We are getting close to the upcoming international conference "Toward Sustainable Groundwater in Agriculture - Linking Science and Policy", June 17-20, 2024, at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport Hotel in Burlingame/San Francisco, California.
Check out our exciting program and register by May 27 for reduced hotel rates!
This unique international conference covers a wide range of topics on sustainable management of groundwater resources in agricultural regions. We are convening for the third time, after successful events in 2010 and 2016. The program is organized by an international team of scientists, policy advisors, agricultural experts, and professionals working at the nexus of groundwater and agriculture, in cooperation with USDA, Cooperative Extension, AGU, ASABE, NGWA, IAH, USGS, and other organizations, under the leadership of University of California Davis, University of Waterloo, and the Water Education Foundation.
Why you would be interested in this conference?
Agricultural production accounts for three-quarters of all global groundwater abstraction. Nearly half of the global urban population and most rural populations rely on groundwater for domestic supply, often affected by agricultural pumping and pollution. Many of the world’s largest aquifers are overexploited or polluted, reducing agriculture’s resiliency to climate change, threatening global food security and access to safe drinking water. Groundwater actions are commonly limited to “local” issues, lacking national-level attention, policies, and regulations. A national and global dialogue across the inter- and transdisciplinary groundwater-food-environment nexus is largely lacking. This conference offers a North-American and international forum for water managers, farmers/farmer representatives, agricultural technology providers, food and food service industry, groundwater scientists, hydrologist, engineers, NGOs, economists, and policy- and decision-/policy-makers to discover and discuss solutions to managing, sharing, assessing, and protecting groundwater resources within agricultural landscapes.
What are the key conference themes?
The conference focuses on solutions that achieve better distribution of a limited resource in an efficient and equitable manner throughout affected regions with shortage, overdraft, and/or compromised groundwater quality. Out of shared understanding, the conference identifies common threats and pitfalls and the most promising solutions. Key drivers include the value of groundwater in agriculture, agriculture’s impact on groundwater quality and quantity, and groundwater’s role in food security and in climate resiliency of agricultural/rural communities and agricultural production, thus highlighting the groundwater-agriculture nexus across sectors. Session topics:
- Toward Sustainable Groundwater Supplies in Agricultural Landscapes
- Best Management Practices to Sustain Groundwater Supply (agricultural practices)
- Climate Change Adaptation (within the groundwater-agriculture nexus)
- Groundwater Governance
- Groundwater Management
- Managed Aquifer Recharge in Agricultural Landscapes
- Toward Sustainable Groundwater Quality in Agricultural Landscapes
- Best Management Practices to Protect Groundwater Quality (agricultural practices)
- Nitrate Monitoring, Modeling, and Policy
- Policy, Regulations, and Management of Agricultural Groundwater Pollution Sources
- Cross-Cutting Themes at the Groundwater-Agriculture Nexus
- Economic and Policy Challenges to & Opportunities for Sustainable Groundwater in Agricultural Regions conference
- Environmental Justice and Groundwater in Rural/Agricultural Regions
- Global Food Security - Groundwater Nexus
- Groundwater-Dependent Ecosystems (GDEs)
- National and Global Examples
- Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) 10 Year Anniversary
Three (free) pre-conference workshops on June 17, 2024 will be held in a hands-on, engaging, learning & sharing format that allows participants to hear from and share with a national and international group of experts on the following topics:
- Regulating, monitoring and managing a farm's groundwater nitrate pollution (half-day)
- Implementing groundwater demand management in agricultural regions (full-day)
- Groundwater governance: Tools and strategies to engage stakeholders in groundwater management and planning (half-day)
For questions regarding the program, please contact Jessica Gray, jhgray@ucdavis.edu. For questions regarding registration, please contact Nick Gray, ngray@watereducation.org. For information on exhibiting or sponsorship, please contact Patrick Dunlap, pdunlap@watereducation.org.
Comments (0)