Prediction and risk evaluation of chalk cliff collapse: the PROTECT project

A major cliff collapse took place at Store Stejlebjerg in the southern part of Møns Klint on 5 July 2003 (Fig. 1). This cliff collapse was one in a number of rock falls that has affected Møns Klint with a frequency of about one per five years. Geological investigations of the rock fall at Store Stejlebjerg were carried out by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) after the Danish Forest and Nature Agency had asked for advice and help concerning security regulations for public access to the site. GEUS was prepared for this type of investigation due to the Survey’s engagement in the European Union project PROTECT, which aims at prediction of chalk cliff collapses. In this project a number of sites in northern Europe have been selected for detailed investigation, among which two are situated at Møns Klint, southeast Denmark (Fig. 1). This report provides a short description of the 2003 cliff collapse at Møns Klint and a brief description of the PROTECT project and its practical implications for cliff collapse evaluation

Geophysical methods and data administration in Danish groundwater mapping

Groundwater mapping in Denmark has high priority. It was initiated in the 1990s when the pressure on groundwater resources increased due to urban development and pollution from industrial and agricultural sources. In some areas, the groundwater mapping included survey drillings, modelling based on existing knowledge and geophysical mapping with newly developed methods that made area coverage on a large scale possible. The groundwater mapping that included development of new geophysical methods showed promising results, and led to an ambitious plan to significantly intensify the hydrogeological mapping in order to improve the protection of the Danish groundwater resources. In 1999 the Danish Government initiated the National Groundwater Mapping Programme with the objective to obtain a detailed description of the aquifers with respect to localisation, extension, distribution and interconnection as well as their vulnerability to pollution (Thomsen et al. 2004). This mapping programme covers around 40% of the area of Denmark designated as particularly valuable water abstraction areas. Water consumers finance the mapping programme by paying 0.04 € per cubic metre of consumed water. At the end of the programme in 2015, the total cost is estimated to be about 250 000 000 € with a significant part spent on geophysical mapping