|
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 |
|
International Association of Hydrogeologists
Commission on Groundwater in Urban
Areas
http://www.scar.utoronto.ca/~gwater/IAHCGUA.html
22 August 1999
CGUA Report to Council
Ken Howard - CGUA Chair
CGUA is pleased to report another
successful and productive year. Highlights include a steadily increasing
membership and new initiatives in the sponsorship and support of urban
groundwater meetings in Canada and the USA. Disappointments include our failure
to deliver one or more workshops proposed in Europe. Hopefully these proposals
can be resurrected in the coming year.
Membership now exceeds 60, the majority of new
members coming from both North and South America and also, I note, from
Portugal. Several of these new members registered at the last IAH meeting in Las Vegas, but most have joined after
accessing the CGUA web page http://www.scar.utoronto.ca/~gwater/IAHCGUA.html. The web page has not been updated as regularly
as intended during the past year, but continues to promote our activities and
advertise meetings. These meetings include the
GAC-MAC (Geological Society of Canada / Mineralogical Association of
Canada) Special Session on "The Physical Environment of Urban Areas"
which CGUA was pleased to co-sponsor May 26 to 28, 1999, and an urban
groundwater session being organised by Will Logan and Jack Sharp at the Annual
Meeting of the Geological Society of America
in Denver, Colorado (October 25–28, 1999). The GSA session is supported
by CGUA and is entitled “Impacts of Urbanization on Groundwater Quantity and
Quality”.
Other activities of CGUA include the
preparation of a state-of-the-art review on “Groundwater contamination due to
urban development” for the UNESCO IHPV Project 3.4 (piloted by David Lerner)
and our flagship ventures, the “Bibliography of Urban Hydrogeology” (http://www.lib.chalmers.se/extern/CGUA/),
organised by Chester Svensson (chester@geo.chalmers.se)
and the “Urban Groundwater Database” (http://www.clw.csiro.au/UGD/),
developed by Claus Otto (claus.otto@per.dwr.csiro.au).
I understand that the bibliography and database remain viable and are well
supported. However,
it is important we keep these
services up to date and once again I
strongly encourage all members of IAH to visit these sites soon and make a
contribution. Many thanks to those who
did!
After good initial progress the
UNESCO IHPV Project 3.4 has run into difficulties, primarily the result of UNESCO authors who have produced very
little. David Lerner is to be congratulated on keeping this initiative moving
by recruiting new contributors. I might add all CGUA authors responded in a
very timely manner to their allocated tasks. Again, Steve Appleyard and Claus
Otto in Australia, and Oliver Sililo in South Africa are particularly
acknowledged.
The coming year should see further
developments in the web page with the addition of new links, photographs, and
lists of members and e-mail addresses. Items and photographs for inclusion on the web page are welcome at any
time. Other initiatives include the possibility of establishing a workshop in
sub-Saharan Africa with the theme of
urban groundwater management. The central aim of this workshop would be
to develop effective management tools which will enable the sustainable
development and protection of deeply weathered aquifer systems for
groundwater-fed, urban water supplies.
The project would be a
collaborative initiative involving the Robens Centre for Public and Environmental
Health (UK), the Water Resource Management Department (Uganda), the Water
Resources Department (Tanzania) and British Geological Survey. It is also linked to a SIDA-funded, urban
groundwater research project in Kisumu (Kenya).
The annual general meeting of CGUA
will be held at the IAH Annual Meeting
in Slovakia. This meeting always
provides the best opportunity for members to discuss CGUA priorities and plan
the program for the coming year. While all CGUA members are strongly encouraged to attend, those unable to participate are invited to submit items for
the agenda together with their comments and opinions. With over 60 members in
17 countries, it is important that we take full advantage of modern
communications technology to foster group unity. I encourage all members of IAH
to visit the web site, provide contributions and links (don’t be shy!) and help
improve its utility.
Ken
Howard
University of Toronto at Scarborough
1265 Military Trail,
Scarborough,
Ontario, M1C 1A4
CANADA