Badania hydrogeologiczne w drugim 50-leciu istnienia Państwowego Instytu Geologicznego na tle ich starszej historii

The Polish Geological Institute (PGI) was established in 1919 according to the act of the Polish Parliament. Four departments made up the structure of PGI at that time, and one of them was Department of Hydrology. The first head of this Department was Prof. Dr. Romuald Rosłoński, also the professor of the Lwów Technical University. He is recognized as a founder of the Polish hydrogeological school. The term hydrogeology was used in the Polish literature 120 years ago, but has slowly been implemented in science as a separate research field. In the period of time between the First and Second World War the PGI team of hydrogeologists dealt with groundwater resources and water supply, hydrogeological cartography, groundwater geochemistry and hydraulic properties of rocks hosting aquifers and aquitards, and water balances of drainage basins. Hydrogeology at that time was closely connected with regional geology, tectonics and petrology on the one hand and with mining activity and civil engineering on the other hand. After the World War II in 1949, the Section of Hydrogeology was established as a part of the Geological Institute. In 1953 this was renamed the Department of Hydrogeology, with the authorization for scientific activity. The scope of this activity encompassed regional hydrogeological recognition, cartography, hydrogeology of ore deposits and mining, geophysical logging in hydrogeology and drilling diagnosis. Mathematical modeling of groundwater flow started in this Department with the physical, analog simulation in the late 60s. of the 20th century. Results of the regional investigation of groundwater occurrences and geochemistry were presented in many hydrogeological maps prepared under the guidance of Professor C. Kolago. Groundwater resources were estimated both in the regions and the whole country by the team led by Professor B. Paczyński as a head and an editor. The brines, mineralized and thermal groundwaters were identified by this Department in close cooperation with branches of the PGI under direction of B. Paczyński, Z. Płochniewski and J. Dowgiałło from the Polish Academy of Sciences. The alteration and rise of the hydrogeological studies in the PGI took place at the beginning of 2000 due to the twin projects resulted from Poland’s accession to the European Union. There was little time for the EU directives implementation, especially for Water framework directive (FWD) and integrated water resources management to be introduced in practice. To meet these needs, the state hydrogeological survey (SHS) was organized in the PGI. This survey has been established according to Water Law Act from July 18 of 2001. The SHS imposed new duties resulting from the EU Groundwater Directive (2006/118/EU) on the protection of groundwater against pollution and deterioration (Official Journal UE, L 372 from 27.12.2006). There are legal, organizational and research tasks within the monitoring network and water management planning projects, which projects that belong to duties of the SHS. The main tasks of this survey include: groundwater monitoring organization and control and quality and geochemistry control of groundwater resources within groundwater bodies, gathering of hydrogeological data in data banks, analysis of current data and forecast elaboration, documentation of groundwater resources, publication of maps, guidebooks etc. This is the current activity of the hydrogeological team of the Polish Geological Institute.