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The travel time of groundwater plays a major role in the understanding of hydrogeological systems; however, large data sets necessary for regional studies of groundwater age are rare. In this study, a unique large data set of groundwater samples analysed for tritium and helium isotopes collected over the last 20 years from Cenozoic aquifers of the North German Plain is explored. Hereby, the variety of natural and technical influences on the tritium-helium age, including screen depth and length, groundwater recharge rate and climatic effects, are investigated. To a sampling depth of ~40 m below ground level, the median tritium-helium age increases almost linearly with depth, reaching a maximum of 40 years. Below, the portion of older, tritium-free water rises. The tritium-helium ages of the tritium-bearing portion increase only slightly to a maximum of about 46 years. The depth distribution of the tritium-helium age shows a dependency on groundwater recharge rates. Considering the same depth level, younger ages are related to higher groundwater recharge rates as compared to groundwater that infiltrated in areas with lower recharge rates. This is especially observed for shallow depths. Tritium-helium ages younger than 40 years are reflected well in the atmospheric tritium input curves, while deviations from it can be related to anthropogenic influences such as input from nuclear power plants and irrigation with deep, tritium-poor groundwater. The regional distribution for shallow wells indicates increasing tritium-helium ages from west to east, corresponding to decreasing groundwater recharge rates due to the more continental climate in the east.

Responsible Water Scientists (RWSci) was created with the ambition of encouraging a broader discussion on the lifestyle changes that can make scientists real advocates of (ground)water protection for a more sustainable world. Created in 2016 by two early career hydrogeologists, the Responsible Water Scientists blog is currently a platform for international debate on the social responsibility of water scientists, providing practical examples on how to “walk the talk”. In the era of globalization, dominated by communication and social media, engaging firsthand in water saving and pollution reduction is definitely something that can contribute maintaining the credibility of researchers in the eyes of the general public. Indeed, too often researchers and academics are still perceived as being isolated from the real world, and “the theory without direct commitment” could actually be seen as a lack of interest. To avoid this, RWSci gives the chance to water scientist to dismantle this stereotype, not only by sharing practical experiences of their direct engagement, but also providing practical tips for those interested in taking a new path towards sustainability “one drop at a time”.

Groundwater is the primary source of freshwater supply on remote small islands, where it exists as a freshwater lens. It is extremely vulnerable to over-extraction, pollution and seawater intrusion. Ensuring long-term sustainable management of the groundwater resource is of the utmost importance when there are growing water demands, sea-level rise and/or recharge decline. This study used a three-dimensional, variable-density numerical groundwater flow and solute transport model to investigate vulnerability of a freshwater lens in a multi-layered aquifer system on Milingimbi Island, a small tropical island in northern Australia. The model was used to explore the impacts and possibility of increased groundwater demand on the freshwater lens, its volume, geometry as well as the thickness of the transition zone. The risks of saltwater intrusion, both laterally from the ocean and by localised up-coning from the deeper, more saline aquifers beneath the freshwater lens, were also assessed. Model calibration used observed hydraulic heads and salinity observations from pumping and observation wells. Subsurface bulk conductivity values, which were calculated from inverted airborne electromagnetic (AEM) and near-surface geophysical data, were also used in the calibration process. The results showed that the hydraulic heads and observed salinity achieved the ‘best fit’ in the calibration process, whereas the addition of the geophysical data assisted in constraining the lens geometry in the steady state model and integrated the data poor areas based on traditional hydrogeological datasets. The models’ calibration sensitivity to the range of measured salinities could be enhanced by improving the conversion factor between the AEM-derived conductivity values and the observed salinity data. This would best be accomplished by targeted monitoring wells at discrete depths and locations across the lens and improvements in the sampling/restoration of existing ones. The numerical model provided a framework to evaluate the key underlying hydrogeological processes on the island, as well as an important decision-making tool to ensure a sustainable and reliable water supply for the island community.

Do Eastern European courts effectively constrain politicians and uphold the rule of law? Criminal prosecution of grand (high-level) corruption can further the central principle of equal responsibility under the law by demonstrating that even powerful political actors have to submit to the laws of the land. This article introduces the Eastern European Corruption Prosecution Database, which contains entries for all cabinet ministers (927 in total) who served in a government that held office in one of seven post-Communist Eastern European countries since the late 1990s. The systematic data collection reveals that Bulgaria, Romania and Macedonia consistently indict more ministers than Croatia, the Czech Republic, and Poland; Slovakia has barely indicted anyone. We aim to start a research agenda by formulating hypotheses about which countries will see more corruption prosecutions and which ministers’ characteristics would make them more likely to face the court. We use the database to begin testing these hypotheses and find some evidence for several associations. We find no strong evidence that EU conditionality or membership raises the profile of the grand corruption issue or leads to more indictments. Party politics seems to affect the frequency of corruption indictments more than the structure and behavior of legal institutions. Indictment rates are lower when a former Communist party controls the government and individual ministers from junior coalition partners are more vulnerable to indictment than other ministers. The existence of a specialized anti-corruption prosecution or a more independent judiciary do not seem to lead to the indictment of more ministers on corruption charges. Finally, we discuss avenues of future research that our database opens, both for the analysis of country-level and individual-level variation.

Arguing persuasively for the need to improve the way we conceptualise transitional justice, Pettai and Pettai’s Transitional and Retrospective Justice in the Baltic States offers an innovative fram...