WaterUnderground

Cultural Impacts

Update on the groundwater situation in Cape Town

3rd June 2019
Update on the groundwater situation in Cape Town
Freeze-frame from the featured IAEA video on drought conditions in Cape Town.

Post by Jared van Rooyen, PhD student in Earth Science at Stellenbosch University, in South Africa. 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) des ...[Read More]

Water: underground source for billions could take more than a century to respond fully to climate change

18th February 2019
Water: underground source for billions could take more than a century to respond fully to climate change
Cenota Samula sinkhole in Yucatan, Mexico. Tono Balaguer/Shutterstock

WaterUnderground post by Mark O. Cuthbert, Cardiff University; Kevin M. Befus, University of Wyoming, and Tom Gleeson, University of Victoria Groundwater is the biggest store of accessible freshwater in the world, providing billions of people with water for drinking and crop irrigation. That’s all despite the fact that most will never see groundwater at its source – it’s stored naturally below gro ...[Read More]

The true meaning of life … for a hydrogeologist

16th November 2018

I am currently on sabbatical with Thorsten Wagener’s group at the University of Bristol. While on campus, I stumbled upon this quote from Nelson Henderson (a farmer from Manitoba).  It encapsulates what I have been thinking about groundwater sustainability for a number of years: “The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit”. For me, as a ...[Read More]

Groundwater and Education – Part two

2nd August 2018
Groundwater and Education – Part two

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 two of a two-part series on groundwater and education by Viviana. __________________________________________________ In my last post (“Drawing out groundwater (from the well)”) I wrote about the reasons why, as groundwater scientists, we shoul ...[Read More]

Socio-hydrology meets Broadway: Can we survive drought if we stop using the toilet?

25th April 2018
Socio-hydrology meets Broadway: Can we survive drought if we stop using the toilet?

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. ___________________________________________________________ How can society best cope with water scarcity? With Cape Town on the verge of being the first major city to run out of water (a topic for a future post here on Water Underground), thi ...[Read More]

On the social responsibility of water scientists

15th December 2017
On the social responsibility of water scientists

Post by Viviana Re, a post-doctoral research fellow at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences of the University of Pavia, in Italy. _______________________________________________ Should we feel a moral obligation to engage, if our work has real implications on society? As an environmental scientist, with a PhD in Analysis and Governance of Sustainable development, I grew up “multidisc ...[Read More]

Of Karst! – short episodes about karst

4th November 2017
Of Karst! – short episodes about karst

Post by Andreas Hartmann,  Assistant Professor in Hydrological Modeling and Water Resources at the University of Freiburg. __________________________________________________ Episode 3 – Learning about karst by … KARST IN THE MOVIES! Before writing about karst hydrology in “Of Karst! Episode 4”, I have been urged to present some more visual information on karst landforms. Of Karst! Episode 1 focuse ...[Read More]

Video: Why and how I communicate on social and traditional media, and some mistakes I made along the way…

7th October 2017

Display "Why and how I communicate on social and traditional media, and some mistakes along the way…" from Vimeo Click here to display content from Vimeo. Learn more in Vimeo’s privacy policy. Always display content from Vimeo Open "Why and how I communicate on social and traditional media, and some mistakes along the way…" directly Water Underground creator Tom Gle ...[Read More]

Everything is connected

23rd September 2017
Everything is connected

Post by Anne Van Loon, Lecturer in Physical Geography (Water sciences) at the University of Birmingham, in the United Kingdom. __________________________________________________ In recent years the human dimension of hydrology has become increasingly important. Major flood and drought events have shown how strongly water and society are intertwined (see here and here). The hydro(geo)logical resear ...[Read More]

Humanitarian groundwater projects; notes on motivations from the academic world

22nd July 2017
Humanitarian groundwater projects; notes on motivations from the academic world

Post by Margaret Shanafield, ARC DECRA Senior Hydrogeology/Hydrology Researcher at Flinders University, in Australia. You can follow Margaret on Twitter at @shanagland. ___________________________________________________________ What led me down the slippery slope into a career in hydrology and then hydrogeology, was a desire to combine my love of traveling with a desire to have a deeper relations ...[Read More]