Water Resources Research Act Program

Principal Investigators: John Jenson

Abstract: The military buildup and associated economic growth anticipated on Guam over the next decade has raised concerns regarding sustainable management of Guam’s groundwater resources. To arrive at appropriate policy, regulations, and management practices and obtain public support it is essential that policy-makers, water resource professionals, and island educators be equipped with an accurate and up-to-date understanding of the essential characteristics of the island’s aquifer and the factors that must be considered to frame and implement sustainable management practices. A universal challenge, however, is that policy-makers, community leaders and other professional people have extremely limited time to engage in instructional opportunities. This proposal is for development and delivery of a course that could be completed in a single-day to island policy-makers, agency heads, and other executive-level people, as well as to island water resource professionals and professional educators. It would consist of (1) a single day of intensive personal instruction delivered in the field, with (2) a binder of materials and a supporting webpage containing the instructional materials plus additional references and links to other relevant and useful resources, and forums for maintaining continuing educational interaction and information-sharing. The proposed program of instruction would consist of at least two separate course offerings in one year. Each offering would consist of a single full day of instruction delivered at selected field sites, with instruction also delivered during transit using handouts and course materials contained in a binder that would be provided to each participant. Materials for the course will be extracted and modified from existing materials developed for a successful previous engineering professional development course and tailored for the proposed course. In addition, a new permanent web-page will be set up and equipped with a discussion board where former students and other users can engage in discussions or ask questions, etc. New features for the webpage will include additional maps and cross-sections that can be accessed and used by course participants and other users. Each set of users will have access to resources designed to support their various needs: policy makers and senior executives, regulators and managers, technical professionals, and secondary school educators. The scope and objectives of the work include: (1) Preparation of instructional materials, including handouts and references to be contained in a binder; (2) Delivery of a one-day course in the field, in which course participants travel to selected field-trip stops in a bus, with instruction delivered not only at the field sites, but on the bus during transit to each site; (3) Introduction to a webpage containing not only instructional materials but downloadable references and links to other relevant and useful resources; (4) A forum on the webpage for subsequent correspondence among course participants and instructors to provide a permanent venue for information-sharing and updates on topics of interest.