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27 April 2020
Groundwater and climate change revisited: informing adaptation in a warming world
Recent research has identified the natural resilience of groundwater to climate change and our tendency to deplete this invaluable resource. It’s time we understood, valued, and governed groundwater as the vital adaptation to climate change that it is.
20 April 2020
Re-thinking watersheds from the bottom up
Despite a few decades of progress on groundwater-surface water interaction and the advent of integrated groundwater-surface water models, it was clear that very different conceptual models of how groundwater fits into the hydrologic cycle were held by different communities within hydrology.
16 May 2019
Data sharing: an update on new and existing initiatives
Last year, Anne Van Loon wrote about data sharing initiatives in hydrology (“Data drought or data flood?” 28 May 2018). This post gives an update on existing and new initiatives.
8 May 2019
Video: Linking water planetary boundaries and UN Sustainable Development Goals
Water Underground creator Tom Gleeson prepared this quick research video (with no more than a toothbrush, a file holder, and a doughnut, in one take!) for the Ripples project meeting at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, that was held in April. In this video, he talks about using doughnut economics for linking water planetary boundaries and UN Sustainable Development Goals.
1 April 2019
Have you ever wondered if groundwater is connected to climate?
‘Groundwater-surface water interactions’ has become standard hydrologic lexicon and a perennial favorite session title at various conferences… but how often do you hear the phrase ‘groundwater-climate interactions’?
25 March 2019
Celestial groundwater – the subsurface plumbing for extraterrestrial life support
Have you ever taken a walk on the beach during a lowering (ebbing) tide and see mini-rivers grow and create beautiful drainage patterns before your eyes? These short-lived groundwater seepage features are tiny (and fast) analogs of how groundwater has shaped some parts of Mars! It appears that groundwater loosening sediments can lead to all sorts of scales of erosion on both Earth and Mars.
18 February 2019
Water: underground source for billions could take more than a century to respond fully to climate change
While climate change makes dramatic changes to weather and ecosystems on the surface, the impact on the world’s groundwater is likely to be delayed, representing a challenge for future generations.
8 October 2018
Groundwater and drought
Post by Andy Baker, Professor researching groundwater, caves, past climate, organic carbon and more at the University of New South Wales, in Australia. __________________________________________________ Drought is in the news here in New South Wales, Australia. But how are rainfall, drought and groundwater related? First, we need to understand what drought is. Is it a water shortage? Or a lack of rainfall? Or something else? In the USA, the National Climatic Data Center …
18 July 2018
How deep does groundwater go? Mining (dark) data from the depths
We’ve all been asked (or do the asking), “where does your water come from?” This is a fundamental question for establishing a series of additional questions that can ultimately help define strategies for valuing and protecting a particular water resource.
16 March 2018
Happy birthday plate tectonics!
As we’ve firmly moved into 2018, we can say happy 50th birthday to one of the most revolutionary scientific theories of the last century: plate tectonics. Here we discuss the birth of plate tectonics and what it means for hydrogeology.
5 January 2018
A Tanzanian groundwater safari through the last 2 million years
Watching our backs in case of predators, we ventured out of the safety of our Land Rover for Gail to sample the lake water, as salt blew in drifts around us off the desiccated edges of the lake bed…
9 November 2017
Community advice to young hydrologists, Part 1
What book or paper has been most influential to your career and why?
4 November 2017
Of Karst! – short episodes about karst
This episode focuses more on the appearance of karst features in famous movies and TV programs that may be familiar to some of us, although we may not have watched them through the eyes of a karst fanatic at the time.
13 October 2017
Groundwater organic matter: carbon source or sink?
Could groundwater be a previously unrecognised source or sink of carbon?
28 September 2017
Western water wells are going dry
We recently mapped groundwater wells across the 17 western states [1], where half of US groundwater pumping takes place.
17 July 2017
Good groundwater management makes for good neighbors
Post by Samuel Zipper, postdoctoral fellow at both McGill University and the University of Victoria, in Canada. You can follow Sam on Twitter at @ZipperSam. ___________________________________________________________ Dedicated Water Underground readers know that this blog is not just about water science, but also some of the more cultural impacts of groundwater. Keeping in that tradition, today’s post begins with a joke*: Knock, knock! Who’s there? Your neighbor Your neighbor who? Your neighbor’s groundwater, …
2 July 2017
Groundwater & Education – Part One
Post by Viviana Re, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pavia (Università di Pavia), in Italy. You can follow Viviana on Twitter at @biralnas. Part one of a two part series on groundwater and education by Viviana. ___________________________________________________________ Education /ɛdjʊˈkeɪʃ(ə)n The process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university. from Latin educatio(n-), from the verb educare Educare is a combination of the words e (out) and ducare (lead, drawing), …
26 June 2017
What is the difference between ‘water withdrawal’ and ‘water consumption’, and why do we need to know?
Last week I had to teach my first class in global hydrology. When I showed the global trend on increasing demands and withdrawals I needed to explain the different terms as sometimes the term “water use” gets, well, misused.
10 June 2017
Is highway de-icing ‘a-salting’ our aquifers?
If you live in a cold climate, have you ever wondered where all the de-icing salt (or ‘grit’ as we call it in the UK) that gets spread on the roads in winter time ends up, aside from that accumulating salty grime that coats your car? As you might expect, most of the salt gets washed off the highways as the salt has the desired effect of melting the ice, or carried away by rain. This salty ‘runoff’ ends up in streams nearby via pipes which drain the highway.
11 May 2017
Groundwater Speed Dating! Can you find a match?
Welcome to the first edition of groundwater speed dating. In today’s post I introduce you to a motley crew of isotopes and chemicals that hydrogeologists and geochemists use to date the age of groundwater.
