Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2017GU312B

Professional Workshop Series on Guam Groundwater Resources

Institute: Guam
Year Established: 2017 Start Date: 2017-03-01 End Date: 2018-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $7,942 Total Non-Federal Funds: Not available

Principal Investigators: Nathan Habana, John Jenson

Project Summary: Problem: The military buildup and ongoing economic growth anticipated on Guam over the next decade has raised concerns regarding sustainable management of Guam’s groundwater resources. Besides educating policy-makers and agency heads it is also essential that island water resource professionals and 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. Professional people, including working-level technical professionals in the water resources industry, university instructors, and school teachers, have extremely limited time to engage in instructional opportunities. This proposal is for development and delivery of a series of short-course workshops to local water resource professionals and educators. It will include single-day intensive instruction in (1) the Northern Guam Lens Aquifer Database and development and use of basement map of northern Guam: and (2) sinkholes and surface drainage of the aquifer, and salinity trends, patterns, and processes in the aquifer. It will also include (3) a field trip and 3-D virtual tour of the aquifer, and (4) an introductory workshop in basic GIS, presented in six 2-hour sessions, for student researchers, faculty, and professionals working on groundwater and related problems. Instruction and media organization will be supported by Moodle websites 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. A new GHS website is underway to accommodate the course resources such as the NGLA database that will be useful for island water developers and managers. Methods: Materials for the course will be made available via UOG’s distance learning media in Moodle. Each participant will receive the latest basement topography map, which will be covered in the lessons. In addition, a new permanent Guam Hydrologic Survey web-page will house the wells and borehole database. New features for the webpage will include a pertinent Guam hydrologic library, downloadable raw data, web-pages on sustainable management, groundwater modeling, and analysis and interpretation of data (e.g., Pacific ENSO, aquifer production and quality status report, monitoring and exploratory wells). Instruction will carry professional development credit through the University of Guam’s Office of Professional and International Programs (PIP) and will be offered during the summer and winter breaks to accommodate the schedule of educators. Objectives: The scope and objectives of the work include: (1) Preparation of instructional materials, including handouts, maps, and references (2) Delivery of short-course, intensive workshops (3) Introduction to a webpage containing not only instructional materials but downloadable references and links to other relevant and useful resources (4) Design web based information concerning water resource related trends, analysis, and interpretation for educational and professional use such as sustainable management.