Transboundary Groundwaters in Focus at the 2018 AWRA Conference in Fort Worth, Texas

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From 9 to 11 July 2018, the AWRA (American Water Resources Association) organised its special summer conference in Fort Worth dedicated to transboundary groundwaters.  IGRAC’s Neno Kukurić provided a keynote at the opening and participated in fruitful discussions throughout the conference. 

The conference gathered experts from various disciplines (hydrogeologists, environmentalists, layers,..) presenting on and discussing behaviour of transboundary groundwaters and  the governance frameworks required to sustainably use and ensure equitable access to this critical resource.

Keynotes were provided by Dr Alfonso Rivera, Chief Hydrogeologist, Geological Survey of Canada and Dr Neno Kukurić from IGRAC. (News item about Kukurić' keynote speech)

Topics

The conference sessions were dedicated to a wide range of topics, all of them very relevant for understanding complexity of international groundwater governance:

  • Governance Frameworks
  • Legal Instruments
  • Modeling, Data, and Monitoring
  • Case Studies and Lessons Learned
  • Depleting Aquifers and Transition from Irrigated Agriculture to Sustainable
  • The Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Program (TAAP)
  • Agriculturally Related Ecosystems
  • Understanding Texas’ Approach to Groundwater Governance and Management
  • Global North and Global South
  • Cooperation, Security, and Conflict
  • Transboundary Groundwater Science

The closing day of the conference contained inspiring discussion on Multidisciplinary Assessment of the Future of Transboundary Groundwater Science, Management and Governance. The outcomes of this very well facilitated discussion will be developed into a draft set of principles to be used when identifying, studying and using transboundary groundwater resources. IGRAC is looking forward to further assist in developing Position/White Paper on coherent strategy for addressing transboundary groundwater issues.