Hydrosphere

Imaging Saltwater Intrusion

Saltwater intrusion is the process by which saltwater migrates into a portion of a coastal aquifer that previously contained freshwater. It can have significant economical and ecological impacts, and therefore is a critical issue to investigate and manage. Using the geophysical method of Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) results in continuous profiles of electrical resistivity with depth and is ideally suited to mapping out intrusion in coastal aquifers.

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Strathclyde Centre for Doctoral Training in Global Environmental Monitoring and Policy

A centre for doctoral training linked to the GEMM network, looking at critical issues around environmental measurement, environmental change and policy around the natural landscapes and the effects of climate change across physical process and socioeconomic dynamics.

Strathclyde

National Groundwater Monitoring Programme

The New Zealand National Groundwater Monitoring Programme (NGMP) provides a national perspective on groundwater quality through the establishment of ‘baseline’ groundwater quality; associates groundwater quality with certain causes, such as anthropogenic influence; and provides best-practice methods for sampling and monitoring, as well as groundwater quality data interpretation. The NGMP consists of three components: operations (collaboration with all New Zealand regional authorities), research and database.

GNS Science

Mapping Groundwater from the Air

Using advanced geophysical imaging technologies in novel ways, we are mapping California's groundwater to enable sustainable groundwater management for the state's major agricultural areas and elsewhere. California's subsurface aquifers are being extensively pumped, especially during years of drought. In some areas, the subsidence, or compaction, caused by over-pumping means that even with abundant rain, the lost water-storage capacity may never be recovered. Negative changes in water quality are also being seen - the intrusion of saltwater into coastal aquifers and high levels of arsenic in wells in the Central Valley.

Stanford

ARGO

Argo is an international program that collects information from inside the ocean using a fleet of robotic instruments that drift with the ocean currents and move up and down between the surface and a mid-water level. Each instrument (float) spends almost all its life below the surface. The data that Argo collects describes the temperature and salinity of the water and some of the floats measure other properties that describe the biology/chemistry of the ocean. The main reason for collecting these data is to help us understand the oceans’ role in earth’s climate and so be able to make improved estimates of how it will change in the future.

Global Freshwater Initiative

Freshwater scarcity is one of this century’s most pressing challenges, but it is surprisingly hard to describe the nature of the "global water crisis." GFI staff are the first to systematically analyze and classify water crises around the world.