报告内容摘要

Availability of good quality groundwater in California and elsewhere is declining because of both overdraft and long-term, downward migration of shallow, contaminated groundwater in thick, multiple-aquifer systems. At the same time, storage of water in California snowpack and hence in surface water reservoirs is declining or threatened by climate warming, as illustrated by the hydrologic record of the last half century. An often cited solution to the loss of snow and surface storage is the use of groundwater storage in the Central Valley, but because of the subsurface geologic complexity and spatial/temporal constraints on availability of water for recharge, feasibility of this solution remains in question. In the context of that subsurface complexity and climate change, this presentation discusses possible options for regional, integrated management of groundwater and surface water that would help the state adapt to loss of snow and surface water storage. Furthermore, the case will be made that sustainability of the groundwater quality actually depends on future success of massive-scale groundwater recharge operations, because the currently dominant source of recharge is irrigation.

报告人简介

Graham Fogg is Professor of Hydrogeology in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis. His research interests include groundwater contaminant transport; groundwater basin characterization and management; geologic/geostatistical characterization of subsurface heterogeneity for improved pollutant transport modeling; numerical modeling of groundwater flow and contaminant transport; role of molecular diffusion in contaminant transport and remediation; long-term sustainability of regional groundwater quality; vulnerability of aquifers to non-point-source groundwater contaminants. His work with the Watershed Center has included an important study documenting groundwater conditions in the Lower Cosumnes River, and showing the impact of those conditions on various plans to increase fall flows for salmon.