TY - JOUR
T1 - Terminologies and characteristics of natural mineral and thermal waters in selected European countries
AU - Elster, Daniel
AU - Szőcs, Teodóra
AU - Gál, Nóra
AU - Hansen, Birgitte
AU - Voutchkova, Denitza D.
AU - Schullehner, Jörg
AU - Lions, Julie
AU - Martarelli, Lucio
AU - Giménez-Forcada, Elena
AU - Díaz-Muñoz, José Ángel
AU - Malcuit, Eline
AU - Schubert, Gerhard
AU - Hobiger, Gerhard
AU - Rman, Nina
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (GeoERA Groundwater HOVER) under grant agreement number 731166. N. Rman participation was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency, research program P1-0020 Groundwaters and Geochemistry. The participation of D. Voutchkova, B. Hansen and J. Schullehner was supported with the “Innovation Fund Denmark (funding agreement number 8055-00073B)”.
Publisher Copyright:
© Author(s) 2022. CC Atribution 4.0 License
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - This study discusses 1) the national legislative frameworks, terminologies, and criteria for the recognition of natural mineral waters and thermal waters in selected European countries (Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, France, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Spain), and 2) it provides a first extensive multi-national overview of hydrogeological and hydrogeochemical characteristics of numerous water sources from those regions. Natural mineral waters are well defined and regulated in the European Union by the Directives 2009/54/ EC and 2003/40/EC that are implemented by national law regulations. In contrast, no legal definition exists for thermal waters on an EU level and national definitions commonly differ or are not present. Defining thermal waters by water temperatures of at least 20 °C at the outlet is commonly found (6 out of 15 countries), but other definitions like considering the difference to the average air temperature are also present. Furthermore, no definitions on a national level are quite frequent (5 out of 15 countries), those countries preferentially refer to expert recognitions. We considered 678 natural mineral waters and 2,390 thermal waters in this study and collected information on practical use, hydrogeological settings and hydrogeochemical conditions. The comparison of the datasets shows commonalities like a predominance porous aquifers, especially sandy aquifers, and sedimentary carbonate rock aquifers (limestone, dolomite, chalk). Furthermore, natural mineral waters commonly show TDS contents of less than 1 g/l and alkaline-earth-HCO3 water types. Surprisingly, 21 % of the considered sources bear water temperatures above 20 °C and could be considered as thermal waters as well. Thermal waters – the majority (above 30 °C) is found in Hungary - usually show water temperatures between 20 and 70 °C and TDS contents between 1 and 14.5 g/l.
AB - This study discusses 1) the national legislative frameworks, terminologies, and criteria for the recognition of natural mineral waters and thermal waters in selected European countries (Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, France, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Spain), and 2) it provides a first extensive multi-national overview of hydrogeological and hydrogeochemical characteristics of numerous water sources from those regions. Natural mineral waters are well defined and regulated in the European Union by the Directives 2009/54/ EC and 2003/40/EC that are implemented by national law regulations. In contrast, no legal definition exists for thermal waters on an EU level and national definitions commonly differ or are not present. Defining thermal waters by water temperatures of at least 20 °C at the outlet is commonly found (6 out of 15 countries), but other definitions like considering the difference to the average air temperature are also present. Furthermore, no definitions on a national level are quite frequent (5 out of 15 countries), those countries preferentially refer to expert recognitions. We considered 678 natural mineral waters and 2,390 thermal waters in this study and collected information on practical use, hydrogeological settings and hydrogeochemical conditions. The comparison of the datasets shows commonalities like a predominance porous aquifers, especially sandy aquifers, and sedimentary carbonate rock aquifers (limestone, dolomite, chalk). Furthermore, natural mineral waters commonly show TDS contents of less than 1 g/l and alkaline-earth-HCO3 water types. Surprisingly, 21 % of the considered sources bear water temperatures above 20 °C and could be considered as thermal waters as well. Thermal waters – the majority (above 30 °C) is found in Hungary - usually show water temperatures between 20 and 70 °C and TDS contents between 1 and 14.5 g/l.
KW - Europe
KW - Hydrogeochemical composition
KW - Hydrogeology
KW - Natural mineral water
KW - Regulatory framework
KW - Thermal water
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85135026691&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.5474/geologija.2022.002
DO - 10.5474/geologija.2022.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85135026691
SN - 0016-7789
VL - 65
SP - 21
EP - 46
JO - Geologija
JF - Geologija
IS - 1
ER -