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  • Borehole heroes: Help increase the lifespan of water wells

    The World Bank is currently undertaking a groundbreaking initiative to create the first benchmark addressing the lifespan of water boreholes, aimed at assisting asset managers and investors. The success of this benchmark relies heavily on comprehensive data collection from various geological and economic contexts worldwide. In line with this, the... read more...

  • Bangladeshi drinking water polluted with arsenic – and climate change is making it worse

    In Bangladesh, around 49 per cent of the drinking well water – which almost everyone drinks – has unsafe limits of carcinogenic arsenic. A new study led by Dr Seth Frisbie of Norwich University, USA, found that the climate crisis is making the situation worse – pointing to a looming... read more...

  • Paper: Global-scale trends in groundwater levels from piezometry

    A pioneering ‘global-scale’ analysis of groundwater levels by a team of researchers from the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), ETH Zürich, University College London (UCL), Rutgers University and King Abdulaziz University has been published in Nature. Their article, Rapid groundwater decline and some cases of recovery in aquifers... read more...

  • Mathematics to help understand flows on unique mound springs

    The Great Artesian Basin’s unique mound springs are in danger. Mound springs are an environmental asset of international significance, with historic and ongoing cultural and economic value. But they are usually located in arid, inhospitable outback regions where you need to be a fairly intrepid person to reach them. A... read more...

  • Groundwater is vital to the health of our planet

    The crucial role of groundwater in sustaining both humanity and biodiversity over the long term is frequently neglected. An international team of researchers has outlined why groundwater should be treated as a keystone ecosystem. “Groundwater is not only in itself a major ecosystem but is also of critical relevance to... read more...

  • Recruiting students to science through hands-on learning

    To really get into the geosciences, you gotta get your hands in there! Abe Springer, as the 2022 Birdsall-Dreiss lecturer for the Geological Society of America’s hydrogeology scientific division, spent a year traversing the world talking to people about his work. After each lecture he ran a half-day field-based workshop... read more...

  • Monitor groundwater to manage it better

    In Bangladesh, groundwater is an important natural resource upon which water and food security is critically dependent. Climate action requires strong commitment to better managing this essential resource. Despite its centrality to water and food security in Bangladesh, groundwater is not prominently featured in national water policies. At the moment,... read more...

  • Recharging groundwater in Nepal

    Constructing storage dams or mobilising groundwater in Nepal is necessary to unlock irrigation’s full potential. Water-saving techniques are needed not only for making groundwater irrigation profitable but also to minimise stress on the groundwater resources, allowing sufficient time for recharge. These techniques can reduce the negative impact on soil health... read more...

  • We rely heavily on groundwater – but pumping too much threatens thousands of underground species

    Groundwater is the world’s largest unfrozen freshwater reserve. It provides drinking water for half the world’s population but we’re using it far faster than it can naturally replenish. That’s bad news for the thousands of species living down there, including the cavefish, blind eels, blind beetles and translucent crustaceans that... read more...

  • 6 million-year-old ‘fossil groundwater pool’ discovered deep beneath Sicilian mountains

    Fresh water that trickled down into Earth’s crust 6 million years ago became trapped thousands of feet beneath the Hyblaean Mountains in Sicily, forming an aquifer that has not budged since. Researchers hope the fresh water can be pumped up to alleviate water scarcity in Sicily and that the discovery will... read more...

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