Global water resources are a critical value for the future of humankind. Conflicts and wars seem to rise because of such critical resources. While water-scarce countries are under extreme pressure on the long-term scale, also water-rich countries in Europe, such as Austria, face local conflicts of interest between water supply, tourism, agriculture, hydropower and ecology, for instance. Higher Education must address these conflicts and the new concepts of geoethics offer the conceptional thinking to do so. Based on educational resources for Higher Education that have been developed in the field of “Geoethics and Water Management” under the Erasmus+ co-funded project GOAL (Geoethics Outcomes and Awareness Learning), selected water-related conflicts are discussed. The cases selected for developing the educational resources are water use conflicts and geoethical aspects of hydropower plants. The educational resources include a subsequent procedure for applying them with students. Outcomes from the educational resources show that issues related to water management often create geoethical conflicts and dilemmas, and an interconnection between several Sustainable Development Goals can be established. Applying the educational resources shall enable geoscientists to contribute towards sustainable development of Earth’s future by a more holistic view.

The growing global demand for drinking water is driving both the diversification of water supply sources and their sustainability. River bank filtration (RBF) is an excellent option since it strongly reduces the extent of treatment steps compared to direct usage of surface water. Organic micropollutants (e.g. pharmaceuticals) are widely recognized as a hazard in drinking water production from surface water. Due to their potentially high mobility, stability, bioaccumulation and persistency, these substances can pass through RBF-systems. Scientific studies on compound removal and attenuation efficiency of RBF rely on the knowledge of travel time to compare concentrations in the river to the ones in the bank filtrate since water quality in rivers can change rapidly. However, bank filtrate samples represent a mixture of water with different travel times as the flow paths vary. This has not yet been considered in studies of bank filtration removal efficiency for organic micro pollutants. Here we present a method that considers the residence-time distribution of the bank filtrate sample obtained by groundwater modelling to evaluate the removal efficiency of RBF for organic micropollutants. The method was tested in a comprehensive study with 50 samples taken over a one-year-period at a river bank filtration site in Vienna (Austria). Our findings revealed that better coverage of varying river water quality (higher sampling frequency during the period of infiltration) resulted not only in a higher number of compounds considered as removed but also significantly reduced the number of compounds considered to have formed during the RBF process. The application of the presented method indicated that RBF is very effective in removing organic micropollutants. Considering different travel times will provide better models and a better understanding of the potential of RBF for pollutant removal and thus supports its safe application as a solution to the growing demand for drinking water.

A fully non-targeted analytical workflow for the investigation of a riverbank filtration site located at the river Danube has been developed and applied. Variations of compound intensities at different sampling locations of the riverbank filtration site and, for a single production well, over a monitoring period of one year have been investigated using liquid chromatography combined with time-of-flight-mass spectrometry followed by evaluation via non-targeted data analysis. Internal standardization and appropriate quality control strategies have been implemented into the workflow for reduction of possible methodological biases influencing data interpretation. Emphasis was placed on the assessment of different blank elimination steps and the final blank elimination strategy is reported. The spatial study of the selected riverbank filtration site revealed a homogenous composition of the filtered water sampled at 11 different locations across the 32,000 m² site, except for one sampling location in a zone of the aquifer, which was only weakly connected to the well field in terms of hydrogeological conditions. The examination of time-dependent changes of the composition of surface and groundwater obtained at the riverbank filtration system revealed that the non-targeted workflow is fit-for-purpose regarding the assessment the stability of filtration efficiency and compound residence time in the riverbank filtration compartment. In total, 677 compounds were selected for the investigation of the time-dependent variations of the filtration process. Analysis of the signal intensities of these compounds revealed that the riverbank filtration is significantly reducing the intensity and number of compounds present in surface water over a wide polarity range. In addition, the method enabled the determination of compound residence times in the riverbank filtration system ranging from 5 to 7 days.

Bank filtration supports the growing global demand for drinking water amidst concerns over organic micropollutants (OMPs). Efforts to investigate, regulate and manage OMPs have intensified due to their documented impacts on ecosystems and human health. Non-targeted analysis (NTA) is critical for addressing the challenge of numerous OMPs. While identification in NTA typically prioritises compounds based on properties like toxicity, considering substance quantity, occurrence frequency and exposure duration is essential for comprehensive risk management. A prioritisation scheme, drawing from intensive sampling and NTA of bank filtrate, is presented and reveals significant variability in OMP occurrence. Quasi-omnipresent substances, though only 7% of compounds, accounted for 44% of cumulative detections. Moderately common substances, constituting 31% of compounds, accounted for 50% of cumulative detections. Rare compounds, comprising 61%, contributed only 6% to cumulative detections. The application of suspect screening for 31 substances to the dataset yielded results akin to NTA, underscoring NTA’s value. Correlation between both methods demonstrates the efficacy of high-resolution mass spectrometry-based NTA in assessing temporal and quantitative OMP dynamics.

