Groundwater Task Force
Why Focus on Groundwater?
Groundwater is a vitally important resource, yet until recently, it has not held much prominence in social, governance, and policy arenas. Shifts in patterns of use and growth in human demands for water, climate change, transformation of economic structures, and other stressors have increased pressures upon this resource. In many locations around the world, rates of withdrawal now often exceed rates of recharge, leading to long-term declines in groundwater levels. Groundwater depletion can result in land subsidence, reduction in groundwater storage, contamination, saltwater intrusion, and impacts on connected surface water supplies. To ensure water security, as well as to prevent irreversible impacts on groundwater aquifers and symbiotic ecosystems, there is an urgent need to act at local, regional, and global scales.
The complexity of groundwater affects its sustainable management and use. Knowledge of a groundwater system requires substantial measuring and analysis not only of the groundwater system but of interconnected surface waters, land, and climatic conditions. Flows vary due to natural variability and there can be a time lag between actions and the effects of those actions. The dispersed nature of groundwater use; the relatively new development of policy and law governing human actions that influence groundwater systems; and the need to navigate politics, socio-economic, and cultural contexts further contribute to the challenge of achieving groundwater sustainability.
Groundwater and IWRA
IWRA is uniquely positioned to contribute to bridging the groundwater science-policy-practice interface. The Association’s network of members spans the full range of disciplines and expertise necessary both to understand and to address groundwater challenges. IWRA members possess unparalleled knowledge of the institutional, economic, legal, physical, ecological, and chemical aspects of groundwater. In addition, the extensive place-based knowledge that stems from global membership provides the Groundwater Task Force the potential to provide insights, synthesis and lessons applicable to guide scientists, policy-makers and practitioners around the world in navigating the science-policy-practice interface.
IWRA Groundwater Task Force
Following IWRA’s highly successful 2020 Online Conference on ‘Addressing Groundwater Resilience under Climate Change’, IWRA established the Groundwater Task Force to help guide the Association’s groundwater-related efforts.
The Groundwater Task Force focuses on building capacity and knowledge in relation to the groundwater science-policy-practice interface. Related activities will be directed to raising awareness; generating and disseminating knowledge, best practices, and examples of successful utilisation; and bringing together scientists, practitioners, policymakers, and other interested parties to deliberate and share insights. In this vein, the Task Force will work to incorporate consideration of groundwater throughout IWRA’s activities and agendas, will direct IWRA’s activities in support of UN Water’s 2022 thematic focus on groundwater, and will support linking groundwater to other regional, international and global agendas, including Agenda 2030 and the SDG 6 accelerator.
Specific themes will include:
- Pathways to success in groundwater governance and management
- Defining, measuring, and evaluating groundwater sustainability
- Integrated and conjunctive groundwater management, including surface-groundwater interactions and land-water interactions
- Innovations in integrating interdisciplinary science, policy, and practice
Activities
The Task Force will form working groups drawn from IWRA membership to produce concept notes, academic research, policy briefs and webinars related to key groundwater topics. It will also help to coordinate and support IWRA’s presence in international events.
Initial activities of the Task Force included:
- A webinar series on ‘groundwater success’ stories
- Contributions to the 2022 World Water Development Report
- A ‘next-generation’ groundwater series aimed interdisciplinary capacity building
- Support for UN Water’s Groundwater Summit in 2022
- Planning events and activities for World Water Day 2022
Introducing the Task Force Bureau
IWRA has convened a panel of experts from among its membership to help guide and grow the task force:
- Lili Yu (Chair)
- Alice Aureli
- Amy Hardberger
- Anita Milman
- Eric Garner
- Gabriel Eckstein
- Geert-Jan Nijsten
- Karen G. Villholth
- Muchaneta Munamati
- Natasha Ramkirpal
- Rasha Hassan
- Raya Marina Stephan
- Renée Martin-Nagle
- Robert M. Kalin
- Tibor Stigter
- Yuanyuan Li
