The Challenge of Drinking-Water Quality Surveillance in Alpine Regions: Real-time data access

Water resources from alpine and other mountainous karst aquifers play an important role for water supply in many European countries. As regulated in the WFD (Water Framework Directive), karstic catchments require sustainable protection. The increasing strains to such regions and the different utilization in the watersheds of karst springs are important triggers to establish early warning systems and quality assurance networks in water supplies. These systems rely heavily on in-situ measurements and online and near real-time availability of the data. With a satellite based network of measuring and sampling stations it was possible to carry out precipitation triggered event monitoring campaigns at different karst springs combining on-line measurements of hydrological parameters with fieldlaboratory based analyses of microbial faecal indicators.