Présentations Colloques

Over half of the world’s population obtain their drinking water from groundwater and groundwater provides more than 40% of all agricultural water. Future groundwater reserves are under threat from climate change, intensification of land use and pollution. In this context, the proper education and training of hydrogeologists is now more important than ever. The next generation of hydrogeologists will face difficult challenges in attempting to quantify and manage this precious resource.**This paper will review topics that form an essential part of the hydrogeological curriculum, requiring a balance between teaching the fundamental principles whilst at the same time giving hydrogeologists an appreciation of topics that lie at the interface between groundwater science and other disciplines – for example, the role of groundwater in integrated catchment management, or how hydrogeologists must have an understanding the sociological issues that are key to sustainable development. The different roles of universities and the IAH in education and training will be discussed. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, aspiring hydrogeologists have traditionally received their hydrogeology education through specialised masters courses. However, the numbers of such courses have declined, and some of the remaining courses are under threat owing to the priority given by the funding agencies to supporting doctoral research. Although an organisation like IAH cannot provide a university style degree course, it can play an important role in life-long learning, and current IAH proposals in relation to short courses, webinars, thematic papers and mentoring will be presented. ****