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May 18, 2020
Should the pandemic change what we ‘do’ as sustainability scientists?
The world will likely never be the same again after the covid-19 pandemic – too much has changed for us personally, socially and culturally. The pandemic is a terrible tragedy that continues to devastate lives and economies while ironically also bearing the possibility of being a much needed global sustainability reset. So as applied scientists focused on sustainability, what is our role in this reset?
April 27, 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.
November 13, 2019
Global Groundwater Sustainability – A Call to Action… do you want to sign?
I am excited about a new initiative called “Global Groundwater Sustainability: A call to action” that was first drafted at the recent Chapman conference in Valencia, Spain. Overall, we are a global group of scientists calling for action to ensure groundwater benefits society now and into the future, and hope that you would like to join us by signing.
October 3, 2019
Groundwater pumping poses worldwide threat to riverine ecosystems
With the climate strikes happening all over the world, I sometimes wish I had a crystal ball that would allow me to look into the future. Or even better, a crystal ball that could show me different scenarios of what will happen if we change, or not. Well, I do not have a crystal ball, but I do have a global scale hydrological model.
September 25, 2019
Groundwater and a ‘green drought’
Here in New South Wales (NSW) in southeastern Australia, a long-running drought continues. The government’s water minister Melinda Pavey noted recently that “This drought is more severe than NSW has ever experienced” and some of the worst in living memory.
September 10, 2019
Shedding light on the invisible: addressing potential groundwater contamination by plastic microfibers
Until recently, the topic of plastic pollution was relatively unknown to the general public, although the problem was already under everyone’s very eyes. Indeed, plastic pollution has become one of the most debated issues over the last few years, in some cases even overshadowing the concerns about climate change, and with particular concern about the effects of microplastic (i.e. plastic particles smaller than 5 mm in length) in the natural environment.
July 8, 2019
Urban water underground: How green infrastructure makes it visible
When it comes to protecting the water resources that sustain society and the natural environment, it is perhaps unsurprising that groundwater is the part of water cycle that most folks tend to ignore.
June 27, 2019
Upcoming Chapman conference “Quest for Sustainability of Heavily Stressed Aquifers at Regional to Global Scales”
Abstracts are due soon (July 10th) for the upcoming Chapman conference on groundwater sustainability on Oct 21-24, 2019 in Valencia Spain.
June 25, 2019
Doing Hydrogeology in R
Use programming languages to interact with, analyze, and visualize data is an increasingly important skill for hydrogeologists to have. Coding-based science makes it easier to process and visualize large amounts of data and increase the reproducibility of your work, both for yourself and others.
June 3, 2019
Update on the groundwater situation in Cape Town
When the Cape Town water crisis first emerged it took almost a year before active contingencies were put in place. Four major ideas were proposed: (1) Intense water restrictions for municipal water users, (2) greywater recycling facilities, (3) groundwater augmentation of water supplies, and (4) desalination.Although not all the proposed ideas came to fruition, there was a significant increase in the installation of well points and boreholes for municipal and private use.
