The latest scientific, management, legal and policy advances for sustaining groundwater resources in agricultural regions around the world will be the topics June 15-17 at a San Francisco conference co-organized by UC Davis.

Featured speakers include scientists, managers and water-policy experts from universities, research foundations, governmental agencies, nongovernmental organizations and consulting firms.

Groundwater is the lifeline for many rural and agricultural regions and their associated cultures and populations around the globe, and a cornerstone of global food production. Groundwater constitutes nearly half the world's drinking water and much of the world's irrigation water supply.

However, agriculture increasingly competes for limited groundwater resources with the urban, industrial and energy sector, said conference organizer Thomas Harter, the Robert M. Hagan Chair for Water Management and Policy at UC Davis.

“We will face severe constraints in our ability to supply food to an increasing world population under changing climate, Harter said.

“This conference aims at developing better understanding of, and solutions to, sustaining groundwater in agricultural production.”

Harter said national biofuel policies lead to intensified and expanded agricultural activities and directly compete with food production. Rising living standards mean people eat more meat and dairy foods in many developing countries around the globe. But animal-based foods consume significantly more water per calorie as do plant foods.

“If current practices continue, we will see continued increasing exploitation of groundwater and also increased groundwater quality degradation from globally expanding food production.”

California is no exception and the state shares many of the same problems – and potential solutions – as other agricultural areas around the globe.

Topics to be discussed during the three-day conference include:

• Managing groundwater scarcity

• The groundwater/surface water connection in California

• Groundwater and energy

• Groundwater use for irrigation: A global inventory

• Agricultural contamination and groundwater quality

• Efforts to tackle salinity and nitrates

“Toward Sustainable Groundwater in Agriculture: An International Conference Linking Science and Policy” will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel at the San Francisco Airport in Burlingame.

The conference is organized by UC Davis and the Water Education Foundation, and co-sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey and other organizations. It is open to the public. The registration fee is $595.

About UC Davis

For more than 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matter to California and transform the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has 32,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds $600 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges — Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science. It also houses six professional schools — Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.