Workshop: Toward Sustainable Groundwater in Agriculture - An International Conference Linking Science with Policy - Burlingame, California, June 28-30, 2016

地下水是地球仪上许多农村和农业地区及其相关文化和人口的生命线，也是全球粮食生产的基石。地下水占世界饮用水供应的三分之一，往往是农村地区饮用水的灵魂来源;占世界灌溉水供应的三分之一以上。在许多地区，地下水是防止干旱造成地表水短缺的保险。干旱;过度使用;地下水盐度;农业活动（包括畜牧业、牧场和林业活动）造成的非点源污染以及城乡交界处地下水质量和数量的冲突已达到全球规模，威胁到地球的健康和生计。本次会议将作为一个全州，国家和全球论坛，供科学家，农业代表，非政府组织，顾问，政策和决策者发现和讨论管理，共享，评估和保护农业景观地下水资源的解决方案。会议将于2016年6月28日至30日在加州伯林盖姆的凯悦酒店举行，该酒店距离弗朗西斯科国际机场仅几英里。加州是全球农业生产的领导者之一，拥有近1000万英亩的灌溉农田，提供价值500亿美元的400多种不同商品，每年灌溉用水超过3200万英亩英尺。加州也是美国牛奶生产的领导者，占美国奶制品产量的20%以上。虽然加州的农业在许多方面都是独一无二的，但它与美国和世界各地其他灌溉和非灌溉农业地区的地下水有着许多共同之处。许多集约化耕作的地区覆盖着松散的沉积含水层系统，类似于加州的那些。灌溉农田在半干旱和干旱气候中很常见。虽然灌溉土地仅占全球农业用地的五分之一，但提供了全球农业总产量的40%，这突出了灌溉农业对全球粮食安全的重要性。这次会议的组织是全面的，将分为几个独立但相关的领域; 1）地下水管理，治理，政策和法规，农业用水，联合/综合管理，2）农业地下水，气候，能源和农业地下水的社会经济方面，3）农业地下水质量和污染，法规，4）城市-城市界面的地下水，5）地下水与依赖地下水的生态系统的联系，以及6）预测和建模。会议将遵循一种形式，即三个会议日的每一天分为四个会期：上午早些时候、上午晚些时候、下午早些时候、下午晚些时候。每节课约100分钟，每节课有3-4位发言人。三个会议日中的每一天的清晨时段将保留给一个关键会议主题的全体会议，有3-4个主题发言人，并允许所有观众参与和讨论。其余时间将举行四次平行会议，以适应广泛的主题和参与者的兴趣。最后一个小组将对会议上讨论的主题进行生动和批判性的特别审查，并反思在实现农业地区地下水全球可持续性方面的下一步措施和未来挑战。关于外联，水教育基金会和其他会议合作伙伴（加州大学水，PPIC）将在会议之前和会议期间与社交媒体（Twitter，Facebook等）互动。

1632540 HarterGroundwater is the lifeline for many rural and agricultural regions and their associated cultures and populations around the globe and a cornerstone of global food production. Groundwater constitutes one-third of the worlds drinking water supplies, often the soul source of drinking water in rural areas; more than one-third of the world's irrigation water supply. In many regions, groundwater is the insurance against surface water shortages due to drought. Drought; overuse; groundwater salinity; nonpoint source pollution from agricultural activities (including animal farming, ranching, and forestry activities); and groundwater quality and quantity conflicts at the urban-rural interface have reached global dimensions and threaten the health and livelihood of this planet. This conference will serve as a state-wide, national, and global forum for scientists, agricultural representatives, NGOs, consultants, and policy and decision makers to discover and discuss solutions to managing, sharing, assessing, and protecting groundwater resources within agricultural landscapes. The meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Burlingame, California, conveniently located within a few miles of the San Francisco International Airport June 28-30, 2016.California is among the global leaders in agricultural production, with nearly 10 million acres of irrigated agricultural lands, providing over 400 different commodities worth $50 billion, and consuming well over 32 million acre-feet of water annually for irrigation. California is also the leader in U.S. milk production, responsible for over 20% of U.S. dairy output. While California's agriculture is unique in many ways, it shares many aspects of its nexus with groundwater with other irrigated and non-irrigated agricultural regions in the United States and around the world. Many intensively farmed regions are overlying unconsolidated sedimentary aquifer systems similar to those in California. Irrigated agricultural lands are common in semi-arid and arid climates. While irrigated lands represent merely one-fifth of the global agricultural lands, provide for 40% of overall agricultural production worldwide, underscoring the importance of irrigated agriculture to global food security. This conference is comprehensive in its organization and will be broken into several separate but related areas; 1) Groundwater Management, Governance, Policy, and Regulation, Agricultural Water Use, Conjunctive/Integrated Management, 2) Socio-Economic Aspects of Agricultural Groundwater, Climate, Energy, and Agricultural Groundwater, 3) Agricultural Groundwater Quality and Contamination, Regulation, 4) Groundwater at the Agriculture-Urban Interface, 5) Groundwater Linkages to Groundwater-dependent Ecosystems, and, 6) Forecasting and Modeling. The meeting will follow a format where each of the three conference days is divided into four meeting periods: early morning, late morning, early afternoon, late afternoon. Each period will be approximately 100 minutes in length, featuring 3-4 speakers per session. The early morning period on each of the three conference days will be reserved for a plenary session on a key conference theme, featuring 3-4 keynote speakers and allowing for participation and discussion among the entire audience. The remaining periods will feature four parallel sessions to accommodate for a wide range of themes and participant interests. The final panel will provide a lively and critical ad hoc review of topics discussed at the conference and reflect on next steps and future challenges in moving toward global sustainability of groundwater in agricultural regions. With respect to outreach, the Water Education Foundation and other conference partners (UC Water, PPIC) will be interfacing with social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc) before and during the conference.