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INTERNATIONAL

ASSOCIATION OF

HYDROGEOLOGISTS

B U M P E R E D I T I O N !

S E E I N S I D E F O R C O N T E N T S

DECEMBER 2012

Keep up to date: visit our website for the latest news http://www.iah.org

Contact us: email info@iah.org with your news, views or questions

DECEMBER 2012

NEWS &informationI A H - T H E W O R L D W I D E G R O U N D W A T E R O R G A N I S A T I O N

Furthering the understanding, wise use and protection of groundwater resources throughout the world

Reports throughout this newsletter.

The December issue of IAH’s Newsletter is often dominated by reports from our congress. This year is no exception, and we make no apology for that. Our hosts, the Canadian organising committee, are to be congratulated for putting on an IAH congress which was truly excellent in every respect; all set against the dramatic background of the Niagara Falls.

A NEW PRESIDENT FOR OUR ASSOCIATIONProfessor Willi Struckmeier hands over the Presidency to Professor Ken Howard during IAH’s Annual General Meeting in Canada. Full election report is on page 5; see opening message from Ken on page 4; messages also from some of our other new Council members, page 20.

VIEWS FROM NIAGARA

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IAH News and Information is published 3 times a year. It is distributed as an insert in Hydrogeology Journal and

is also published via IAH’s website and email alerts.

It reaches all members and associated members of the International Association of Hydrogeologists, reaching

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3DECEMBER 2012

From our President.................................. 4

IAH election results...................................5

Congress report........................................6

Commissions and Networks............. ........8

IAH Awards..............................................12

Media Focus............................................14

IAH news.......................................... ......16

IAH survey results....................................18

Introducing IAH’s Council.........................20

New members.........................................22

Book adverts and releases.......................24

Chapter news..........................................26

Global Water Programme.................. ......28

Groundwater Governance (GEF) latest......29

Future congresses...................................30

Conference/event listings........................32

IN THIS ISSUEYou will see that this is a bumper edition of our

newsletter, which has grown gradually as the

Secretariat has been working on it. While this certainly

makes more work for Kellie and myself, it is a sure

sign of the growing activity of our Association and the

need to communicate this activity to and amongst our

members. The winter edition tends to be the largest

each year because of the reports of congress and all

the other associated meetings and activities. However,

this newsletter is further augmented by the election

results and the messages from the new President

and Council, and by the four pages of reports from

the commissions and networks who held meetings

in Niagara Falls. Many of these reports speci� cally

include invitations to participate, so you are urged to

look at these.JOHN CHILTON

By the time you receive this newsletter, the festive and holiday season will be upon us.

John, Kellie, Sharon and Sue would like to wish you all a happy Christmas and a peaceful

and successful New Year.

SEASONS GREETINGS

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In my first newsletter article as President of IAH, it is my privilege to

extend a warm welcome to our newly elected Council. Council is the

management board of IAH, and Council members assume important

responsibilities, both as Directors of IAH as a company, and as trustees

of IAH as a charitable organisation. These are not duties that can

be taken lightly, as decisions made by Council can fundamentally

influence the direction of IAH and the range of services provided to members. IAH continues to be

very fortunate in having many well qualified members from across the world who are willing to

stand for election to Council and I look forward to working with the successful candidates over the

next four years. I would like to offer a special welcome to our six new Council members: Wendy

Timms, Teodóra Szöcs, Callist Tindimugaya, Jun Shimada, Dave Kreamer and Bruce Misstear. As

the new Vice President for Finance and Membership, Bruce has also joined Shammy Puri, Antonio

Chambel and myself on the IAH Executive Committee.

From a personal perspective, I cannot think of a more exciting time than now for taking over the

helm of our association. Following over 50 years of exceptional leadership, IAH has become a

financially efficient, well-managed organisation with an experienced, hard-working Secretariat, an

outstanding journal and a globally dispersed team of committed volunteers contributing selflessly

to the work of Council, our National Chapters and our Commissions and Networks. In future

newsletter articles, I plan to report more fully on the direction of IAH, our goals and aspirations and

the challenges we must overcome. The course we must follow has yet to be mapped in detail, but

the overall direction was clearly identified through the forward-look initiatives conducted under the

previous Council and I would be remiss to complete this brief article without thanking Council for

the excellent work it has accomplished in the past 4 years. I am especially grateful to the retiring

Council members: Stephen Foster, Ian Acworth, Lenny Konikow, Shivendra Rai, Segun Adelana

and Didier Pennequin for their diligent service to IAH, a service that, in many cases, extended

across several 4-year terms of office.

Last, but by no means least I would like to thank Willi Struckmeier, our immediate past-President

for his unstinting devotion to IAH. Willi has been a prominent figure in IAH for more years than I

can remember. He joined Council as IAH Treasurer in 1996, a position he held for 8 years. He

was elected Vice President for Western Europe in 2004 and became Secretary General in 2006.

He took over the Presidency from Stephen Foster in 2008. Over the years, Willi’s tireless work and

enthusiasm has contributed significantly to the current strength and stability of the association.

As President, he has proved to be a model leader and strong motivator. It is with great relief I am

pleased to report that Willi will remain on IAH Council and that we can continue to benefit from his

broad experience and wise counsel.

KEN HOWARD, IAH PRESIDENT

Welcome and thanksFR

OM

OU

R P

RES

IDEN

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IAH ELECTION RESULTSNew IAH Council takes of� ce

The results of the 2012 IAH Council elections were

declared at the Annual General Meeting of the

Association in Niagara Falls on 18 September.

The democratic health, institutional transparency

and organisational energy of IAH benefit greatly from

the regular changes to the council’s composition.

According to our Articles of Association, all paid-up

members are eligible to stand for election to council.

Nominations opened on 1 January and closed on 30

April. Considerable efforts were made to encourage

nominations, with a full page article on the back cover of

the newsletter in December, a call on the home page of

the website throughout the nomination period, mention

in the IAH e-news in January and March and an HJ alert

in March. Nominations were sought and received from

IAH national chapters and commissions and networks

as well as from individual members. Whilst candidates

did not step forward to provide competition for every

post, we were nevertheless happy to see such strong

candidates for the three contested posts, and will hope

to harness the energy and experience of the losing

candidates to the benefit of IAH.

Voting for the new IAH Council opened on 1 July and

closed on 15 September and the 1205 votes cast from

a total electorate of 3850 represents a 31.3% response,

slightly down on the 34% of 2008 but significantly up on

the 24% in 2004. This compares well with turnouts for

voting in similar associations. The full results are shown

in the table below. We are particularly pleased to have

two women members on the new council.

The retiring council was thanked for its hard work on behalf of the Association by outgoing President Willi Struckmeier,

who will join the elected members to complete the IAH council. The new council was in turn welcomed by incoming

President Ken Howard, and held its first meeting in Niagara Falls on 20 September. We wish them well in their efforts

on behalf of IAH, and the Secretariat looks forward to a continuing close and fruitful relationship with Council.

JOHN CHILTON (ELECTION OFF ICER)

Post Name Votes President Ken Howard, Canada 1119 Secretary General Shammy Puri, United Kingdom 1085 Vice President, Finance & Membership Bruce Misstear, Ireland 1102 Vice President, Science & Programme António Chambel, Portugal 1077 Vice President, Asia Jun Shimada, Japan (elected)

Shakheel Ahmed, India Gulab Prasad, India

532 310 179

Vice President, Australasia Wendy Timms, Australia (elected) Philip Commander, Australia

691 355

Vice President, Eastern Europe Igor Zektser, Russia 952 Vice President, Western Europe Teódora Sz�cs, Hungary (elected)

Andrzej Witkowski, Poland 613 450

Vice President, Latin America Luiz Amore, Brazil 991 Vice President, Middle East and North Africa Mohamed Aboufirass, Morocco 979 Vice President, North America David Kreamer, USA 1012 Vice President, Sub Saharan Africa Callist Tindimugaya, Uganda 1001

DECEMBER 2012

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IAH 39TH CONGRESSCoping with a full house in Niagara Falls

Report by John Chilton

Having been nervous earlier in the year about whether there would be

enough abstracts submitted and the likely numbers of participants, the

congress turned out to be so popular that in July the rare step of closing

registrations and setting up a waiting list had to be taken. This was easily

the best attended IAH congress and the local organisers managed the

numbers very well.

