The Water Resources Podcast

Jude Cobbing discusses the water resources in Sub-Saharan Africa, the barriers to development, including financing, drilling and pumping technologies, and energy access, and approaches to addressing these barriers as shown in South Africa.

Megan Hart discusses risks related to natural hazards (e.g., floods, droughts, earthquakes) and approaches to managing those risks within the context of climate change.

Chunmiao Zheng discusses China's Water Challenges, including water scarcity in the north and water excess in the south, transfer from south to north, widespread water pollution and governance.

Abhijit discusses overexploitation of groundwater resources and arsenic contamination with potential solutions using managed aquifer recharge and stratified drilling to minimize arsenic exposure.

Petra Döll discusses the evolution of global hydrologic modeling, especially WaterGAP, as well as transdisciplinary knowledge integration in participatory processes in water and risk management.

Francois Bertone and Lucy Lytton discuss the recent World Bank report on The Hidden Wealth of Nations, The Economics of Groundwater in Times of Climate Change.

 Laurence Gill assesses the importance of groundwater in rural Ireland, fingerprinting pollution sources from agriculture and humans, and using music to translate water flow in karst systems

Michelle van Vliet discusses regional and global surface water quality, how water quality affects water scarcity, and potential solutions based on wastewater reuse and seawater desalination.

Robert Mace discusses groundwater sustainability issues, considering long-term evolution of different aquifers (Ogallala, Edwards, Trinity) with implications for future management.

Günter Blöschl discusses recent flooding in Europe, causes of flooding, including climate change and land use change, engineering and nature-based solutions to reduce flood risk, and social hydrology aspects.

Noam Weisbrod discusses the role of seawater desalination and wastewater reuse as water sources for potable water and irrigation water in Israel.

Mike Dettinger discusses the origin and evolution of atmospheric rivers and their importance in managing reservoir storage in the Southwest US.

Bill Alley discusses groundwater scarcity issues in Arizona and California, evolving approaches to groundwater governance, and proposed solutions through conjunctive management of surface water and groundwater, managed aquifer recharge, wastewater reuse and desalination.

Mohammad Shamsudduha (Shams) discusses the Bengal Water Machine, where seasonal groundwater depletion from irrigation creates space for increased recharge during summer monsoons in Bangladesh, capturing up to 90 km3 over 30 years.

Karen Villholth discusses importance of groundwater in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals related to water and food security with particular emphasis in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Richard Taylor discusses linkages between rainfall extremes related to ENSO and episodic groundwater recharge, and how amplification of rainfall extremes under climate change may increase groundwater resources in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Paul Bauman discusses the use of geophysics to improve groundwater development in (semi)arid and underserviced regions in Sub-Saharan Africa. He trains communities and applies these approaches to increase access to water resources in refugee camps and villages.

Megan Konar talks about linkages between global food trade and climate extremes (droughts and floods) and groundwater over-exploitation. The future outlook for food security seems good as the global complex food trade network is inherently stable. The transcript for this episode is available on the official Water Resources Website.

Quentin Grafton talks about floods and droughts in Australia and approaches to managing these extremes.

Mike Dettinger talks about recent atmospheric rivers in California this past winter and their role in increasing rainfall, snowpack, reservoir storage and mitigating drought.

Lenny Konikow is the Editor Editor-in-Chief of Groundwater journal and Emeritus Scientist with U.S. Geological Survey following 42-year career as a research hydrologist. His research focuses on groundwater – surface water interactions and local and global water budgets. The transcript for this episode is available at the Water Resources Podcast official website.

Alan MacDonald describes a recent study quantifying increases in groundwater storage in NW India and Central Pakistan over much of the last century, and also the potential for groundwater to support development in much of Sub-Saharan Africa.  The transcript for this episode is available at the Water Resources Podcast official website.

Paolo D'Odorico describes the evolution of global food trade and impacts on water resources through virtual water transfers. The transcript for this episode is available at the Water Resources Podcast official website.

Esteban Jobbagy discusses the impacts of agricultural expansion in Argentina causing rising groundwater levels and increased vulnerability to flooding. The transcript for this episode is available at the Water Resources Podcast official website. Esteban Jobbagy is a Senior Research Scientist at the Environmental Studies Group within the National University of San Luis, which is funded […]

Chris Funk talks about drought forecasting in East Africa, with the sixth consecutive drought projected for spring 2023. He describes their improved forecasting skill with up to 6-month forecasts allowing agencies to work together to prevent famines. The transcript for this episode is available on our website:wrp.beg.utexas.edu/episodes/drought-forecasting-in-east-africa Chris Funk is the Director of Climate Hazards […]