Toward Sustainable Groundwater in Agriculture 2016

This three-day international conference, held in San Francisco, California, in June 2016, brought together leading scientists, policy analysts, policy and decision makers, and agricultural and environmental stakeholder groups to define and highlight the science, challenges, and potential policy solutions in agricultural groundwater resources management and groundwater quality protection that will provide a sustainable future at regional, national, and global scales. 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. Population growth, overexploitation, salinization, nonpoint source pollution, and impacts to surface water threaten the health and livelihood at a global scale.