CONTENT:

The GeoConnect³d project will develop and test methodologies to prepare geological information for policy support and subsurface management. The approach will be tested in two case studies – the Roer-to-Rhine region and the Pannonian Basin. In these cross-border studies different in geological setting and degree of implementation of subsurface exploitation and management exist. The first new concept is the structural framework as a means of joining existing models of different scale and resolution to clarify the importance of planar structures (fault zones…). The second concept is geomanifestations. They are geological (gas seeps…), geochemical (ore deposits, mineral and thermal water, oil and gas …), geophysical (seismicity…) and geothermal (heat anomalies…) expressions of geological processes that provide additional information on the subsurface. The structural framework models annotated with geomanifestations will allow integration and evaluation of complex cross-thematic research of the subsurface in 4D, in space and time. The two case studies will provide materials for a top-down, more generic evaluation of potentially interacting subsurface activities that allows revisiting and refining state-of-the-art methods. Valorisation of regional results at pan-European level is ensured by testing the methodologies in two smaller pilot areas in Germany and Ireland.