Workshop: Toward Sustainable Groundwater in Agriculture - An International Conference Linking Science with Policy - Burlingame, California, June 28-30, 2016

University Of California-Davis, Davis CA

Investigators

Abstract

1632540 Harter 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 one-third of the worlds drinking water supplies, often the soul source of drinking water in rural areas; more than one-third of the world's irrigation water supply. In many regions, groundwater is the insurance against surface water shortages due to drought. Drought; overuse; groundwater salinity; nonpoint source pollution from agricultural activities (including animal farming, ranching, and forestry activities); and groundwater quality and quantity conflicts at the urban-rural interface have reached global dimensions and threaten the health and livelihood of this planet. This conference will serve as a state-wide, national, and global forum for scientists, agricultural representatives, NGOs, consultants, and policy and decision makers to discover and discuss solutions to managing, sharing, assessing, and protecting groundwater resources within agricultural landscapes. The meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Burlingame, California, conveniently located within a few miles of the San Francisco International Airport June 28-30, 2016. California is among the global leaders in agricultural production, with nearly 10 million acres of irrigated agricultural lands, providing over 400 different commodities worth $50 billion, and consuming well over 32 million acre-feet of water annually for irrigation. California is also the leader in U.S. milk production, responsible for over 20% of U.S. dairy output. While California's agriculture is unique in many ways, it shares many aspects of its nexus with groundwater with other irrigated and non-irrigated agricultural regions in the United States and around the world. Many intensively farmed regions are overlying unconsolidated sedimentary aquifer systems similar to those in California. Irrigated agricultural lands are common in semi-arid and arid climates. While irrigated lands represent merely one-fifth of the global agricultural lands, provide for 40% of overall agricultural production worldwide, underscoring the importance of irrigated agriculture to global food security. This conference is comprehensive in its organization and will be broken into several separate but related areas; 1) Groundwater Management, Governance, Policy, and Regulation, Agricultural Water Use, Conjunctive/Integrated Management, 2) Socio-Economic Aspects of Agricultural Groundwater, Climate, Energy, and Agricultural Groundwater, 3) Agricultural Groundwater Quality and Contamination, Regulation, 4) Groundwater at the Agriculture-Urban Interface, 5) Groundwater Linkages to Groundwater-dependent Ecosystems, and, 6) Forecasting and Modeling. The meeting will follow a format where each of the three conference days is divided into four meeting periods: early morning, late morning, early afternoon, late afternoon. Each period will be approximately 100 minutes in length, featuring 3-4 speakers per session. The early morning period on each of the three conference days will be reserved for a plenary session on a key conference theme, featuring 3-4 keynote speakers and allowing for participation and discussion among the entire audience. The remaining periods will feature four parallel sessions to accommodate for a wide range of themes and participant interests. The final panel will provide a lively and critical ad hoc review of topics discussed at the conference and reflect on next steps and future challenges in moving toward global sustainability of groundwater in agricultural regions. With respect to outreach, the Water Education Foundation and other conference partners (UC Water, PPIC) will be interfacing with social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc) before and during the conference.