University of Toronto at Scarborough 1265 Military Trail, Scarborough,  Ontario, M1C 1A4  CANADA

Chair: Ken Howard http://www.scar.utoronto.ca/~gwater Tel: 416 287 7233 Fax: 416 287 7279 email: gwater@scar.utoronto.ca

27 July 1998

This has been a busy year for members of CGUA. As many will know David Lerner, our founding Chair stepped down in September, 1997 after 4 years of excellent leadership. David continues to be an active member of CGUA and chairs a working group charged with the preparation of a state-of-the-art review on "Groundwater contamination due to urban development" for the UNESCO IHPV Project 3.4. I understand this document is progressing well and that the timely efforts of contributing authors, notably Steve Appleyard and Claus Otto in Australia, and Oliver Sililo in South Africa are particularly acknowledged.
 

At David's suggestion and agreed at our last commission meeting in Nottingham, the affairs of CGUA were taken over by a group. I was elected Chair, and three vice-chairs were similarly appointed, primarily with the intention of promoting and co-ordinating CGUA activities in different parts of the world - Claus Otto (CSIRO Water Resources, Private Bag, PO Wembley 6014, Western Australia, fax +61 8 9387 8211, e-mail claus.otto@per.dwr.csiro.au), Matthias Eiswirth (Karlsruhe University, Department of Applied Geology, Kaiserstrasse 12, D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany, fax +49 721 606 279, e-mail matthias.eiswirth@bio-geo.uni-karlsruhe.de), and Gaye Cheikh Becaye (Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences & Techniques, University C.A. Diop, Dakar, Senegal, fax +221 246318, e-mail becaye@syfed.refer.sn).
 

As always, the activities of CGUA have been very much defined by the interests and level of enthusiasm of its members. Our flagship ventures, the "Bibliography of Urban Hydrogeology" (http://www.lib.chalmers.se/extern/CGUA/), developed by Chester Svensson (chester@geo.chalmers.se ) and "Urban Groundwater Database" (http://www.clw.csiro.au/UGD/), organised by Claus Otto (claus.otto@per.dwr.csiro.au) remain active and well supported. I understand from Claus that the Urban Groundwater Database received 2500 visitors last year which is most encouraging. It is important we keep these services current, however, and in this regard we all have a role to play. I encourage all members of IAH to visit these sites soon and make a contribution.

A third web site - the CGUA home page:

http://www.scar.utoronto.ca/~gwater/IAHCGUA.html

was added to the fold late last year. Under my management, the site describes the history and objectives of CGUA, provides an on-line application form for potential members, and contains links, amongst others, to the Bibliography of Urban Hydrogeology, the Urban Groundwater Database and the IAH home page. A primary purpose of the site is to keep members abreast of events such as the highly successful meeting recently held in Canada, on "Groundwater and Urban Development: Issues and Solutions" (abstracts available through the web site). However, to provide greatest service, the site relies very much on the willingness of members to contribute items of interest, including photographs that may brighten its appeal. At some stage I plan to post a CGUA membership list with e-mail addresses; however, the future role of the CGUA-mailbox remains a matter for discussion. At present I have functioning e-mail addresses for about half the CGUA's membership of 54 (and growing). I encourage all members of CGUA who have an e-mail address to make it available to me as soon as possible. It makes international communication so much more efficient.

CGUA may have had a busy agenda this past year, but its time to start setting our goals and priorities for the coming year. One of my personal goals is to promote the activities of CGUA in North America and push into Central America where some of the world's real urban horror stories can be found. It's early days yet but I'm hopeful that within a year or two I can find financial support that would enable urban hydrogeologists from various Latin American and South American countries to meet and share their experiences. If any members of IAH have appropriate contacts who could help catalyse this activity, I would be very pleased to hear from them.

While the centre of mass of CGUA may have nudged ever so slightly away from western Europe during the past year, it is important we maintain the considerable momentum that was achieved under the guidance of David Lerner in Europe, and for that matter, in several other areas of the globe. Our workshops in Aachen 1995 and Goteborg 1996 were judged to be highly worthwhile by all who attended and it's important that we build on this success. Detlef Klaffke has volunteered to organise a meeting in Aachen again and this sounds like too good an opportunity to miss! We should also consider promoting a) small "focus workshops" to address more specialised topics such as "leakage from underground sewer pipes", or "GIS applications" and b) regionally-based meetings to examine issues of local interest and concern. An example of the latter is the Canadian meeting mentioned above. Nothing will happen of course, unless somebody takes the ball and runs with it, so again I turn to our trusty membership for both support and action.
 

For CGUA it's going to be another busy year. Comments and suggestions are welcome at any time but the IAH Annual Meeting, this year in Las Vegas, always provides the best opportunity for members to discuss CGUA priorities and launch the program for the coming year. This year I would like as many members of CGUA as possible to participate in our annual commission meeting. All members, including those unable to attend in person, have been invited to submit items for the agenda together with their comments and opinions. All issues will be aired at the meeting with minutes posted at the web site. With over 50 members in 15 countries, it is important that we take full advantage of modern communications technology to foster group unity. In future years we should explore the possibility of "web conferencing", particularly for our annual commission meeting.
 

Ken Howard