Contribution to AGU Fall Meeting 2022

Robert will represent the ‘regulate’ project at the AGU (American Geophysical Union) Fall Meeting 2022 on December 16th, with a poster discussion on Groundwater in Telecoupled Social-Ecological Systems.

Groundwater is a fundamental resource for drinking water provision, food production and ecosystem health. Despite this obvious importance, groundwater bodies are threatened by overexploitation and pollution, globally. Europe is no exception in this regard, despite the Water Framework Directive that is often considered as a blueprint for water governance. Against this background, we question a basic assumption in conventional groundwater management and research: the topological paradigm, assuming that spatial proximity is essential to understand cause‐effect relationships. We hypothesize that a new spatial paradigm is required to manage today’s groundwater challenges. An epistemological understanding of telecoupling enables us to analyze groundwater problems as an outcome of various flows (e.g. physical water, virtual water, tourism, policies). Find more details to the session here.

The AGU Fall Meeting will take place in Chicago, IL and online from 12-16 December 2022. A diverse community of international and interdisciplinary scientists, journalists, students and policymakers from earth and space sciences will participate and discuss latest research (further information about the meeting and program, click here).