We are delighted that Professor Alan MacDonald (British Geological Survey), who is leading one of the Hidden Crisis UPGro project the Africa Groundwater Atlas, and Professor Richard Taylor who is the leading the UPGro GroFutures project and the Groundwater Chronicles Consortium with are chairing sessions at the 2015 IAH Congress in Rome, 13—18 September:
Session S1.1 Groundwater in rural areas: the challenges of improving local water security
In many rural parts of the world (particularly in low income countries) access to groundwater provides the only realistic option for a sustainable safe drinking water supply and can markedly increase local water security. The new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will call for universal coverage for safe drinking water, and a step change towards household connection. However, developing and managing these groundwater supplies can involve many challenges, such as: siting boreholes and wells in low productivity aquifers; testing for and dealing with poor water chemistry, managing groundwater with weak or absent regulation, contamination from onsite sanitation, and issues of ongoing maintenance and non-functionality. This session seeks to: (1) discuss the contribution that groundwater supplies can make to local water security; (2) the current and future challenges of increasing rural groundwater supply; and (3) the opportunities of working together with civil society. Case studies of successful or unsuccessful projects are welcome
S3.2 Climate change and groundwater availability: a call for adaptation (coordinated by IAH Commission on Groundwater and Climate Change)
Convenor: Richard Taylor (University College London, United Kingdom)
Groundwater can play a central role in enabling communities to adapt to climate variability and change. There is consequently growing interest in the use of groundwater to address both climate-driven variability in freshwater resources and increased agricultural, domestic and industrial freshwater demands. This session seeks to: (1) define specific advances in knowledge of relationship among groundwater, climate, and adaptation; (2) identify critical knowledge gaps; and (3) promote inter-disciplinary collaborations as well as data and knowledge exchanges.
Alan and Richard are on the lookout for good papers for this session and case studies of successful or unsuccessful projects are welcome. So if you would like to submit an abstract you can find more details here: http://www.iah2015.org/sessions/ The deadline is 31 March.
Also this year:
WEDC Conference 2015 27–31 July 2015, Loughborough University, UK
The deadline for abstracts has passed, but the deadline for stands, capacity development workshops and side events is this Friday 15th March. For details visit: http://www.wedcconference.co.uk/workshops.html and http://www.wedcconference.co.uk/exhibition.html
UNC Water & Health Conference October 26-30, 2015, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
Abstracts for both poster and verbal presentations may be up until Friday 24 April: http://waterinstitute.unc.edu/waterandhealth/call-papers/
UPGro - African Groundwater 2020 