All present enjoyed a very full week of plenary presentations, parallel

sessions and poster presentations and will have taken away with them

warm memories of their time in Canada and of the congress. To provide

a strong and broad basis for the overall congress theme of “Confronting

Global Change”, the four invited speakers Joe Tóth, John Cherry, Alan

Freeze and Frank Schwartz each packed the Great Room of the Sheraton’s

conference centre for their keynote presentations. It was a privilege for so

many colleagues to be able to listen to these four “grandees” of Canadian

hydrogeology, and moreover a shrewd move on the part of the congress

organisers to spread these keynotes through the conference week.

While of course very gratifying, the large number of good quality abstracts

submitted presented the local organising committee with a sizeable

scheduling task. Of the total of 971 abstracts submitted, only a few were

rejected at the outset but nearly 200 accepted abstracts were not included

in the congress programme because the authors had not registered by the

deadline of 15 June. This left 751 abstracts to be fitted into the technical

programme! For much of the week, therefore, eight parallel sessions were

needed to cope with these. This is far higher than we have had at past

congresses, and the scientific committee are to be congratulated for their

hard work and long days (and nights too, apparently) setting up such an

excellent technical programme and in managing it so efficiently through

the whole week.

At a glance - congress facts

The theme was “Confronting Global

Change” and the programme

included:

4 keynote speakers

575 oral presentaions

176 posters

Meetings of Council, National

Chapters, the Early Career

Hydrogeologists’ Network and many

of IAH’s other Commissions and

Networks; the General Assembly

An array of social activities and field

trips

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The large attendance also presented some logistical

challenges for the mid-congress field visits. For

several of these, transport was arranged so that

participants were started from both ends of a trip to

avoid congestion at small sites with limited access

and to spread the burden on hosting partners and

their staff and facilities, and this worked well. The

Great Room of the conference centre was buzzing

with participants waiting to be called for their

respective mid-congress tours.

The full congress programme nevertheless provided

time for the Association’s own meetings, many of

which are reported on elsewhere in this newsletter.

The visitor centre beside the Horseshoe Falls

was able to accommodate the full complement of

congress participants to an excellent buffet supper,

during which we were able to go down into tunnels

excavated into the rock behind the falls and come

out into the spray to the side of the wall of falling

water (cover picture). From reactions during and

after the congress, participants thoroughly enjoyed

their time in Niagara, and our hosts on the organising

committee and their many helpers and supporters

are to be congratulated on a job well done. This

stupendous effort really sets the bar high for those

who follow!

DECEMBER 2012

At a glance - attendees

There were 900 participants from 60 countries.

This number included 470 from Canada, 64 from

USA, 47 from Australia and 36 from China.

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photographing the most keywords. The evening was rounded off at the nearby Hard Rock Café, where participants had the chance to network and socialize, enjoy some drinks and view the collected artwork from the scavenger hunt. We are especially thankful to IAH for booking the room at the Hard Rock Café and to the Canadian Chapter of IAH for sponsoring the delightful food!

Presentation and Panel Discussion on the Role of ECH’s as Groundwater AdvocatesOn Monday, just before the annual meeting and social event, the Network presented a talk in the “Groundwater for Decision Makers” session of Andrew Stone. The introduction of the ECH Network and its aims by Matthys Dippenaar and Viviana Re was followed by a lively discussion between members of the ECHN ,the new IAH Commission on Groundwater Outreach and the audience on the role of early career hydrogeologists as groundwater advocates The discussion was dominated by two main questions: (i) “What advantages do junior hydrogeologists have in promoting groundwater awareness?” and (ii) “How can senior hydrogeologists contribute to better promotion of the value of groundwater through junior hydrogeologists?” New aspects of the network’s future focus were raised and we would like to thank all participants for their input.

ECHN Poster Prize awarded to Lindsay McMillan (UK) and Genevieve Bordelaux (Canada)Special focus was given to early career hydrogeologists and their work during the “Showcasing Early Career

The Niagara Falls Congress was a resounding success for early career hydrogeologists, encouraging their involvement in IAH matters, enabling networking and developing their professional knowledge and careers.

Thanks to the organisers of the congress, the Early Career Hydrogeologists’ Network of IAH (ECHN) was able to offer a dedicated early career hydrogeologist poster session, annual meeting and a social function. Of the 900 delegates from around 60 countries, 180 were registered as students and around 400 identified themselves on the registration form as ECH’s. Many were glad to accept the invitation of the ECHN to join the events and to get involved.

Pre congress short coursesThe congress week started with an attractive selection of short courses, ranging from field methods to conceptual modeling. One of the highlights was the half-day course on “The Art of Writing Successful Scientific Papers” by Nick Robins (UK), which provided participants with a useful toolbox of “do’s and don’ts” for authoring. It would be good to repeat this course at future congresses.

ECHN annual meeting and social eventMore than 70 junior hydrogeologists attended the annual meeting of ECHN and were updated on the network’s aims and current objectives. A highlight was the subsequent photo scavenger hunt: Certain (hydro) geologic and IAH related keywords had to be matched

with photos taken by the groups, providing interaction with more senior IAH colleagues, sightseeing and fun! The

winner of the scavenger hunt was the group “Debye-Hückel” (pictured)

for special creativity and

Niagara: The Perfect Breeding Ground for Early Career Hydrogeologists

COMMISSIONS & NETWORKS

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Hydrogeologists” poster session which received great attention from delegates. The excellent quality of the contributions gave judges Ian Acworth and Bruce Misstear a hard time in selecting the prize winners. Third prize was awarded to Nathan Green (Canada) for his poster “An evaluation of the importance of factors influencing seawater intrusion in coastal aquifers subject to climate change: A case study from Atlantic Canada”, while the first prize was awarded jointly to Lindsay McMillan (UK) for the poster “Rigorous sampling in long-screen wells” and Genevieve Bordeleau (Canada) for the poster “The use of nitrogen and oxygen isotopes to distinguish nitrate sources in groundwater at anti-tank training ranges”. All three awards came with generous prize money and a book from the IAH Selected Papers Series, donated by Taylor and Francis.

LinkedIN Group and ECHN Steering CommitteeDuring and after the week of the Congress the ECHN LinkedIN group registered a significant growth in membership (now at 115 members). We are pleased with the increasing interest in the group’s activities and encourage all junior hydrogeologists to join and to actively take part in job-related discussions, to post items of interest to early career hydrogeologists and to profit from the group’s new initiatives.

Also during the Congress, the network was able to recruit new members of the steering committee. We have no fear for the network’s future when we have new colleagues on board, ready to join a network meeting on the last day of the Congress at 7:30 am (after a long evening out at the Congress Dinner and the “Journey Behind the Falls” the night before)!

“The ECHN is a space where junior hydrogeologists can interact and publish job, research, and

cooperation opportunities” says Carlos Maldaner. “I’m looking forward to contributing to this energetic and enthusiastic group to improve our online community and to create special ECH events at the next IAH conference in Perth in September 2013.”

“I’m enthusiastic to interact with other early career hydrogeologists both nationally and internationally and build a real sense of community” says Lindsay McMillan.

OutlookStill overwhelmed by the amazing feedback at the congress, we are already working on potential offerings for early career hydrogeologists at the next IAH Congress in Perth. The ECHN has already established a close link with the IAH Commission on Groundwater Outreach and we are looking forward to future close cooperation. Promoting the LinkedIN group is certainly one of our fundamental goals, as this is the place where we can network and interact – even during the long time between the IAH Congresses. Have you joined yet?

Judith Flügge, Carlos Maldaner and Lindsay McMillan

More commission and network reports are given overleaf...

DECEMBER 2012

Doug Anderson (Canada/Australia), Lindsay McMillan (UK), Nelda Breedt (South Africa), Carlos Maldaner (Canada/Brazil), Judith Flügge, Matt (Matthew) Currell (Australia), Viviana Re (Italy), and Matthys Dippenaar (South Africa).

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COMMISSIONS & NETWORKS

The kick-off meeting of the IAH Groundwater and Ecosystem Network held at Niagara Falls was well attended and many good ideas for the future of the network were discussed. Since then, our members have been hard at work and we have focused on four goals for the next year. The first goal was to recruit a second co-director and Alex Gargini from the Italian Chapter has been accepted for that position. Members are interested in producing an IAH publication that explains clearly what groundwater dependent ecosystems are, and to partner with the Italian National Chapter on a publication that outlines ways to forecast, evaluate and mitigate impacts on groundwater dependent ecosystems caused by human activities. We are in the process of setting up a LinkedIn subgroup so that we can better communicate with each other. Overall, we are delighted with the response and interest in this network and are off to a great start. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact Joe Gurrieri at jgurrieri@fs.fed.us.

Groundwater and Ecosystem Network

responses to climate variability and change as well as abstraction in different regions of the world; (2) resolving the gap between recharge models and observations; (3) better constraining estimates of groundwater depletion and accumulation; and (4) improving our understanding of the impact of changing permafrost conditions on groundwater resources.

