Deep groundwater resources - quantity, quality, and protection

深层地下水含水层可能是一种宝贵的资源，特别是在未来几十年和几个世纪的严重干旱和干旱地区。现在，在加利福尼亚州、德克萨斯州、中东和其他干旱地区，地下水井被钻到几公里深的地方越来越常见。治疗方案正在改进，苦咸水(和海水)现在通常被淡化以供人类饮用。尽管有区域和全球的努力来确定咸水和咸水地下水的特征，但这些努力侧重于相对较浅的深度。此外，这些研究一般没有全面考虑饮用水质量要求、灌溉用有毒元素浓度以及工业用水质量需求。此外，我们需要证据表明，深层地下水可以被用来证明其保护免受人类活动的影响是合理的。通过对深层地下水的表征和分析，该研究项目将有利于政策制定者、政府以及农业和工业用水者管理和保护深层地下水资源。*将使用建模、统计和可视化技术进行数据分析，并收集和分析地下水样本，以回答以下重要问题：深层、新鲜和可用地下水的量是多少？这些水中有多少是可用的？需要多少治疗？它的使用及其潜在影响是什么？我们应该如何/在哪里/何时收集更多数据？这一成果可以刺激深层地下水监测和保护以及水处理技术的新创新。鉴于未来可获得新的信息和方法，其想法是利用开放源码的建模和分析工具建立一个适应性强的分析框架，为政策制定提供及时的信息。*在五年的课程期间，三名研究生(一名博士和两名硕士)和三名本科生将接受地下水流动和传输基础知识、分析和数值建模、地理空间和统计数据分析以及水样收集和水质分析方面的培训。培训将通过三项研究实现：(1)深层地下水特征和模型开发--美国西南部的案例研究；(2)全球和区域规模的深层地下水数据库的开发和分析；(3)人类消费、灌溉和工业使用的深层地下水。这些学生将获得广泛的科学和工程领域的适用技能，包括地下水、废物处理和石油和天然气，并为加拿大政府、学术界和工业界的劳动力做出贡献。新的研究计划还将加强加拿大的地下水、农业和地下能源研究及其对全球科学和发展界的贡献，并保护未来的人类和生态系统健康。

Deep groundwater aquifers may be a valuable resource, especially during severe droughts and in arid regions, in decades and centuries to come. It is now increasingly common to find groundwater wells drilled to several-kilometer depths in California, Texas, the Middle East, and other arid regions. Treatment options are improving and brackish water (and seawater) is now routinely desalinated for human consumption. Although there are regional and global efforts to characterize saline and brackish groundwater, these efforts focus on relatively shallow depths. In addition, these studies generally do not comprehensively consider drinking water quality requirements, toxic element concentrations for irrigation, and industrial water quality needs. Furthermore, we need evidence that deep groundwater can be used to justify its protection from anthropogenic activities. Through deep groundwater characterization and analysis, this research program will benefit policy-makers, governments, and agricultural and industrial water users to manage and protect deep groundwater resources. ******Data analysis with modeling, statistics, and visualization techniques and groundwater sample collection and analysis will be used to answer important questions such as: what is the volume of deep fresh and usable groundwater? How much of this water is available? How much treatment is needed? What are the potential impacts of and to its use? How/where/when should we collect more data? The results can spur new innovations in deep groundwater monitoring and protection and in water treatment technologies. In light of future availability of new information and methods, the idea is to build an adaptable analysis framework with open-source modeling and analysis tools that can provide timely information for policy-making. ******Over the five-year duration of the program, three graduate (one Ph.D. and two Master) and three undergraduate students will be trained in the fundamentals of subsurface flow and transport, analytical and numerical modeling, geospatial and statistical data analysis, and water sample collection and quality analysis. The training will be achieved through three studies: (1) Deep groundwater characterization and model development – a case study on the southwestern U.S.; (2) Deep groundwater database development and analysis at global and regional scales; and (3) Deep groundwater for human consumption, irrigation, and industrial uses. The students will acquire skills applicable in a wide range of science and engineering fields, including groundwater, waste disposal, and oil and gas, and contribute to Canada's workforce in government, academia, and industry. The new research program will also strengthen Canada's groundwater, agriculture, and subsurface-based energy research and its contributions to the global science and development community, and protect future human and ecosystem health.