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期间和干旱地区。现在，在加利福尼亚、德克萨斯、中东和其他干旱地区，钻到几公里深的地下水井越来越普遍。处理方案正在改进，微咸水（和海水）现在经常被淡化以供人类食用。虽然区域和全球都在努力确定含盐和微咸地下水的特征，但这些努力的重点是相对较浅的深度。此外，这些研究一般没有综合考虑饮用水水质要求、灌溉有毒元素浓度和工业水质需求。此外，我们需要证据表明，深层地下水可以用来证明其免受人为活动的保护是合理的。通过深层地下水特征和分析，本研究项目将有利于决策者、政府、农业和工业用水用户管理和保护深层地下水资源。

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.