If you would like to contribute to any of these initiatives, please contact co-chairs r.taylor@geog.ucl.ac.uk, bridget.scanlon@beg.utexas.edu, chenjyao@mail.sysu.edu.cn.

Over 30 members of the Commission on Groundwater and Climate Change (IAH-CGCC) met to discuss recent activities and future and plans for the commission. In terms of recent activities, two items are of note, reports Co-Chair Richard Taylor. Firstly, the commission and UNESCO-IHP’s GRAPHIC programme jointly prepared the book of papers on “Climate change effects on groundwater resources”, which was published this year as volume 27 of IAH’s International Contributions to Hydrogeology series, and has been prominently advertised in this newsletter. Secondly, the commission led a critical review of the relationship between groundwater and climate change that has been accepted for publication in Nature Climate Change in late 2012. It is hoped that messages contained in this review might reach a wide audience, including the authors of the 5th Assessment Report of the IPCC.

Several activities of the commission are proposed over the next couple of years. These include special sessions at the AGU 2012 Fall Meeting, the IAH 40th Congress in Perth (contact Co-Chair Richard Taylor for details), and a joint session with the Managed Aquifer Recharge Commission at ISMAR8 in China in 2013 (contact Co-Chair Jianyao Chen). By the time you read this, the commission will have launched (in November) a new website (www.gwclim.org) in collaboration with the UNESCO-IHP GRAPHIC Programme. The new website will feature a login facility to register those interested in becoming members of the commission and allow registered members to engage with the site, posting news of planned meetings, publications and projects. There are also plans to develop and maintain a database of relevant papers and reports on groundwater and climate change.

Other strategic goals discussed at the Congress include: (1) developing benchmark datasets representing aquifer

Commission on Groundwater and Climate Change

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Commission on Regional Groundwater Flow

supporters and sponsors. Presently, the commission has 125 registered supporters. The commission plans to find sponsors from companies who recognize the role and importance of groundwater flow in earth and environmental processes. During the Congress, the commission had organised a well attended Technical Session on Regional Groundwater Flow. Twenty-seven oral (5 invited) and several poster presentations were made. A kick-off party for the RGFC was held on the first evening of the Congress.

Three major events are planned by the RGFC for 2013: i) “Geothermal Applications, Specialities in Groundwater Flow and Resources”, IAH Central European Groundwater Conference, May 8-10, Budapest, Hungary; ii) “International Symposium on Regional Groundwater Flow: Theory, Applications and Future Development”, Xi’an, China, in late June; and iii) “International Symposium on Hierarchical Flow Systems in Karst Regions”, jointly with the IAH Commission on Karst, in Budapest, in September. The next formal meeting of the RGFC will be held in Budapest in September 2013. Details of these will appear on the IAH website and in future newsletters.

If you are interested in the work of the commission but were not able to be in Niagara Falls, contact szjudit@ludens.elte.hu. website: http://iah.org/regionalgwflow/index.html

The first meeting of IAH’s newly created Commission on Regional Groundwater Flow was also held in Niagara Falls. The objective of the commission is to foster research and practical application of regional groundwater flow theory. This is intended to be pursued globally by motivating new basic research, popularizing the concept through meetings and publications, and promoting its application to a range of groundwater situations.

Close to 40 potential or already registered supporters attended and several expressed interest in becoming involved in the commission’s work. The meeting was opened by the newly elected President of IAH, Ken Howard, and Joe Tóth, chair of the interim board, gave a brief overview of RGFC’s mandate, structure, tasks and needs. Election of the Board of Officers was completed by on-the-spot voting, following previously held online balloting. The newly elected Board Members (shown in the photo) are: Chair: Judit Mádl-Szönyi (Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary); Vice Chair; József Tóth (University of Alberta, Canada); Co-Chair-1: José Joel Carrillo Rivera (UNAM, Mexico); Co-Chair-2: Mengui Jin (China University of Geosciences, Wuhan). Based on a unanimous decision of the Board, Xiao-wei Jiang (China University of Geosciences, Beijing) was invited to join the Board as Co-Chair-3, which request he graciously accepted.

The new Chair made a short introduction of

the officers and outlined

a recruiting strategy

for active

DECEMBER 2012

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IAH AWARDS PRESENTED IN NIAGARAThe IAH annual awards were announced at the General Assembly in Niagara Falls.

The Presidents’ Award is decided by the current and past presidents and is given annually to a member who has made outstanding international contributions to groundwater science and to furthering IAH’s mission to promote understanding and management of groundwater resources. This year’s award goes to someone who fully meets both criteria – Professor John M (Jack) Sharp.

Jack has been Professor of Geology at the University of Missouri from 1974 to 1982 and at the University of Texas since 1982. His research interests and scientific publications range over several areas of groundwater science, including the hydrogeology of large sedimentary basins and of fractured rocks, the effects of urbanisation on groundwater and karst groundwater systems. The high quality of his research has been recognised by receipt of the Founders and Theis Awards of the American Institute of Hydrology and the Meinzer and Distinguished Service Awards of the Hydrology Division of the Geological Society of America.

Jack has been an IAH member for many years, an active member of IAH commissions, Associate Editor of the Hydrogeology Journal from 1994-1997 and convener of sessions at many IAH congresses. He was an IAH vice president from 1996-2000 and treasurer from 2004 to 2008 and also chair of the US national committee from 2004 to 2008 and remains on the US chapter

executive committee. Jack has also been president of the Geological Society of America and vice president for academic affairs of the American Institute of Hydrology. Jack is a worthy recipient of the award, and warmly thanked the Association in his response.

IAH accords the title of Honorary Member to those who have given exceptional service to the Association over a long period. The general assembly approved the award of Honorary Membership to József Tóth.

Following university study in his native Hungary and at the University of Utrecht, Jóe Tóth spent 20 years with the Alberta Research Council as a hydrogeologist, and introduced hydrogeology to the universities of Alberta (1966-70) and Calgary (1978-80) and was a professor in the Department of Geology at the University of Alberta from 1980 until his retirement in 1996. In 2008 he also became professor at the Eötvös Loránd Science University in Budapest, where he lived and taught from 2005 to 2008.

Joe Tóth’s research interests are mainly in the hydraulics, geological and environmental effects and utilization of regional groundwater flow, as reflected in his numerous publications and awards. In 1965, Joe was the first recipient of GSA’s Meinzer Award and subsequently has received the NGWA’s M. King Hubbert Science Award for 2003 and the Theis Award for 2004 from the American Institute of Hydrology. Both of this year’s recipients have thus had their scientific contributions recognised well beyond IAH.

Joe was a founder member and president (1972-1984) of the IAH Canadian National Chapter and IAH Vice President (1978-1982). He was an Associate Editor of “Hydrogeology Journal” from its inception in 1992 to 2000, and received the IAH President’s Award in 1999. Joe has also been instrumental

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in establishing the new IAH commission on regional groundwater flow. The large number of members in attendance at the General Assembly included many of Joe’s friends and colleagues from Canada and around the world, and the proposall to honour Joe in this way was warmly welcomed.

The IAH Distinguished Associate Award is presented annually to a person who is not a groundwater professional but has made an outstanding contribution to the understanding, development, management and protection of groundwater resources internationally. The Award for 2012 goes to Dr Uschi Eid, Vice-Chair of the United Nations’ Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB).

Dr Eid is a socio-economist by training and a long standing member of the Green Party in Germany who served for 20 years in the German Bundestag. She was appointed Parliamentary Secretary of State in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in 1998 and was the personal G8 Africa Representative of the German Federal Chancellor from 2001 to 2005. During this period she developed a focus on the water supply and sanitation sectors.

In 2004 the UN Secretary General appointed Dr Eid as a member of UNSGAB, which provides advisory services to the UN system in the water and sanitation sector. As Vice-Chair of UNSGAB, she plays an active role in promoting water supply and sanitation issues on the political development agenda. She fought at a high level for the water and sanitation related Millennium Development Goals and for the International Year of Sanitation. She strongly supported the IAH-sponsored symposium “Coupling Sustainable Sanitation and Groundwater Protection” in Hannover in 2008 where the relationship between wastewater treatment and management and groundwater resource protection was addressed. Uschi Eid has also been active in

Photo courtesy of Maren Kuiter, Hochschule Osnabrück, shows Dr Uschi Eid being congratulated by Professor Bertram, President of the University of Osnabrück.

lobbying for a new Sustainable Development Goal on Sanitation and Wastewater Management at the recent Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development. IAH is pleased to acknowledge Uschi’s personal contribution to the enhancement of wastewater management and groundwater protection worldwide with this award. She was not able to come to Niagara Falls, but the award was presented to Uschi in October at a meeting in Osnabrück in the presence of the Prince of Orange and a distinguished audience including around 70 people from the University, the Mayor, the Dutch delegation and many others. In her response, Uschi said she would convey thanks to UNSGAB at an upcoming meeting with water ministers in Nairobi.

