Following the IAH - International Association of Hydrogeologists World Groundwater Congress in Davos and The Geological Society Hydrogroup event in London, a common theme emerged.... We're in desperate need of hydrogeologists; water management challenges will continue to rise, while the number of young graduates with a specialisation remains low, with some MSc programmes even being discontinued. Several aspects could contribute to this mismatch between the number of hydrogeologists available and the need for this profile: the bad reputation of geological sciences as 'destroying the planet with heavy mining', the literal 'invisibility' of #groundwater, a lack of communication to the (younger) public about this career option, etc. The truth is that many people are not familiar with the term #hydrogeology and the important role that hydrogeologists play in preserving and managing what is undoubtedly our most precious resource ????. Even I, until a few years ago, had an image of groundwater as water in subsurface lakes or rivers flowing underground... and that's for someone with a scientific background (in biology) ??. Groundwater is barely touched upon in courses. For children, groundwater is represented as an arrow pointing to the ground in the water cycle. Mysterious and elusive. ???? ?? ????????????????????????????, ???????? ???? ?? ???????????? ?????????????????????????? ???? ???????? ??????????? ???????? ?????? ???? ???? ???? ?????????????????????? ???????????? ?????? ?????????????? ???????? ?????????? ???????????? ???? ?? ???????????? ???? ????????????????????????? The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) did a wonderful job in providing an interactive water cycle diagram for children, from beginner to advances, and all including groundwater! ?? https://lnkd.in/eZVFsQ-G Much better than the cycle I drew in primary school...
Serge Brouyère
5 个月
Hi Sofie, I totally agree with you that the domain needs more visibility and more populated student populations. In Davos, we have discussed with different CBH-BCH board members to devote time and efforts to promote the field in particular at high school level. We'll surely need ambassadors ??
Nicholas Clarke
5 个月
Grady Hillhouse, P.E. Has done a lot with his excellent YouTube channel and empire. He has taught me in my 12-year-old budding engineer a lot about ground water. Things I never knew from his excellent expert videos and experimental set ups. He gets really deep and has a great network in other educators. I highly recommend you tap him. Here’s his site https://practical.engineering/about I’m sure he would be on board with this mission.
Mayank Sachdeva
4 个月
A lot of people and friends still don’t know what I do. ??????
Mike Spratley?
5 个月
A-
Hafidha Khebizi
5 个月
Pour un enfant je pense qu'on aura besoin d'un verre d'eau + une éponge + un tube + un support incliné pour réaliser un petit modèle d'une nappe aquifère!
Thanks for sharing this important message.
Visioning, Value Creation, Innovation
5 个月So I’m unsure if any here heard of project Dafne? The EU funded research into three big rivers of east flowing Africa. I had the pleasure to be part of this and was fascinated at the thought of building models of the second half of this cycle, the return journey back to the seas, and how man absorbed the water, the various uses agri, storage and consumption. And the impacts. These are interesting. With a cleaner planet do we have a hotter surface and higher evaporation and larger weather phenomena? This is interesting. Do Dams stop rivers flowing or short cut the cycle? What is fascinating is can we model it. I don’t know. Sofie thanks great piece.