"Toward Sustainable Groundwater in Agriculture - An International Conference Linking Science and Policy"

June 15-17, 2010 San Francisco,

This site provides a comprehensive up-to-date multimedia resource on groundwater quality and groundwater resources management in agriculture and at the agriculture-urban-environment interfaces. In lieu of conference proceedings, this site serves as post-conference resource center with searchable online conference abstracts and presentations (video and/or presentations).

This three-day international conference (see Conference Program brochure) brought together leading scientists, policy analysts, policy and decision makers, and agricultural and environmental stakeholder groups to define and highlight the science, challenges, and potential policy solutions in agricultural groundwater resources management and groundwater quality protection that will provide a sustainable future at regional, national, and global scales.

Groundwater is the lifeline for many rural and agricultural regions and their associated cultures and populations around the globe and a cornerstone of global food production. Groundwater constitutes nearly half the world's drinking water and much of the world's irrigation water supply. Population growth, overexploitation, salinization, nonpoint source pollution from agricultural activities (including animal farming, ranching, and forestry activities), impacts to surface water, and groundwater quality and quantity conflicts at the urban-rural interface have reached global dimensions and threaten the health and livelihood of this planet.

Browse presentations and abstracts by author, title, or theme. A complete single volume compendium of abstracts is also available (3.9MB).

Read about the conference in the IAH Newsletter, or in GRAC's Hydrovisions. You can also visit Michael Campana's conference blog for day 1, day 2, or day 3.

Conference Themes for  Plenary and Break-Out Sessions

Socio-Economic Aspects of Agricultural Groundwater

• Agricultural groundwater and livelihoods: socioeconomics, policy issues, and adaptation
• Environmental justice and human health related to groundwater use in rural areas
• Groundwater's role in global food production

Climate, Energy, and Agricultural Groundwater

• Groundwater and climate change, including land use issues, groundwater recharge, and farming security
• Groundwater and energy, including biofuels, energy efficiency, carbon footprint of agriculture, and the role of energy subsidies

Agricultural Groundwater Quality and Contamination

• Agricultural groundwater: Regulatory controls, compliance, and monitoring (groundwater quantity and quality)
• Drinking water source water protection (groundwater) in agricultural regions - policies, management, and economics at the urban-agricultural fringe
• Groundwater salinity, including intrusion, drainage issues, and secondary salinization
• Impacts, monitoring, regulation, best management practices (BMPs), policy, economics regarding specific agricultural contaminants:
  • Nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus)
  • Pesticides
  • Pharmaceuticals in animal farming
  • Pathogens and food safety
  • Farm petroleum-product management and groundwater contamination
• Occurrence, management, and treatment of natural contaminants in agricultural groundwater

Conjunctive Use, Agricultural Water Use, and Groundwater Management, Policy, and Regulation

• Conjunctive use of groundwater and surface water
• Irrigation water delivery and use efficiency: groundwater impacts, sustainability of irrigated agriculture, soil salinization due to increased water use efficiency, and conservation
• Groundwater management approaches, including community/collective approaches, instrumental approaches (laws, regulations, prices), demand management, and indirect approaches (energy policy, agricultural policies, adaptation)
• Management of the groundwater-agriculture nexus around the globe
• Groundwater recharge, including managed aquifer recharge (MAR), aquifer replenishment in crop production areas, increased recharge under land conversion to crop land, policies for aquifer recharge
• Policies related to economics of shifting agricultural management to control groundwater depletion/contamination, etc.
• Source water protection (groundwater) in agricultural regions, including policies, management, and economics
• Regulatory compliance related to nonpoint source impacts to groundwater, ambient groundwater monitoring for groundwater protection, including vadose zone monitoring, nutrient balance monitoring, and groundwater monitoring
• Modeling and assessment tools for evaluating agricultural groundwater quality and quantity trends and forecasting future conditions

Groundwater at the Agriculture-Urban Interface

• Groundwater use, management, and quality at the agriculture-urban interface, including agricultural legacy contamination
• Reuse of wastewater and biosolids in agriculture, including water quality impacts, economic incentives, and sustainable management
• Groundwater quality and management issues in forestry

Groundwater Linkages to Surface Water and Estuaries

• Surface water/groundwater interactions: impacts to and from agriculture, farm/groundwater/stream ecology linkage
• Agricultural groundwater and estuary ecosystems

For questions regarding this website, please email Dr. Thomas Harter