Abstracts

FRIDAY PLENARY SESSIONS
The Future of Isotope Hydrogeology
Ian D. Clark, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa
In 1971, Peter Fritz carried the torch of isotope hydrology from
the crucible of Professor Gonfiantini’s lab in Pisa to Waterloo via
the University of Alberta. Those early days of hard-won isotope
measurements on a fully manual dual inlet VG602 generated
fundamental insights into the use of these tracers in hydrogeology.
Half a century of technological developments has produced
new instruments that provide orders of magnitude more data at
unprecedented temporal and spatial resolution.
What have we done with these new capabilities and what new questions
are we addressing? Have our innovations and applications kept pace?
We’ve seen advances on many fronts from questions of origin, age and
renewability of groundwater resources to tracing contaminant transport
and remediation. Our challenge in the coming decades will be to more fully
engage industry and government in the routine use of isotopes to address
a range of issues spawned by our improving stewardship of water and the
environment.
Insightful Moments in Hydrogeology –
Hydrogeologists without Borders and
the ‘GW2.0 Initiative’
This session celebrates the hydrogeology textbook
initiative GW2.0 of Hydrogeologists without
Borders (HWB) to provide an updated version of
the 1979 Freeze and Cherry text Groundwater as a
training tool that will be available worldwide and in
multiple languages.
HWB is a Canadian charity focused on linking hydrogeology to the water,
sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector. Although much of the regions
of critical need worldwide are increasingly groundwater dependent, and
a significant part of the international aid sector drills water wells, projects
are often lacking in their hydrogeological component especially sustainable
well construction. Major efforts to provide improved water supply in
developing countries are thwarted because of the inability to find and
develop groundwater resources - often due to the lack of hydrogeological
expertise.
IAH-CNC 2015 WATERLOO CONFERENCE
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