Events
-
17-20 Jun 2024 – Burlingame/San Francisco, California
Toward Sustainable Groundwater in Agriculture – Linking Science and Policy
3rd International Conference on groundwater issues in agriculture/food production; global groundwater-food-ecosystem nexus. This three-day international conference with a pre-conference workshop day will bring together leading scientists, policy analysts, policy and decision makers, and agricultural and environmental stakeholder representatives from around the world to define and highlight the science of and the challenges in agricultural groundwater resources management and groundwater quality protection. The conference will also offer a forum to identify promising technical and policy solutions that provide a sustainable future for groundwater and food production at regional, national, and global scales.
Around the globe, groundwater is the lifeline for many rural and agricultural regions and their associated cultures and populations. It is also a cornerstone of global food production. Groundwater constitutes nearly half the world's drinking water and much of the world's irrigation water supply. In many regions, groundwater provides significant resilience to drought. Climate change, population growth, overexploitation, salinization and nonpoint source (diffuse) pollution from agricultural activities (including animal farming, ranching, and forestry activities) have exacerbated groundwater quality and quantity conflicts within agricultural regions, at the urban-rural interface, at the agriculture-environment nexus, and extend to the groundwater-surface water interface. Loss of drought resiliency, increased groundwater production costs, falling water tables, well outages, land subsidence, seawater intrusion, loss of groundwater-dependent ecosystems including entire wetland, lake, and streams systems, and extensive surface water pollution from groundwater return flows have reached global dimensions and threaten the health and livelihood of this planet.
Within the water-energy-food-ecosystem nexus, this conference specifically highlights the real world challenges, science, solutions, and emerging policies centered around the multi-faceted, inter- and transdisciplinary interface between groundwater and agriculture.Organised by University of California Davis, Water Education Foundation.




