Symposium on Scientific and Engineering Tools to Address Grounwater Depletion

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1643241 Pinder, George F.This grant is to help support a symposium on scientific and engineering tools to address groundwater depletion. The symposium will be held on October 11, 2016, in Washington DC. While various scientific and engineering tools for the analysis and management of groundwater exist, they are dispersed across a number of disciplines in universities, and additionally experts on this topic are found in many government agencies. The proposed symposium will bring together an interdisciplinary group of distinguished scientists and engineers that crosses these disciplinary and administrative boundaries. The benefits will be 1. communication of the state of knowledge between these experts and 2. identification of the tools needed to address groundwater depletion and 3. an improved strategy to deal with this critical problem. As stated in the list of grand challenges of the NAE, "...about one out of every six people living today do not have adequate access to water and more than double that number lack basic sanitation, for which water is needed...." Of the various sources of fresh water, groundwater makes up thirty percent. In some areas of the US it is a mined resource and not easily replenished. The symposium is dedicated to the effective evaluation, monitoring and management of this resource. This symposium has the potential to make a major impact on the quality of life of an enormous number of people. The symposium is intended to stimulate a greater awareness and continuing discussion of the critical challenge of water resources and provide scientific fundamentals to be drawn upon for the development of national policies to more effectively address the challenge.