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Home News International Association of Hydrogeologists (Irish Group) Conference – 26 + 27 April, 2022: Making the invisible, visible

International Association of Hydrogeologists (Irish Group) Conference – 26 + 27 April, 2022: Making the invisible, visible

The 42nd Annual IAH (Irish Group) Groundwater Conference: “Groundwater: Making the Invisible, Visible” will be held over two half-days on Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th April 2022 via Zoom. The theme reflects the focus of UN’s 2022 World Water Day.

Day one

Session one, Exploring Groundwater, the conference will take a broader perspective and includes talks on the role of groundwater in the 2022 UN World Water Development Report (Michaela Miletto, UNESOC WWAP), on Ireland’s geothermal potential (Sarah Blake, GSI) and how structure influences groundwater movement and storage (Pat Meere, UCC).

Session two, Groundwater Resource Resilience, gets underway with an overview of groundwater in the World Water Quality Alliance (Claudia Ruz Vargas, UN IGRAC), updates to the Irish National Karst database (Caoimhe Hickey, GSI), how groundwater is being incorporated into public supplies in Northern Ireland (Paul Wilson, GSNI), and updates on two GSI programmes that focus on groundwater (Katie Tedd, GSI).

Day two

The first session is on Communication, with talks on how to use groundwater in geoscience communication (Kirstin Lemon, GSNI), the broader experiences of communicating geoscience to the public (Fegus McAuliffe, iCRAG), and how to foster and support community engagement (Donal O’Keefe, LAWPRO).

The final session considers Emerging Issues in Groundwater, and the speakers will talk about their research on using passive seismic methods to listen to water flowing in conduits (Haleh Karbala Ali, DIAS), groundwater contaminants of emerging concern (Dan Lapworth, BGS), and a linked presentation on the global and Irish perspective on PFAS in groundwater (Olivia Hall & Ian Ross, TetraTech). The final presentation will consider Irish Holy Wells (Bruce Misstear, TCD).

Learn more:

The conference programme can be downloaded on the IAH website: https://www.iah-ireland.org/annual-conference/

Register:

Registration is now open:

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EPA Catchments Unit

Administrator

The EPA Catchments Unit is based in Dublin, and the team is involved with catchment science, chemistry, ecology, hydromorphology, modelling, Geographic Information Systems and planning. We work with the wider EPA, all of our local authorities, the Local Authority Waters and Communities Office, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, and other public bodies and Departments to ensure we have the best available data and information about our catchments.

Who is involved?
Quite simply, everyone in Ireland has a role to play. This can be from something as simple as making sure you don’t pollute your local stream, or a local community working together to establish a Rivers Trust to enhance the rivers and lakes in their area, to a Government Department or Agency helping a Minister implement a new policy to help protect and enhance all our water bodies.

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The Local Authority Waters Programme coordinates the efforts of local authorities and other public bodies in the implementation of the River Basin Management Plan, and supports local community and stakeholder involvement in managing our natural waters, for everyone’s benefit.

Environmental Protection Agency

The EPA is responsible for coordinating the monitoring, assessment and reporting on the status of our 4,842 water bodies, looking at trends and changes, determining which waterbodies are at risk and what could be causing this, and drafting environmental objectives for each.

Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage

The Department is responsible for making sure that the right policies, regulations and resources are in place to implement the Water Framework Directive, and developing a River Basin Management Plan and Programme of Measures to protect and restore our waters.