2016

Status of the Geoscience Workforce 2016

Friday, August 26, 2016

The Status of the Geoscience Workforce 2016 report is based on original data collected by AGI as well as from federal data sources, professional membership organizations, and industry. The report integrates all of these various data sources into a comprehensive view of the human and economic parameters of the geosciences, including supply and training of new students, workforce demographics and employment projections, to trends in geosciences research funding and economic indicators.

Status of Recent Geoscience Graduates 2016

Friday, February 3, 2017

The American Geosciences Institute’s (AGI) Status of Recent Geoscience Graduates 2016 provides an overview of the demographics, activities, and experiences of geoscience students that received their bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degrees during the 2015-2016 academic year. This research draws attention to student preparation in the geosciences, their education and career path decisions, as well as examines many of the questions raised about student transitions into the workforce.

2016 Critical Issues Forum: Addressing Changes in Regional Groundwater Resources: Lessons from the High Plains Aquifer

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Groundwater is often a "transboundary" resource, shared by many groups of people across town, county, state, and international boundaries. Changes in groundwater resources can create unique challenges requiring high levels of cooperation and innovation amongst stakeholder groups, from individuals to state and federal government.

The High Plains Aquifer (HPA), which spans eight states from South Dakota to Texas, is overlain by about 20 percent of the nation’s irrigated agricultural land, and provides about 30 percent of the groundwater used for irrigation in the country according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Work by the Kansas Geological Survey indicates that some parts of the aquifer are already effectively exhausted for agricultural purposes; some parts are estimated to have a lifespan of less than 25 years; and other areas remain generally unaffected (Buchanan et al., 2015).

The 2016 Critical Issues Forum was a 1-½ day meeting covering multiple aspects of groundwater depletion in the High Plains. Presentations covered the current state of the High Plains Aquifer and water usage from scientific, legal, regulatory, economic, and social perspectives. State-specific perspectives were provided from Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, and Oklahoma, and a variety of issues were discussed surrounding communication, negotiation, policy, and the influence of climate change. Break-out sessions and participant discussions identified lessons learned and best practices from the High Plains Aquifer experience that might apply to other regions facing changes in the Earth system.

The Forum was hosted by the Payne Institute for Earth Resources at the Colorado School of Mines, and sponsored by the Geological Society of America, the National Ground Water Association, the American Institute of Professional Geologists, the National Association of State Boards of Geology, and the Association of American State Geologists.

For more information about the Forum, including the final report, please visit the 2016 Critical Issues Forum home page.

2016 Forum: Selected Footage

Adam Shaw

Adam Shaw graduated from Western Washington University in 2016 with degrees in Geology and Disaster Risk Reduction. During his final year, he volunteered with Whatcom Unified Emergency Management during the Cascadia Rising exercise and worked with a team to create a draft debris management plan for Whatcom County, WA. The following summer, Adam worked with the WWU Resilience Institute to assist with a series of conferences on Interagency Communication in the Cascadia region held by the Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup (CREW). At AGI, Adam assisted in the development of the Congressional Hazards Caucus website. Adam hopes to continue working in natural hazards and emergency management policy.

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