In order to carry out soil and groundwater related field experiment under controlled natural condition, an environmental research test site has been set up in July 1987 on the "Horkheimer Insel", 70 km north of Stuttgart. At present, the interdisciplinary research program comprises one groundwater project, two projects dealing with the unsaturated zone and the soil, and one environmental database project. The 2 ha field site is extensively instrumented, comprising 24 multilevel groundwater observation- and pumping-wells, a large monolithic lysimeter, a meterological station, as well as numerous tensiometer and suction cups. In order to facilitate the communication and data exchange between the cooperating university institutes, a distributed database sytem is being developed. During the initial phase of the investigations, the field site has been extensively described in terms of underground structure, as well as the soil und aquifer parameters. The investigation program is presented together with first results of the ongoing field experiments.