DECEMBER 2012

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MEDIA FOCUSA selection of groundwater features from around the world

New development of groundwater arsenic detectorGroundwater contaminated with arsenic has led to an epidemic of arsenic poisoning in parts of Bangladesh and India. Scientists in China have developed a sensor to detect arsenic quickly and accurately in water. Pei Zhou at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and colleagues’ sensor detects arsenic using an arsenic-binding aptamer, gold nanoparticles and a cationic surfactant. Zhou and his team plan to use the technique to detect other pollutants, such as mercury, cadmium and silver. They aim ‘to integrate the different biosensors into one chip and realise multiple target detection’.7 September 2012, © Chemistry Worldhttp://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2012/09/biosensor-aptamer-arsenic-water

Africa - “Too soon to tap Namibia’s groundwater find, experts say”The extraction of the much needed water from a large underground aquifer in northern Namibia may need to wait for further studies, officials have warned at a water investment conference. The aquifer, discovered in July, may contain enough water to sustain about one million people living in the area for 400 years at the current consumption rate, as well as boost development through irrigation in this poor, heavily overgrazed area where women and children walk for hours to get fresh water from boreholes.

But officials and scientists have cautioned against too much optimism until further studies have been conducted. One reason is that the aquifer is under a smaller, polluted water resource, so it is still unclear how it could be tapped. “We need to determine the extent of the water reserve and its accessibility first. There is a lot of brackish [partly salty] water in the area,” Abraham Nehemia, under-secretary at Namibia’s agriculture, water and forestry ministry, told SciDev.Net on the sidelines of the Namibia Water Investment Conference, (12–14 September) in the capital, Windhoek.

Heike Wanke, a hydrogeologist at the University of Namibia, also warned against rushing into exploitation. “The positioning near a polluted aquifer means boreholes must be drilled at appropriate places,” Wanke said, adding that studies on the age of the aquifer which will also inform sustainable extraction rates have not been completed yet. But if studies show water can be sustainably and safely extracted, it will benefit the region, experts say.12 October 2012, © 2012 SciDev.Nethttp://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/water/news/too-soon-to-tap-namibia-sgroundwater-find-experts-say-1.html

Hunger in Times of Land, Water, and Energy PressuresWashington, D.C.—Unsustainable use of land, water, and energy is threatening the food security of the poorest and most vulnerable around the world, according to the 2012 Global Hunger Index, released for the seventh year by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Welthungerhilfe, and Concern Worldwide.Welthungerhilfe 2012, © IFPRI/Concern Worldwide/ Welthungerhilfehttp://www.ifpri.org/pressroom/briefing/2012-global-hunger-index-press-briefing

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WWC President calls for a “Pact for Water Security”New York, USA – “The time for wishful thinking is over. Now is the time for actions, commitments and solutions,” declared Mr. Fauchon, President of the World Water Council speaking at a side event yesterday on water and food security at the 67th National Assembly of the United Nations. It was in the presence of - among others - Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary-General, Dr. Khaled bin Mohamed Al-Attiyah, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, State of Qatar and José Graziano da Silva, Director UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, that Mr. Fauchon pleaded for a Pact for Water Security that the Council intends to present to governments, parliamentarians, local elected representatives, economic leaders and NGO communities. “We are faced with many responsibilities. In order to meet growing needs and face hydric stress we must plead for additional water resources to be made available,” he said before making his final recommendations to the high level decision makers present in the room.28 September 2012, © World Water Councilhttp://www.worldwatercouncil.org/

Recent research drawing a possible link between groundwater abstraction and enhanced seismic activity has been widely reported in the press during October.

On 11 May 2011, nine people were killed and dozens injured by a magnitude 5.1 earthquake near Lorca in southern Spain. Pablo Gonzalez and colleagues from the University of Western Ontario used satellite radar to trace ground movements associated with the Lorca event back to their source, finding that the earthquake resulted from slippage on a comparatively shallow fault bordering the aquifer to the south of the city. Detailed maps derived from these satellite studies allowed them to infer which parts of the ground moved where. Reporting in Nature Geoscience, they found the earthquake occurred only 3 km below the Earth’s surface. They suggest this is a third as deep as would be expected for quakes of that magnitude, and this could explain why a fairly mild magnitude 5.1 quake caused so much damage.

The team went on to study potential reasons for the slippage, finding that the water table in the adjacent Alto Guadalentin basin had dropped by some 250 m over the last 50 years as groundwater was pumped for irrigation in the region. Moreover, the associated land subsidence of around 15 cm per year is the

most observed in Europe as a result of groundwater abstraction. Correlation of the area of slip on the Alhama de Murcia Fault and the associated stress patterns were ascribed by the team to crustal unloading stresses caused by dewatering of the aquifer sediments. The team modelled the effect of the disappearance of groundwater on stress patterns in the crust. The stresses coincided to such a degree with the rupture pattern seen in the quake that the researchers concluded that extracting groundwater must have triggered the event.

Numerous examples of seismicity triggered by the impoundment of reservoir lakes, hydrocarbon extraction, quarrying and deep well injection have been documented over the years. Recent research has suggested that fluid injection associated with gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” was linked to specific earthquake events, but until now there had been little evidence of human involvement in larger, fatal earthquakes. However, Gonzalez stressed the study was specific to the Lorca earthquake, and that we should be cautious in extrapolating from this particular study. In an accompanying Nature Geoscience article, Jean-Philippe Avouac of the California Institute of Technology also urged caution in ascribing stress perturbations to human activities.John Chilton

Research links seismic activity to groundwater abstraction

DECEMBER 2012

See various reports including © BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20025807

16

IAH

NEW

S IAH FEES TOP COUNCIL’S AGENDA IAH Council met in Niagara Falls on the day before the congress. Many of the items on the long agenda – the website, commissions, mentoring, the GEF project, the election process and future congresses are covered elsewhere in this newsletter. Being election year, the results (see page 5) were announced at the Annual General Meeting and the new Council met for the first time towards the end of congress week.

A key item on the agenda for discussion and the most important requiring a decision of Council was the question of the IAH membership fee rates. In anticipation of the need to review membership fees, the Secretariat had run a simple on-line survey of views about the benefits and value for money of IAH membership, the results of which are summarised on pages 18-19. Most respondents agreed that current IAH fee rates are reasonable and the Association provides good value for money. Reviewing the fee rates is always a balance between wishing to maintain this position, but at the same time taking account of a) the financial pressures on the Association, b) the desire to improve our benefits and services to members and c) the financial performance of the Association – the state of our bank balance.

Thus, projections of costs and income and our healthy bank balances point to a modest increase in fees. The recommendation from the Executive for an increase for 2013 and 2014 of €3 (about 2% equivalent over the two years) was debated by Council and approved. Other fee rates will be increased broadly in line with the full rate and the full range of fees will be updated on the IAH website. We trust that you will agree with a modest fee rise, that you will continue to support the Association with your membership in 2013 and that we for our part will be able to deliver the improved membership benefits that we have been promising.

JOHN CHILTON, SECRETARIAT

WEBSITE DEVELOPMENTFollowing news in our last newsletter that IAH had appointed a web development company, members will be curious to know how we are progressing. There

are two parallel components of the work – the building of the site and the development of improved database capability that can be closely integrated with the website to support on-line membership renewal.

The initial structure and design appearance of the site have been established and examples of possible design layouts were circulated

for comment to an IAH review team in July. After taking account of the feedback and following further discussions, examples of pages in the

preferred format were demonstrated to Council and at the national chapter meeting in Niagara Falls.

17

UPDATE ON MENTORING SCHEMEFurther to our brief note in the August IAH Newsletter, we are pleased to report that IAH has taken on the services of a career development specialist with substantial experience of mentoring schemes and processes both in the UK and internationally. Discussions with her have already proved helpful and we are now working together on drafting some clear, “user friendly”, guidance notes for both mentors and mentees. It has always been IAH’s intention that those sharing and receiving knowledge should do so with confidence and we are therefore working with our consultant to set up the necessary frameworks to enable this to happen. We need to start out with a clear, formal framework that has provisions to deal with the rare case when things go wrong, even if in due course we are able to use this most of the time with a “light touch”. The opposite of starting out rather loosely and then trying to set up procedures to deal with problems when they arise would not work.