Aufgrund zunehmender Nutzungskonflikte durch immer größer werdende Siedlungsgebiete und intensiver landwirtschaftlicher Nutzung steigt auch die Bedeutung der Uferfiltration für die Wasserversorgung in Österreich zunehmend an. Im Vergleich mit Brunnenstandorten in ausgedehnten Porengrundwasserleitern werden die Strömungsbedingungen bei diesem System wesentlich von der Interaktion zwischen Oberflächengewässer und Aquifer bestimmt. Ein kontinuierliches Brunnenmonitoring wird durch immer einfachere und billigere Messeinrichtungen begünstigt. Es ermöglicht einen Informationsgewinn über den Zustand der Anlagen und dient als Basis für Entscheidungen, wie etwa der Anwendung von Regenerationsmaßnahmen bei Leistungsrückgängen. Gerade im System der Uferfiltration wirken verschiedene Einflussgrößen mit unterschiedlichen (jahres-)zeitlichen Entwicklungen zusammen und bestimmen so die aktuelle Ergiebigkeit und Leistungsfähigkeit des Gesamtsystems. Umso schwieriger ist oft die Beurteilung der Messwerte aus dem Brunnenfeld. Der vorliegende Artikel zeigt an einem Beispielbrunnenfeld unter komplexen Randbedingungen, wie Parameter zur Beurteilung von Einflussfaktoren auf die Leistungsfähigkeit entlang der Fließstrecke bis zum Brunnen entwickelt werden können, und worauf bei der Ermittlung und Beurteilung der Ergebnisse für die weitere strategische Planung, z. B. für die Notwendigkeit von Regenerationsmaßnahmen, zu achten ist. Increasing use conflicts as a result of growing settlement regions and more intensive agricultural use mean that bank filtration is becoming more important for the water industry in Austria. Compared to wells in extensive unconfined aquifers, the flow conditions in these systems are dominantly influenced by the interaction between surface waters and aquifer. Continuous well monitoring benefits from ever simpler and cheaper measurement systems; further, it provides essential information on the condition of facilities and serves as a basis for informed decisions, such as implementing regeneration measures when performance declines. In bank filtration systems in particular, various influencing factors and (seasonal) changes combine to determine the productivity and performance of the entire system at a given time. This makes assessing measurements from the well all the more difficult. This article uses the example of a well field with complex framework conditions to show how parameters for assessing the factors influencing performance along the flowpath leading to the well can be developed, and which factors need to be considered when evaluating the results for further strategic planning, e.g. the need for regenerative measures.

The recognition of the Human Right to Water and Sanitation by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010 marks a major symbolic and legal milestone. The United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) incorporate the different interests of society. In combination with limited resources conflicts of interests are inevitable. Competing interests of different stakeholders concerning water and land-use management are particularly big drivers of conflicts in this field. Also the personal daily behaviours of its individuals influences the water and energy consumption of whole society.An essential baseline to achieve societal goals related with water might be the implementation of coherent environmental policies. Transnational implications of e.g. large water-infrastructure projects bring additional complexity to decision making processes. The Implications of climate change on water management add another layer of uncertainty.Professionals with a higher education in geosciences are at the heart of humankind’s attempts to deal with all of this issues. They are not only supposed to hold technical expertise, but also understand their responsibilities. A modern education of the students in geosciences therefor has to account for this challenges. Geoethics is capable of providing the theoretical background on this challenges.The GOAL project (Geoethics Outcomes and Awareness Learning) aims in general at improving the concepts and practices of Geoethics and specifically to provide educational material (a syllabus and complementary educational resources) to be used in higher education. From the wide range of geoethical issues related to water management, two cases were chosen to introduce students to the concepts of Geoethics. The water supply system of Austria´s capital Vienna serves as a starting point to deal with questions like utilization pressure on water and land. An historic dam that is now used for production of "green" electric energy via hydropower, sets the frame for the discussion about the impacts of hydropower on the riverine ecosystem.AcknowledgmentThis study has been elaborated in the scope of Erasmus Plus GOAL Project with the reference: 2017-1-PTO1-KA203-035790.