Permanent Monitoring Panel -
Water
Members of the Panel:
Chairman:
Soroosh Sorooshian (USA)
Members:
William J. Cosgrove (Canada); Majid Hassanizadeh (Netherlands);John Wilson
(USA)
Associate Members:
Joseph Chahoud (Italy); Robert Clark (USA); Lorne Everett (USA); Arturo
A. Keller (USA); David Norman (USA); Gennady Palshin (Ukraine); Margaret
Petersen (USA); Richard Regaini (USA); William Sprigg (USA); Igor Zektser
(Russia)
Summary of the Emergency
Issues related to water ressources, both in terms of quantity and quality,
will be in the forefront of challenges for the 21st Century. The population
of the Earth is expected to grow to about 8 billion by the year 2025 from
the most recent estimate of 6 billion in 2000. Countries in the developing
world, especially those in semi-arid climates, are experiencing the highest
rates of population growth. This will produce incredible challenges of
how to meet future water needs.
The permanent monitoring of the status of water should be considered to
be a planetary emergency, where the World Federation of Scientists could
play the important role of bringing needed attention to this important
matter
Priorities in dealing with the Emergency
The scope of many regional water emergencies is not known with any degree
of certainty. In fact, the lack of information regarding such things as
water quality parameters and declines in groundwater levels may be the
fundamental problem. Therefore, a high priority must be placed on improved
monitoring of quantity and quality parameters for both groundwater and
surface water supplies.
This will require more guaging stations, more frequent measurements of
depth to groundwater in wells, more water quality sampling, and more analyses
for various inorganics, organics, and pathogens run on these samples.
The cost of water quantity and quality monitoring is high. Therefore,
steps must be taken to get more useful information out of this investment.
This will require:
- Better water quantity and quality record keeping in general.
- Better recording of metadata associated with sampling
- Developing more cost-effective sampling and analysis techniques, including
remote sensing.
- Establishing standards and norms for taking measurements and analyzing
water samples so that data gathered by different groups at different
times can be shared and compared in meaningful ways.
- Wider access to water quantity and quality data to all affected parties,
made possible by Web-accessible data bases with user-friendly interfaces.
- Preservation and digitization of historical water quantity and quality
records.
Workshop and Meeting Reports
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