We have undertaken an initial review of the registrations received. On the advice of the specialist, we plan to initiate the first mentoring /knowledge

sharing partnerships amongst those who are most clearly and readily able to do so. Thus, the first group will include those who already have relevant mentoring experience, those who make immediately suitable mentor/mentee “matches” and perhaps those with useful knowledge who have indicated that they are willing to share more widely throughout the association. It is our intention that this initial group of partnerships will be established within the next few months. Those not in the first group will not be forgotten, as IAH plans to run the mentoring scheme on a “rolling” basis, with regular enrolment phases and reviews taking place. Where necessary, help will be sought from our consultant in setting up the mechanisms to enable these to take place. Should you have any questions or comments please contact us. We will provide further updates in due course.

SECRETARIAT

The clear intention is that this will be a dynamic website which can be changed readily and further developed, and within which commissions and chapters will, if they wish, have access to their own sections, with appropriate security, approval and monitoring systems in place. Some multi-language capability in key languages (Portuguese, Spanish and French) will be built in from the beginning and further development of the language capability will be discussed at a later stage.

The Secretariat is now working with the design team on the functionality of the site and on database development. At the time of writing, the intention is to have this capability established and tested in time for the 2013 membership renewals, although we will of course maintain our current system so that it can be used if the new one is not ready and tested to our complete satisfaction.

JOHN CHILTON, SECRETARIAT

DECEMBER 2012

18

Calls to participate in IAH’s latest survey were made from early summer. In a fairly short space of time 103 replies had been received from around the world and from a span of ages, and the main results are given here.

IAH SURVEY 2012: RESULTS

Firstly, it is reassuring to know that 80% of the respondents feel that IAH is providing value for money.

When responding, 77% felt that the present fee was reasonable and pitched about right, 19% thought it was too high and 4% felt it was too low. Asked if the Association should raise its fees, 52% said “not at present”, 21% said “yes by a very small amount”, 17% suggested “yes by an amount to cover the impact of inflation” and 11% said “yes by a greater amount to allow for increased benefits and charitable activities”. This question therefore appears to split respondents down the middle; general knowledge of human attitudes suggests that people are unlikely to actually vote for an increase they themselves will have to pay! As you will have read in the earlier article, IAH’s Council takes serious consideration of the matter of fees.

Respondents also indicated which member benefits are of value to them as well and gave feedback on possible development. Several respondents also provided additional ideas for future member benefits, many of which are covered by the Forward Look programme of activities. Again, it is extremely helpful to know that IAH is heading in the right direction with its plans.

Focus on fees and member benefits

19

Accepting that this is a rather small sample size, such surveys are easy to set up and provide us with useful member feedback at relatively modest cost. We are grateful to those who did respond. We are likely to repeat this or similar surveys from time to time, and you are urged to participate to ensure that your views are taken into account.SECRETARIAT

DECEMBER 2012

20

Dr. Wendy Timms - Vice President, Australasiaw.timms@unsw.edu.au

Thank you to my colleagues in Australia, New Zealand and Pacific and around the world for entrusting me with IAH council responsibilities. One of my ongoing objectives for IAH is support for hydrogeologists who are isolated by barriers such as distance, training, funding, gender and a

lack of professional opportunities. We face a number of groundwater challenges in our part of the world – ranging from water shortages, and competing water users including the environment, mining and agriculture. Your ideas for strengthening groundwater training and management in our region, and with our neighbours further away are welcome. Email me with your comments and suggestions, and I will also contact key people when planning travel in the region as part of my roles with the UNSW School of Mining Engineering and the Australian National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training.

INTRODUCING IAH’S COUNCIL Following the election results, the Secretariat asked the new Council members if they would like to give brief messages of introduction. The first round is here and Ken Howard’s message is on page 4; others will feature in future newsletters.

Dr. Jun Shimada- Vice President, AsiaJshimada@sci.kumamoto-u.ac.jp

My name is Dr. Jun Shimada, professor of hydrology, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kumamoto University, Japan. I am also president of the Japanese Association of Groundwater Hydrology (JAHG) and president of the IAH National Chapter of Japan. It is an honour for me to be elected. I am willing to do my best to contribute to IAH activities in this region; one with humid monsoonal climate and with relatively high groundwater recharge rates but also much affected by excessive pumping through various human activities.

I look forward to working with others to share knowledge and technology, and to encourage wise groundwater management in monsoon Asia and beyond.

Dr. Teodóra Szöcs - Vice President, Europe (West and Central)szocs.teodora@mfgi.hu

I am grateful to the Hungarian National Chapter who nominated me, and to all those who supported me with their votes to be elected as Vice President for Western and Central Europe. I am very much looking forward to my new work which comes with huge responsibility, but I will do my

very best to be a good representative of Western and Central Europe and to help with the work of IAH. A strong collaboration with the members of the Executive and Council, and with the European National Chapters over the next 4 years will be the basis for this. I would like to attract new members, maintain IAH as a focus of excellence, and to promote IAH’s scientific activities and the science of hydrogeology in general. I consider strengthening the links between the European National Chapters to be very important.

21

Prof. David Kreamer - Vice President, North Americadave.kreamer@unlv.edu

I’m grateful to be nominated and elected as Vice President for North America for the International Association of Hydrogeologists, and look forward to serving the organization. I would like to offer to communicate with anyone who would like to discuss any aspect of IAH so I I can represent their views to Council. Initially, I intend to learn from my more experienced colleagues on Council, and attend meetings of the national chapters I represent. Eventually I would like to explore ways to advance our organization’s hydrophilanthropic efforts, particularly the Burdon Network, help increase our membership, and assist in coordination of regional initiatives in North America and other regions.

Callist Tindimugaya - Vice President, Sub-Saharan Africacallist.tindimugaya@mwe.go.ug/ callist_tindimugaya@yahoo.co.uk

I am Callist Tindimugaya, the newly elected Regional Vice President for sub-Saharan Africa. I work for the Ministry of Water and Environment in Uganda and have been a practicing hydrogeologist since 1990.

I would like to thank all the IAH members worldwide for having put trust in me to be part of the leadership of IAH for the next four years. Although I represent sub-Saharan Africa as

Regional Vice President I will not limit my work in promoting the sustainable development and management of groundwater to this region but will extend my efforts to the rest of the world through the global agenda of IAH.

Sub-Saharan Africa has unique challenges related to groundwater development and management I will pay special attention to finding ways of addressing some of these challenges. My focus will therefore be on promotion of IAH as an international groundwater knowledge base that can contribute to sustainable development and management of groundwater in Africa. I will develop or strengthen links between IAH and key groundwater related institutions, agencies and networks within and outside Africa to promote collaboration and coordination on groundwater issues. Key to realising the above is the need to increase membership and involvement in IAH activities as well as establishing or strengthening IAH National Chapters. I call upon all IAH members within Africa and beyond to offer me all the necessary advice, support and assistance in my efforts to realise the above objectives.

DECEMBER 2012

22

ARGENTINAMr Matias LISJAK

AUSTRALIAMr Christopher HADLOW

Mr Simon WIGGINS

Ms Sharyn BUUNK

Genevieve PARENT

Mr Mal MCGIVERN

Douglas MCALISTER

Melanie CAPERAN

ENVIRONMENTAL EARTH SCIENCES INTERNATIONAL PTY LTD (c)

Miss Naomi PRICE

Mr Colin MCKAY

Mr Regin S ORQUIZA

Averyll COYNE

Dr Sylvie OGIER-HALIM

Mr Naleen N SENEVIRATHNE

Ursula SALMON

Hayley E O’BRIEN

Sebastian P R JONES

Dr Luke WALLACE

JunCai LI

Mr Thomas L SOUTHWELL

Mr Julien THOMAS

Mr Robert J MILTON

Mr Luke BOEHM

Cara ROTHFUSS

Luis ESPINOZA

Anna BUI XUAN HY

Mr Douglas J ANDERSON

Joseph HENRY

Dr Anthony John SMITH

Louise STELFOX

Mr John DE MARTIN

Selene DE BREE

Dr Jeffrey V TURNER

Mr Hashim CAREY

Mr Tim RANSLEY

Pawel RAKOWSKI

Mr Samer ROBIE

NEW MEMBERSA warm welcome to the following new members who joined our Association in the period 1 July - 20 October 2012:

Joseph H.A GUILLAUME

NATIONAL CENTRE FOR GROUNDWATER RESEARCH AND TRAINING (c)

