended use of the space in question. Determining the GGOR for all desired types of nature functions will allow the GGOR to play an important role in the concrete elaboration of the desiccation objectives.

	Year determination GGOR	Natural area plans used	Nature function maps used

Groningen	2002	yes	yes
Friesland	approximately 2010	no	yes
Drenthe	2004	no	yes
Overijssel	2005-2010	yes	yes
Gelderland	not known	not known	not known
Flevoland	¹⁾	yes	yes
Utrecht	2004	yes	yes
North Holland	¹⁾	no	yes
South Holland	not known	not known	yes
Zeeland	not known	yes	yes
North Brabant	2003	no	yes
Limburg	2002	yes	yes

Source: IPO			RIVM/EDC/Oct02/0414
1) In Flevoland and North Holland, the GGOR is adopted by provincial authorities for the entire area.

Progress determination GGOR

The provincial authorities will not manage to determine the GGOR for all of the Netherlands by 2002. It may take until 2010 before the GGOR is available for the whole country.
It is also questionable to what extent the GGOR will be comparable for the various provinces. For the purposes of policy evaluation, it would appear to be desirable for the results at least of these provincial processes to be comparable.

Note on GGOR

The GGOR concept also includes the Optimal and the Current Groundwater and Surface Water Regimes (OGOR and AGOR respectively). The OGOR is the situation in which the hydrological situation of the soil is entirely appropriate for the intended use of that soil (the use function). That applies to both the quality and the quantity of the water. This OGOR can be calculated or determined for each soil-use function.
If functions with a different/totally different OGOR, for example agriculture and wet nature, are in contact or intertwined with each other, a compromise must be found or a decision made. For example, an optimal situation for one of the functions and a marginal situation for the other. This complex of socially-determined priorities is known as the GGOR.

The importance of GGOR for the approach to desiccation

The GGOR and OGOR concept provides interesting possibilities for elaborating the desiccation objective into measurable nature and water objectives. OGORs can be calculated for all groundwater-dependent types of nature function. From the point of view of the nature objective, the difference between the AGOR and the OGOR is the level of desiccation.
Achievement of the GGOR means that desiccation has been dealt with, at least in policy terms. AGOR and GGOR can be measured relatively straightforwardly in the field. As part of the 2003 survey of desiccated areas, the relevant working group will be developing a proposal for transforming the current desiccation objective into an objective in terms of OGOR and/or GGOR.

Problems with the elaboration of the GGOR

There is a fair level of confusion about the GGOR and all the associated areas, both in technical and administrative terms. Arcadis has made an attempt to make things clear, particularly on the administrative/legal side. It received instructions to this effect from the Directorate General for Public Works and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat), the Association of Provincial Authorities (IPO), the Association of Water Boards and STOWA (Arcadis, 2000). In broad terms, there is agreement with the conclusions of that study that the water control boards should elaborate the GGOR in close consultation with the groundwater authority (generally the provincial authority) and the municipal authority. The GGOR is then included in the water management plan of the water control board, which is approved by the provincial authority.
The Commission on Integrated Water Management has now adopted the broad recommendations of this report. A number of ambiguities still require resolution. For example, there is the relationship between the GGOR and the recently-developed water assessment, spatial planning and regional standards. Furthermore, provincial authorities implement the process in their own ways in order to arrive at a GGOR. All this means that the GGOR will, in most cases, not be completed in 2002.

Policy

The Fourth Policy Document on Water Management (V&W, 1998) requested the provincial authorities to determine the desired water table no later than 2002. Later, the desired water table was changed to the GGOR.