WaterUnderground

community engagement

Air quality in North India and links with groundwater management

29th November 2022
Air quality in North India and links with groundwater management
Caption: Haze and mist affecting visibility, Delhi, October 2022. Photo credits: Swamini Khurana.

by Swamini Khurana Air pollution in India, particularly in north India, is a long-standing problem (1,2) with reportedly 63% of Indians living in areas exceeding the WHO guidelines for PM2.5 levels of 40 µg/m3. This makes India one of the most polluted countries in the world (typically among the worst 5 countries over the past 4-5 years (3)), along with Pakistan and Bangladesh. In fact, this makes ...[Read More]

Urban Groundwater II: Heading for the coast

28th September 2022
Photo credit: Shutterstock.
Figure 1: Perth is expanding along the coast into areas with shallow groundwater.

by Margaret Shanafield (Flinders University), Ana Manero (Australian National University), Sally Thompson (University of Western Australia), and Greg Claydon Few urban home buyers are picking their dream home based on depth to groundwater. Yet that water level can play an important role in the quality of life in their new home. Typically, it is only after moving in that residents realise problems ...[Read More]

How to add environmental justice into your groundwater classes

16th May 2022
How to add environmental justice into your groundwater classes

By Tom Gleeson, Chinchu Mohan, Summer Okibe, Noella Horoscoe, Xander Huggins, Crystal Ng and Ally Jacoby Along with the Water Underground Talks (webpage, youtube, blog post) that bring passionate and diverse voices and perspectives into groundwater classrooms, we have also been developing new materials to add environmental justice into your groundwater classes. The US EPA defines environmental jus ...[Read More]

Bright Spots in Groundwater Management

4th May 2022
Bright Spots in Groundwater Management

Announcing a new series of articles By Swamini Khurana Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is the coordinated management of natural resources including both water and land. IWRM informs a sustainable path to development without leaving a holistic view of ecosystems out of the context. Thus, it brings together professionals from a wide variety of professional backgrounds to ensure this hol ...[Read More]

Call for nominations for Water Underground Talks Season 2

16th November 2021
Groundwater marquee for Water Underground Talks

Water Underground Talks elevates diverse voices, perspectives and groundwater research. In Season 1, eleven hydrogeologists from around the world shared their passions and exciting research on the connections between groundwater, climate, food and people. Season 2 will build on the success of Season 1 by releasing ~10 more videos that further elevate diverse voices, perspectives and groundwater re ...[Read More]

Writing a research vision statement in a pandemic

3rd March 2021
Writing a research vision statement in a pandemic
Collected sticky notes from our last in-person activity before the pandemic: brainstorming to write a new research vision and mission statement.

Tom Gleeson, University of Victoria with lots of input from the GSAS research collective We’ve all done weird, new things in the pandemic. We have tried Zoom parlour games and a few of us have done the pandemic tropes of giving bread baking or even giving a new fitness regime a try. Strangely, the very last thing that we did together in person as a research group before the first pandemic lockdown ...[Read More]

Elevating diverse voices and groundwater research from around the world with Water Underground Talks

18th December 2020
Elevating diverse voices and groundwater research from around the world with Water Underground Talks

By Tom Gleeson and Viviana Re It has been a challenging year of a pandemic, economic collapse and an ever-increasing awareness of racism, all set against a backdrop of other global challenges including climate change and food security. We believe it is important to link groundwater with these challenges and to stay positive using our science and work as scientists to contribute to a better future. ...[Read More]

A buffet of new resources for teaching hydrology and water resources!

28th November 2020
A buffet of new resources for teaching hydrology and water resources!
Dr. H20 discussing how to solve water problems (L) and some of the available teaching resources now on HydroShare! (R).

By Tom Gleeson (aka Dr. H2O) The content of this post will be presented as an invited eLightning presentation at AGU 2020 in the session “Online Hydrology Education: Lessons Learned from Designed and Impromptu Remote Instruction”. When: Tuesday, 8 December 2020: 07:00 – 08:00 PST What I teach and basic resources I teach Sustainable Water Resources (CIVE 340) at the University of Victoria – a ...[Read More]

Calling on hydrologists to help each other with emergency remote teaching

26th June 2020
Calling on hydrologists to help each other with emergency remote teaching
Lecture halls will be empty for many this fall. How can you help the hydrology community pivot to online teaching?

By Tom Gleeson, Adam Ward, Anne Jefferson, and Skuyler Herzog Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us are in the same situation: all of a sudden ‘pivoting’ to online teaching, which is probably better called ‘emergency remote teaching’ since few of us have the background, training, and resources to purposefully develop online courses. Fortunately, this response has also catalyzed the open sharing ...[Read More]

Should the pandemic change what we ‘do’ as sustainability scientists?

18th May 2020
Should the pandemic change what we ‘do’ as sustainability scientists?
Reflections and Ripples by David Hawkins-Weeks (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

By: Viviana Re and Tom Gleeson he 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 sustai ...[Read More]