Mrs Fiona ADAMSON

Joanne BARBARO

Prof Peter COOK

Mr Laki KONDYLAS

Stephanie BOTHA

Dennis LU

Mr Brenton HOWE

Emmylou COOKE

Mr Steve CLOHESSY

Mr Rhys KNIGHTLEY

Virginie BRUNETAUD

Katie LUCAS

Panagiotis GIANNOULOPOULOS

Marieh ZARGAR

Dr Kelly-Jane WALLIS

James WILLIAMS

Dr Alison E HENDRY

Dr Edgardo ALARCON LEON

Mr Brad WOODS

Mr Kasey A HILLS

Ulrike IL KRAUSE

Mr Matthew TURNER

Dr Harry R ASCHE

Mr Vaughan UJDUR

Hugh KLEIN

Francis E M DEAN

Mr Sebastian FOCKE

Angelina BOSNJAK

Mr Michael STEED

BRAZILDr Emílio Carlos PRANDI

Dr Everton DE OLIVEIRA

CANADAMs Kimberly GILDER

Dr Tirupati BOLISETTI

Laura DESAUNOY

Eric DOMINGUE

Michelle FRASER

Julie GAUTHIER

Dr Sang-Yoon HAN

Andrew HINNELL

Jonathan D MUNN

Shane O’NEILL

Cathy SAFADI

Mrs Tammy SILVERSTONE

Mitchell SKUCE

lesley VEALE

Dr Yan XIANG

Patricia MATTHEWS

Constantinos YANNACOPOULOS

Dr João KÜPPER

Don GOODYEAR

Professor Patrick SELVADURAI

Dr Clare ROBINSON

Tessa DI IORIO

Dr Sarah DICKSON

Mr Francois CHARTIER

Dr Ania ULRICH

Mr Omar FALA

Dr. Elco LUIJENDIJK

BERNARD DZIRASAH

David GRANGER

Ms Erin WILSON

CONESTOGA-ROVERS & ASSOCIATES

Richard MURPHY

Alan DEAL

CHILEMr Francisco Valdivieso SWETT

Dr Paulo HERRERA

CHINA, PRDr. Xinqiang DU

Ms yan DENG

Dr Xueyan YE

Dr. Shiyi HE

Dr Xiao-Wei JIANG

Jianyao CHEN

COLOMBIADr Betancur TERESITA

Mr ANDRES MARTINEZ S

Dr John ESCOBAR

CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICMr Ben.Mugisho CIZUNGU

DENMARKMr Henriksen Hans JØRGEN

FRANCEMr Sebastien KECH

Mr Joachim MAIER

Thibault PELLEGRINI

Dr Nathalie GASSAMA

Mr Vincent GRUFFAT

GERMANYAsare ASANTE-ANNOR

Matthias STREY

Prof Dr Christoph SCHÜTH

HONG KONGDr Shanghai DU

HUNGARYMs Eszter PULAY

INDIADr B SOUMYA

Mr Giridharan JAGANNATHAN

Mr Debasis NAYAK

IRANDr Ata JOODAVI

IRELANDDr Roberta BELLINI

ITALYProf Roberto MAZZA

Ms Anna MONTI

Ms Cinzia BANZATO

Mr Federico MARCHIONATTI

23

IAH IS GROWINGA little space in the newsletter gives us a chance to show IAH’s membership growth over the years. As you can see, this year we have had a strong rise in membership (as at November our membership is 4031, a net increase of around 250 members for the year). This is good news for all of us because the more members we have, the more powerful and effective our voice internationally and the wider we can reach in all aspects of our work.

Mr Stefano VIAROLI

Mr Fabio MANCA

Mr Stefano SEGADELLI

Ms Eleonora PELLEGATTI

Prof Luca ZINI

Prof Torquato NANNI

Dr Cesare DE BERNARDI

Sara TAVIANI

MALAWIGeoffrey CHAVULA

NEW ZEALANDMr Alkali MOHAMMED

NIGERIADr Elizabeth Ifeyinwa OKOYEH

Mr Moses BECKLEY

Mr Victor AGBOR

PERUMr David EVANS

PHILIPPINESMr Edmund Alan Jr PIQUERO

POLANDElzbieta HALAJ

Anna WACHOWICZ-PYZIK

PORTUGALProf Catarina SILVA

Dr Rayco Marrero DIAZ

SENEGALMr Adolphe DIATTA

SOUTH AFRICANelda BREEDT

Dr Johanita C KOTZE

SPAINMaria POOL RAMIREZ

SWITZERLANDBettina FLURY

Thomas VON HEUGEL

Walter FREI

Eline MIGNOT

Rebecca PAGE

Pascal MOESCHER

NB: Those marked (c) are new IAH corporate members.

DECEMBER 2012

3700

3800

3900

4000

4100

IAH�MEMBERSHIP�2002�2012

3400

3500

3600

3700

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

YEAR

Giurgea VALD ION

Michael WIEDERKEHR

Christian GMUNDER

Philippe AVIOLAT

Mrs Rahel F EGLI OPPLIGER

TANZANIAEdista A ABDALLAH

TURKEYMr Volkan BIRINCI

UNITED ARAB EMIRATESMr Hatim TAYYEM

UNITED KINGDOMDr Rachel DEWHURST

Mr Paul THOMSON

Helen KELLEHER

Miss Kitty BAYLISS

Mr Andrew ILES

Mr Myles ENGLISH

Dr Simon COOK

Mr Omotayo AYENI

Mr Gani NESSIPBEKOV

Abdulkhaliq ALJUHANI

Mr Ali BAKARI

UNITES STATES OF AMERICAChristopher GELLASCH

Carolyn KNEIBLHER

Chris LOWRY

Mr Nathan ROSSMAN

Dr Lewis MCCAFFREY

Mr Erik PERSON

Mr Jonathan GERST

Anthony RANA

Dr Kenneth BRADBURY

Scott FEDAK

Leslie JACOBS

Mr Robin DAVIS

Mr Alex MIKSZEWSKI

ZAMBIA

Mr Chimwangá MASEKA

Thank you for supporting our Association!

24

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25

History of Hydrogeology

Lessons can be learnt from the past; from time to time it is useful for practitioners to look back over the historical developments of their science. Hydrogeology has developed from humble beginnings into the broad church of investigatory procedures which collectively form the modern-day hydrogeologist’s tool box. Hydrogeology remains a branch of the over-arching science of geology and today provides analysis of the sub-surface part of the water cycle within a holistic approach to problem solving.

The History of Hydrogeology is a first attempt to bring the story of the evolution of the science of hydrogeology together from a country or region specific viewpoint. It does not cover history to the present day, nor does it deal with all countries involved in groundwater studies, but rather takes the story for specific key countries up

Edited by Nicholas Howden and John Mather

and until about the period 1975 to 1980. This is when hydrogeology was still evolving and developing, and in some areas doing so quite rapidly.

The book has been written not only for practitioners of hydrogeology and hydrology but also for teachers and students to see the context of the evolution of the science around the globe. The History of Hydrogeology will also be of interest to science historians and all those interested in

the role that individuals, institutes and nations have played over the years in defining modern day studies of groundwater.

November 2012: 250pp Hb: 978-0415630627 £ 76.99 $119.95 (full price, 60% discount applies to IAH members)

Members: receive 60% discount by downloading order form/instructions from IAH websiteNon-members: see CRC’s advert on facing page to benefit from 20% discount

NEW IAH BOOK (60% DISCOUNT TO MEMBERS)

Our attention has been drawn to a new book in the Springer Hydrogeology series on the hydrogeology of Ethiopia by colleague and IAH member Seifu Kebede. Entitled “Groundwater in Ethiopia: features, numbers and opportunities”, the book fills a much needed gap by providing a comprehensive description of the groundwater resources of Ethiopia. Prevailing knowledge of groundwater resources from the 1960s and 1970s has been revised and updated, using the results of substantial new geological and stratigraphical research. The strong regional differences in groundwater potential resulting from the very broad range of climatic conditions and geological environments in this vast country are set out for the first time. The contrasting groundwater regimes of the crystalline basement, the multi-layered sedimentary sequences, the volcanic terrains and the alluvial basins are described, highlighting the major differences in the way groundwater occurs and the consequent contrasts in potential between them.

