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

1632540 HarterGronwater是全球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量的三分之一，往往是农村地区饮用水的灵魂来源；占世界灌溉用水供应量的三分之一以上。在许多地区，地下水是应对干旱造成的地表水短缺的保障。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的地下水质量和数量冲突已经达到全球范围，并威胁到这个星球的健康和生计。这次会议将作为一个全州、全国和全球的论坛，供科学家、农业代表、非政府组织、顾问和政策制定者发现和讨论管理、共享、评估和保护农业景观内地下水资源的解决方案。会议将于2016年6月28日至30日在加利福尼亚州伯灵格姆的凯悦酒店举行，该酒店距离旧金山国际机场几英里，交通便利。加州是全球农业生产的领先者之一，拥有近1000万英亩的灌溉农田，提供400多种不同的商品，价值500亿美元，每年用于灌溉的水超过3200万英亩英尺。加州也是美国牛奶产量的领头羊，占美国乳制品产量的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的其他灌溉和非灌溉农业区在许多方面都与地下水有联系。许多密集耕作的地区覆盖着松散的沉积含水层系统，类似于加利福尼亚州的那些。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，但却占全球农业总产量的40%，这凸显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、政策和监管，农业用水，联合/综合管理，2)农业地下水的社会经济方面，气候，能源和农业地下水，3)农业地下水质量和污染，4)农业-城市交界处的地下水，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。会议将按照三个会议日每一天分为四个会议时段的形式举行：清晨、上午晚些时候、下午早些时候、下午晚些时候。每节课长约100分钟，每节课有3-4位演讲者。将保留三个会议日中每一天的清晨时间，举行一次关于一个关键会议主题的全体会议，有3-4名主旨发言人参加，并允许全体听众参与和讨论。剩下的时段将有四个平行的会议，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议题进行生动而关键的特别审查，并反思在实现农业区地下水全球可持续性方面的下一步步骤和未来的挑战。在外展方面，水教育基金会和其他会议伙伴(UC Water、PPIC)将在会议之前和期间与社交媒体(Twitter、Facebook等)建立联系。

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.