This free webinar, featuring two Geoscientists without Borders® (GWB) humanitarian projects, provides information about how these projects are helping to increase resiliency to geologic hazards in Guatemala and improving potable water access and supply for communities in northeastern Ghana. By helping these communities address their challenges, these GWB projects are helping to invest in the planet. Our speakers are Steven L. Roche, Co-Investigator, Hearts in Motion, and Elikplim Abla Dzikunoo, Lecturer, Department of Earth Science, University of Ghana.

About the speakers

Increasing Natural Hazard Resiliency in Guatemala

Steven L. Roche, Co-Investigator, Hearts in Motion, will discuss the GWB project, Increasing Natural Hazard Resiliency in Guatemala, which aims to increase the geohazard resiliency and safety of the communities in Guatemala through implementing community-based educational workshops about earthquake and volcanic hazards, increasing Instituto Nacional de Sismología, Vulcanología, Meteorología e Hidrología (INSIVUMEH)'s seismic and volcanic monitoring capacity, and reducing disaster response time by using the implementation of a regional seismic array consisting of low-cost "Raspberry Shake" 3C seismometer stations in Zacapa near the Motagua-Polochic fault system and significantly improve INSIVUMEH's earthquake and volcanic monitoring infrastructure including Early Warning Systems (EWS).

Provision of potable water to communities in northeastern Ghana

Elikplim Abla Dzikunoo, Lecturer, Department of Earth Science, University of Ghana, will discuss the GWB project, Provision of potable water to communities in northeastern Ghana, which aims to improve potable water access and supply for the benefit and socio-economic wellbeing of inhabitants based on scientific data and recommendation on sustainable exploitation, development, and management of groundwater resources in areas within the Nasia river basin, northeastern Ghana. This was done by using Electrical Resistivity Tomography techniques to define and interpret geo-electric sections and models to show the subsurface lithology distribution, and provide scientific data that will inform groundwater management policy decision making and improve access to potable water resources by the communities of study area.To build on the knowledge of the areas geology and offer a better understanding of the underlying complexities, lithologic logging was done during drilling followed by geophysical logging after drilling which offer improved resolutions of the subsurface geologic complexities.

For more information about these and other GWB humanitarian geoscience projects, please visit: https://seg.org/gwb, follow us on social media, GWBatSEG and email at withoutborders@seg.org.