Members: login to “members only” area of IAH website to find the discount code and ordering information.ISBN: 978-3-642-30391-3

SPRINGER BOOK RELEASE (20% DISCOUNT TO MEMBERS)

DECEMBER 2012

26

CH

APTE

R N

EWS India

We have good news from India, where a new ad-hoc committee has been set up to look after

the activities of the Indian National Chapter. Thus, the following colleagues are the interim

office bearers of the Indian National Committee of IAH until new elections can be held:

President: Dr. SN Rai, Chief Scientist, NGRI, Hyderabad (snrai@ngri.res.in)

Secretary: Dr. Rashid Umar, Assistant Professor, Department of Geology, AMU, Aligarh

(rashidumar@rediffmail.com)

Treasurer: Dr. N.C. Mondal, Scientist, NGRI, Hyderabad (ncmngri@yahoo.co.in)

IAH President Ken Howard will be visiting India in December to attend the upcoming

IGWC-2012 groundwater conference in Aurangabad. He will be discussing with the new

committee how we can build up IAH’s membership in India and at the same time strengthen

our support to the chapter and assist them to develop national activities. We will keep

members informed of progress.

CanadaBirthday celebration for one of our oldest Chapters

Amongst all the excitement from Niagara Falls, we should not forget that part of the

motivation for holding the congress in Canada was to celebrate the 40th birthday of one of

our oldest and largest national chapters. The occasion was marked with a small birthday

party immediately following the formal closing

ceremony. Congress participants were invited to

drink to the continuing health and wellbeing of the

chapter, and share in the large birthday cake which

is shown in the picture.

Interim committee announced; progress underway

After an exhausting week for the Canadian NC, Grant Ferguson and Steve Hoylsh can both be forgiven for wanting the � rst piece of cake

27

SpainThe IAH National Chapter in Spain advises us that they have a new committee which will serve from 2012 to

2015. The new president of the chapter is Jaime Gómez Hernández of the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia,

vice-president, Carolina Guardiola Albert of the Instituto Geológico y Minero de España (IGME), and the new

secretary is Daniel Fernández García of the Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya. Margarida Valverde Ferreiro of

the Fundación CIHS remains as treasurer. The Spanish chapter’s contact details have been updated on the IAH

website, and the Secretariat look forward to working closely with the new committee.

The year has seen a high level activity from their members in supporting the work of the IAH MAR Commission

with the release of two books and a video on MAR which are readily available free of charge from http://www.

dina-mar.es. Enrique Escalante informs us that the books received 1000 downloads in 30 days and the video

1000 in 15 days even though they are in Spanish, and members are urged to have a look at these valuable

resources.

New committee

ItalyFrom 20th to 22nd June, the Italian Chapter collaborated in the

organization of the first national conference “Flowpath 2012”,

exclusively dedicated to the hydrogeological community, and led by

Alessandro Gargini, Professor at the Alma Mater University of Bologna.

Chair Marco Petitta reports that more than 180 people, including contributors from Spain and Germany, attended

the conference, enjoying the scientific programme, the social events and the final field trip. International keynote

speakers highly enriched the programme, with lectures by John Cherry (pictured) and Beth Parker from the

University of Guelph in Canada, Ramon Aravena, University of Waterloo, Canada and Nico Goldscheider from the

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany. In addition, a special Award for a PhD Thesis, promoted by the IAH

National Chapter and the National Research Council and named in memory of Professor Gian Maria Zuppi, was

received by Dr. Nicolò Colombani, University of Rome “La Sapienza”/University of Ferrara. The next Flowpath

conference will be in 2014 in Viterbo, encouraging wider participation of European hydrogeologists, and you are

advised to look out for details of this meeting in due course.

Italian chapter collaborates in national meeting

DECEMBER 2012

28

GLOBAL WATER PARTNERSHIPBackground and update

The Global Water Partnership (GWP) is a worldwide network of over 2,600 partners, representing all types of water resource stakeholders, that has been growing at 10%+ per annum in recent years. IAH has been a long-standing member in the ‘professional association category’.

Many of the partners are assembled into 13 Regional Water Partnerships (RWPs) and 80 Country Partnerships, given the wide geographical diversity of the water problems faced. The GWPO (Organisation) is the legal entity which underpins network operations as an ‘IGO’, and comprises 8 Sponsoring Partners (national governments) as guarantors, together with the World Bank & World Meteorological Organisation.

The central role of the GWP is to promote IWRM as a platform for addressing the challenging problems of water resources management and water-supply security in a developmental context, and the complex interfaces with land-use and energy policy in a fast-changing world. Clearly, if this network could be well focused and energised, it has major potential in terms of political leverage for the priority ‘water resource agenda’.

Intellectual leadership for this effort in the service of network members is provided by the GWP Global Technical Committee (TEC), and its structured interaction with the RWPs – and is currently chaired and guided by Dr Mohamed Ait-Kadi (Morocco), who was recently re-appointed for another term. The business of the network is underpinned and promoted by the GWP Permanent Secretariat based in Stockholm, under the leadership of Dr Ania Grobicki (GWP Executive Director). Access to the extensive multi-disciplinary publication series of the GWP and its other member services, including the IWRM ToolBox, is via www.gwp.org.

Political promotion of the relevance of water resources management globally is the work of the GWP Chair – a post recently held by Ms Margaret Catley-Carlson (Canada) and Dr Letitia Obeng (Ghana). At their recent meeting in Stockholm the GWP Sponsoring

Partners announced the appointment of Dr. Ursula Schaefer-Preuss (Germany), as the new Chair from January 2013. She is an economist who has been engaged in the field of development policy for more than 35 years in senior positions including Vice President of the Asian Development Bank, Director General of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation & Development (BMZ), Executive Director of the Inter-American Development Bank and in Germany’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations.

In accepting the position, Dr. Schaefer-Preuss said: ‘The work of the GWP network deserves the highest level of attention during these times of growing concerns about the many and intertwined challenges of climate change, urbanisation and the water-food-energy nexus. Water security must be at the top of the development agenda because of its links to health, education and a whole host of other issues. It is hard to think of a more exciting time to be part of the GWP vision and mission.’

An important event in the network’s calendar is the GWP Annual Consulting Partners Meeting, whose theme this year was the important role of water security as a catalyst in building climate resilience with three related focus areas : droughts, deltas and development investment. This meeting is also the occasion of the GWP Annual Lecture presented this year by former GWP Chair Margaret Catley-Carlson, on the theme ‘2020 Vision : the Future of Water’ that contained many strategic insights on water security issues.

For more information, including access to the extensive multi-disciplinary publication series of the GWP and its other member services go to http://www.gwp.org/PROFESSOR STEPHEN FOSTERIAH PAST PRESIDENT 2008-2012 AND A GWP SENIOR ADVISER 2011-13

Photo credit: Martin Löfgren, Global Water Partnership, http://www.gwp.org/

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GROUNDWATER GOVERNANCEIAH colleagues get together at GEF Regional MeetingsIn the second year of this three year project on groundwater governance, the main activity is a series of regional

consultations. These are intended to enable the project to gather experience and perspectives from the regions

to support the information provided by the thematic papers prepared in the first year of the project. Regional

consultations have been held for Latin America and the Caribbean in Montevideo, for Sub Saharan Africa in

Nairobi and for the Middle East and North Africa in Amman. A consultation will be held for Asia in China in

December this year and for Europe in March 2013.

These regional consultations have been attended by a number of IAH colleagues and Secretary General Shammy

Puri and the respective regional vice presidents have in each case taken the opportunity to arrange a side

meeting of IAH members and others potentially interested in joining the Association. Members and non-members

were provided with up to date information about IAH and the benefits of membership and members were able to

raise any concerns and interests they had. In Latin America, for example, many groundwater professionals feel

isolated from international activities, and language remains a constraint. In response, it was agreed that more

effort should be made to provide at least some IAH material in Spanish and Portuguese, and subsequently our

current publicity flyer has been translated into both languages for use in the region. […contact the Secretariat if

you would like copies…]

In Africa and the Middle East, there was considerable enthusiasm for IAH. A number of new memberships

were taken, although the cost and difficulty of making small international payments for membership fees was

highlighted as a continuing constraint in both regions. The Secretariat has been aware of this for some time

and is looking at various payment options, supported by the new regional vice president for Africa. In all three

regions there was interest in developing new IAH national chapters, and the potential for setting up links with

existing national associations was raised. It is the intention to hold similar IAH meetings at the remaining two

regional consultations.

JOHN CHILTON AND SHAMMY PURI

New member Namor Momjian from Lebanon being

welcomed into IAH by Secretary General Shammy Puri and

Regional Vice President Mohamed Aboufirass.

DECEMBER 2012

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FUTURE CONGRESSES

As we near the end of 2012, our thoughts turn to the next IAH congress to be held in Perth, Western Australia, from 15 to 20 September 2013.

