Welcome to November! Here’s what’s new from the Critical Issues Program:

•  The 2016 Critical Issues Forum took place on October 27-28, hosted by the Payne Institute for Earth Resources at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. The topic of the Forum was “Addressing Changes in Regional Groundwater Resources: Lessons from the High Plains Aquifer”. The Forum was attended by a wide range of scientists, economists, water managers, policy experts, students, water industry professionals, and representatives from federal, state, and local agencies and organizations. The ideas, perspectives, approaches, lessons, and future outlooks discussed at the Forum will be made publicly available in a forthcoming report. You will also be able to watch videos of the speakers’ presentations as they become available on the Forum website. In the coming months we will be maintaining a focus on groundwater resources with new case studies, factsheets, and additional web content.

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•  We’ve further expanded our Maps & Visualizations page, adding 4 new interactive maps covering geothermal resources in the United States, oil and gas resources in Nevada, groundwater quality in Idaho, and coastal geoscience information in Maryland.

•  We are continuing to update a number of our Frequent Questions pages to make them more useful and informative. This month we have newly updated answers on tsunami early warning systems, drought prediction, and acid mine drainage clean-up and prevention.

•  Our Research Database continues to grow. We have added 9 new reports to the 4,000 existing documents in the database this month, including information on marsh conditions in Orleans, Massachusetts; historical flooding in Washington; groundwater in Arizona; and land use change in the Eastern and Midwest-South Central United States. As always, all of these reports are freely available from the agencies and organizations that produce them.

•  We are meeting with ever more state and local decision makers around the country to learn more about the kinds of geoscience information they need. If you work in a state or local decision-making role and would like to talk with us about your geoscience information needs, you can always contact us at cipinfo@agiweb.org.

•  For more updates and information from the Critical Issues Program, including details of upcoming events, follow us on Twitter @AGI_GeoIssues or subscribe to our mailing lists.