Professor David Grey appointed member of World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Water Security

Professor David Grey has been appointed as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Water Security.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Councils are intellectual networks which convene leading thinkers from business, government, academia and civil society to address key global issues. The 80 Councils capture knowledge on critical issues and help integrate it into global decision-making.

The Global Agenda Council on Water Security provides a multidisciplinary, multistakeholder platform for discussing, highlighting and taking collective action on shared water challenges. It recognises the need for a fundamental rethink in the way water is managed, focusing simultaneously on supply, investment, allocation, regulation and conservation. Members apply interdisciplinary and long-term thinking to identify breakthrough ideas and set the direction for global, regional and industry agendas.

With over 30 years experience working at the interface of water resources science, policy and implementation, David Grey is well placed to provide insights on new pathways to advance global water security issues. He is Visiting Professor of Water Policy at the School of Geography and the Environment. Visit David Grey’s personal webpage.

 

Professor Carolyn Roberts elected Chair of Society for the Environment

Congratulations to Carolyn Roberts, Director of the Environmental Sustainability Knowledge Transfer Network (ESKTN), who has been elected as national Chair of Society for the Environment.

The organisation oversees the award of the Chartered Environmentalist qualification through its 23 licensed members, including several water-related professional bodies (e.g. Institutions of Civil Engineers, Institute of Water, Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management).

Carolyn has extensive experience of bringing diverse professionals together on environmental issues through her current role at the Oxford University-hosted ESKTN, as a former Chair of the Institution of Environmental Sciences, and a long standing Board Member of the Society for the Environment. She is a chartered water scientist with twenty years of experience of research and consultancy on the hydrological impacts of human development such as mining and waste disposal, flood and drought management, water pollution and river erosion.

Limits to the availability of groundwater in Africa

“Groundwater is not an abundant new resource in Africa

Professor Mike Edmunds – expert in geology and groundwater management at the School of Geography and the Environment – has commented on a recent publication from Alan MacDonald and colleagues from the British Geological Survey. The much discussed “Quantitative maps of groundwater resources in Africa” paper presents the first quantitative continent-wide map of aquifer storage and potential borehole yields in Africa.

In Environmental Research Letters, Mike Edmunds applauds the authors for raising the profile of the widely neglected issue of groundwater, and providing first-order estimates for the available storage and expected water yields in the continent. However, he warns that the message of groundwater storage being 100 times the annual renewable surface water could give the wrong message that groundwater an abundant resource. In his insightful commentary, Edmunds explores some of the limits to groundwater – including its inaccessibility to the majority of the African population, renewability, and water quality.