Congress topic

The conference focuses on the crucial role of groundwater as a multi-resource essential for environmental sustainability, societal well-being, and resource management. It explores the complex interactions within groundwater systems, including deep and shallow aquifers, karst and fractured rock formations, and processes in the unsaturated zone. The event emphasizes the importance of groundwater in supporting green energy transition, particularly through geothermal and mineral resources.

Topics also include governance and management strategies such as transboundary aquifers, international regulations, and sustainable practices within a circular economy framework. Innovative solutions like numerical simulations, artificial intelligence, and experimental research are highlighted, along with approaches to address pollution, emerging contaminants, and remediation.

Adaptation to climate change is a key focus, considering drought resilience, extreme event impacts, and human interventions affecting the water cycle. The conference underscores the societal significance of groundwater, promoting awareness, citizen science, sanitation, health, and education to foster more resilient and equitable water management systems worldwide.

Based on the decision of the Organising and Scientific Committees, we would like to inform presenters and authors of the following policy:

Each presenter for one registration may give up to one oral presentation and up to two poster presentations. This policy has been introduced to ensure that the limited number of oral presentation slots can be distributed as fairly as possible and that a wider range of participants can present their work in oral sessions.

Topics

1. Interacting groundwater systems in the Water Cycle

2. Groundwater in green transition

Session 2.1 Groundwater-dependent geothermal systems
Session 2.2 Mining Impacts on groundwater systems: hydrogeology, geochemistry and sustainable management

3. Conjunctive water management

Session 3.2 Transforming spontaneous conjunctive management into an ordered system – turning ‘lost opportunities’ around
Session 3.3 Monitoring and modeling groundwater-dependent ecosystems: recent advances and traditional knowledge
Session 3.4 Examining connections between groundwater-related laws, the state of groundwater crisis, and recommendations for approaches for groundwater-secure environments
Session 3.5 Nature-based solutions for sustainable groundwater management
Session 3.6 Approaches for climate-resilient and sustainable water planning
3.8 From spontaneous conjunctive management to groundwater‑secure systems: Governance, Law and Practice

4. Next generation solutions

Session 4.1 Big data and machine learning applications in hydrogeology
Session 4.2 From data to action: the contribution of groundwater monitoring as a driver of change
Session 4.3 Advances in modeling groundwater dynamics from regional to global scales
Session 4.4 21st-century groundwater quality challenges
Session 4.5 Groundwater temperatures in a warming climate: risks, opportunities, and pathways for sustainable thermal management
Session 4.6 Data-driven and hybrid methods for groundwater vulnerability assessment
Session 4.7 GEWEX Global Groundwater Network
Session 4.8 Groundwater model optimization and uncertainty

5. Climate change adaptation

Session 5.1 Groundwater and climate change: predictive studies and forecasting methods
Session 5.2 Managed aquifer recharge: essential for groundwater security?
Session 5.3 Progressive advances in urban hydrogeological processes
Session 5.4 Managed aquifer recharge for climate change adaptation

6. Groundwater and Social awareness/Society

Note: The session programme is expected to expand further. The titles listed here reflect the sessions currently accepted by the Local Scientific Committee.