The international project investigates the groundwater balance in the central and southern Upper Rhine Graben in the past, present and future. Sponsored by the French authority BRGM (french geological survey) and with significant participation of the LUBW (Baden-Württemberg State Institute for the Environment), the project is concerned on the one hand with the modeling of groundwater levels. On the German side, the KIT-IfGG is also working on the question of how these groundwater developments affect biodiversity. In parallel, this issue is being investigated in Alsace by the University of Strasbourg. The main focus will be on the long-term changes to wetlands and water bodies on the lower terrace. These are presumably particularly affected by changes in the landscape water balance. In addition to groundwater levels, indicators for the changes here are above all the floristic composition of wetland habitats, for which comparative studies are being carried out over as long a period as possible.

The project is funded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment via the Karlsruhe Regional Council, Ref. 52.

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