Set on the banks of the beautiful Swan River, Perth is home to first-class restaurants, galleries and tourist attractions. The State of Western Australia is an incredible tourist destination, and in every part of this vast country you will find unique experiences – from reefs to rainforests, from exciting city breaks to wildlife parks and from stunning coastal drives to epic outback journeys. For example September is the peak time to view Western Australia’s wildflowers. The Congress will be held at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, situated in the heart of the city and within easy walking distance of the city’s major hotels and restaurants and the business and retail districts.

The 2013 Congress theme is Solving the Groundwater Challenges of the 21st Century. This theme recognizes that, globally, the groundwater sector will face substantial challenges in this century, and many of these reflect the challenges that global society is facing. 2013 is an ideal time for the IAH Congress to be held in Australia. The nation has a strong mining and resources focus, and groundwater issues are critical factors in Australia’s development. In addition, the Congress coincides with the Australian National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training’s first term conclusion, so more than 100 PhD students and 50 post doctoral researchers will be presenting their findings in Perth.

Prominent international and national speakers will also be presenting on a range of topics. These include: groundwater governance, values and management; groundwater in mining; groundwater and climate change; energy and aquifers; research and technology solutions; all with examples of successes and failures we can learn from. Numerous sub-themes fall under these to ensure a comprehensive programme with broad appeal.

Attendance at the 2013 IAH Congress will provide delegates, sponsors and exhibitors with access to globally benchmarked standards of skills and knowledge. Pre and post congress

training workshops and symposia will be available, and an extensive Trade Exhibition is planned. Mid-congress tours will include: the Beenyup managed aquifer recharge project; threatened wetlands and groundwater dependant ecosystems; Rottnest Island and its environmentally sensitive challenges; Hot Sedimentary Aquifer geothermal projects; and other hydrogeologically significant sites. Post-congress tours will cover diverse hydrostratigraphic environments, from the raw beauty of the outback, massive gold and iron mining projects and associated dewatering challenges, and groundwater dependant ecosystems, to microbial wonders, and the wine growing regions of the south west. A tour to the Murray-Darling and Great Artesian Basins, which span half of the continent, is also under development.

The exciting and entertaining social programme will showcase Australia’s indigenous heritage, feature nightly events and cater for varying budgets. The 2013 IAH Congress gala dinner will be held at one of Perth’s premier dining locations, Frasers in the majestic Kings Park. The accompanying persons programme is under development and will ensure that travelling companions will be well catered for.

Further information is available on the 2013 IAH Congress website www.iahcongress2013.org as details are confirmed. On behalf of our hosts, IAH Australia, we look forward to seeing you in Perth in September 2013.

AUSTRAL IA 2013 ORGANIS ING COMMITTEE

Update on plans for Perth

Further information: http://www.iahcongress2013.org

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Meanwhile, our colleagues in Morocco are hard at work, stepping up the pace of their preparations for the 41st congress in 2014.

The formal agreement between IAH and the local organising committee to hold the congress in Morocco was signed in Niagara Falls. Congress co-chairs Mohamed Aboufirass and Lhoussaine Bouchaou will be reflecting on what they will have learnt from their visit to Niagara Falls, and taking back the experience to their colleagues on the local organising committee. The committee has met several times, and sub-committees for events, finance, young hydrogeologists, sponsorship and publicity have been set up.

The 41st congress will be held in Marrakech from 15 to 19 September 2014 in partnership with the Ministry of Energy, Mines, Water and Environment and the International Institute for Water and Sanitation. The overall conference theme will be “Groundwater: Challenges and Strategies” and important topics to be

covered will include climate change and groundwater resources, groundwater and surface water interactions, vulnerability, pollution and remediation of groundwater, fractured and karstic aquifers, coastal aquifers, management and governance of groundwater, tools and techniques for investigation of groundwater and unconventional groundwater resources. The committee is already working on an attractive programme of mid conference and post conference trips to both coastal and mountain regions.

Marrakech is one of the imperial cities of Morocco. Founded in 1061 ac and located in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains (Toubkal summit, 4165 m) and 170 km from Essaouira (Atlantic Ocean), Marrakech offers a great variety of cultural and leisure activities for both congress participants and accompanying persons.

You are invited to put the dates in your diary and we look forward to seeing you there!

MOROCCO 2014 ORGANIS ING COMMITTEE

Morocco, 2014

ROYAL SOCIETY - DFID AFRICA CAPACITY BUILDING INITIATIVEThe Royal Society has secured substantial funding from the UK’s Department for Development (DFID) for a new capacity strengthening programme for sub-Saharan Africa in three priority areas - water and sanitation; renewable energy; soil-related research. The main purpose of this new programme is to assist in strengthening the collaborations between scientists based in sub-Saharan Africa.

The programme will be delivered in two stages:

1. Network Grants: These are small start-up grants of up to £25,000, enabling interested parties to assemble research consortia and prepare applications for the subsequent programme grant scheme. A single round of application will be opened during the official launch event on 1st November 2012. A total of 20 awards can be made.

2. Programme Grants: The awards will support research consortia of one UK lab and three African labs with up to just over £1.2million over five years, including 10% overheads. The first round of applications will be opened in late 2013, the second in late 2014. A total of 10 awards can be made.

For further information go to http://royalsociety.org/grants/schemes/africa-capacity-building/.

DECEMBER 2012

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CO

NFE

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GS8-14 January: Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA. Colloquium of African Geology (CAG). Organised by Geological Society of Africa.

Web: http://www.CAG24.org.et 16-20 March: Aveiro, PORTUGAL. Transboundary water management across borders and interfaces (TWAM 2013) - present and future challenges. Web: http://ibtwm.web.ua.pt/congress 22 March: World Water Day 2013. Web: http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/index.html 15-17 April: Lima, PERU. Mine Water Solutions in Extreme Environments. Web: http://www.minewatersolutions.com 18-19 April: Barcelona, SPAIN. Aspectos Tecnológicos e Hidrogeológicos de la Geotermia. Organised by Asociación Internacional de Hidrogeólogos - Grupo Español (AIH-GE). Web: http://www.aih-ge.org/ 21-26 April: Gainesville, USA. 8th IAHS Groundwater Quality Conference (GQ13). Managing Groundwater Quality to Support Competing Human and Ecological Needs. Email: annable@u� .edu 8-10 May: Mórahalom, HUNGARY. Geothermal Applications and Specialities in Groundwater Flow and Resources. IAH Central European Groundwater Conference 2013. Organised by IAH Hungarian Chapter and University of Szeged. Web: http://conference.asvanytan.hu/iah_ceg_conf2013/index.html 13-16 May: Rennes, FRANCE. HydroEco’2013 – 4th International Multidisciplinary Conference on Hydrology and Ecology: Emerging Patterns, Breakthroughs and Challenges. Web: http://osur.univ-rennes1.fr/HydroEco2013/ 9-14 June: Avignon, FRANCE. International Symposium on Water Rock Interaction (WRI14). Organised by WRI. Web: http://www.wri14-2013.fr/ 10-13 Jun 2013: The Hague, THE NETHERLANDS. LuWQ2013 – International Interdisciplinary Conference on Land Use and Water Quality: Reducing Effects of Agriculture. Web: http://www.luwq2013.nl/ 22-23 June: Xi’an, CHINA. International Symposium on Regional Groundwater Flow: Theory, Applications and Future Development. Organised by China University of Geosciences, Xi’an Center of Geological Survey, China Geological Survey, The Institute of Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences. Email: xiaow.jiang@gmail.com or ylihe@cgs.cn 1-6 September: Stockholm, SWEDEN. World Water Week; Water Cooperation - Building Partnerships. Organised by SIWI (Stockholm International Water Institute). Web: http://www.worldwaterweek.org/ 2-6 September: Madrid, SPAIN. IAMG2013. 15th annual conference of the international association for mathematical geosciences. Web: http://www.igme.es/internet/iamg2013/ 2-7 September: Budapest, HUNGARY. International Symposium on Hierarchical Flow Systems in Karst Regions. Organised by A collaboration of IAH Commission for Regional Groundwater Flow and IAH Karst Commission; IAH Hungarian Chapter; Karst Hydrogeology and Speleogenesis Commission of International Union of Speleology. INFO: Email: anita.eross@gmail.com Web: http://iah.org/regionalgw� ow/news.html 15-20 September: Perth, AUSTRALIA. Solving the Groundwater Challenges of the 21st Century. IAH 40th annual congress. Web: http://www.iahcongress2013.org 15-19 Oct 2013 Beijing, CHINA. ISMAR8. 8th International Symposium on Managed Aquifer Recharge. Web: http://ismar8.org/

For a fuller list of conferences and more details, including links to websites visit www.iah.org/confs/We are happy to accept information concerning upcoming groundwater events from organisers email knicholson@iah.org with full details.

2013