The Groundwater Resources Association of California (GRA) invites you to join us for a Symposium focusing on the implications of Climate Change for groundwater supplies. Regardless of the uncertainties in various Climate Change scenarios, the State of California is taking aggressive steps based both in legislation and agency policies. Immediate actions range from initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to consideration of Climate Change under CEQA in Environmental Impact Reports and these initiatives will also trickle down to water resources and groundwater supply estimates and management.

GRA is assembling a distinguished group of invited and abstract-solicited speakers on Climate Change and groundwater to present a 1½-day Symposium. The goal of the Symposium is to address what is known, what is predicted, what to expect in terms of state guidance, and what water resources technical and management professionals can do to study their own systems, update their own predictions, and manage and plan for Climate Change impacts on water resources.

In the spirit of an evolving field, GRA is reaching out to the water resources field to solicit abstracts for consideration of poster and oral presentations, in one of three tracks: 1) technical; 2) legal/policy; and, 3) water management, where the specific session areas open for abstracts are:

Technical:

• Predicted changes in timing and amount of precipitation and runoff
  
• Resultant changes in groundwater recharge timing and volume
  
• Potential changes in overall water supply and demand due to Climate Change
  
• Incorporating Climate Change scenarios into groundwater models
  
• Energy requirements of pumping groundwater and water supplies

Legal/Policy:

• Overview of water supply planning and incorporating Climate Change
  
• CEQA issues with Climate Change scenarios and groundwater resources

Groundwater Management:

• Optimizing conjunctive use strategies in response to predicted changes in precipitation/runoff timing and volume
  
• Inclusion of Climate Change scenarios as part of Urban Water Management Plans or Water Supply Plans
  
• Changes in agricultural water planning as a result of Climate Change
  
• Increased pressures for water markets/transfers due to Climate Change impacts
  

Guidelines for submitting an abstract for a Paper or Poster Presentation are as follows:

• Word 9.0 documents are preferred.
  
• Please identify if you are submitting an abstract for a paper or poster presentation.
  
• Abstracts must be one page in length or less, and should be titled and include all contributing authors' names and affiliations.
  
• Please identify the name of the person who will be presenting the paper or poster, and add biographical sketches of the authors as a second page. The biosketches should be 50 words or less in paragraph form, and full mailing and e-mail addresses should be included in addition to other contact information (phone and fax numbers).
  
• Authors are required to indicate the topic for which the abstract is being submitted.
  
• Margins should be 1-inch top, bottom, and right side and 1¼-inch left margin. The text should be single-spaced, 10-point size, Arial font, with no pagination, footers and headers. Paragraphs should be justified.
  
• Major headings should be 12-point bold; minor headings should be 10-point italicized but not bolded. There should be one blank line above and below all headings, except above major headings which should have two blank lines.
  
• Graphics should not be used in abstracts.

Call for Abstracts Deadline June 1, 2008: Abstracts are invited for oral or poster presentations relevant to the session topics highlighted above. By virtue of submitting an abstract, the submitter(s) grants GRA the right to publish any accepted abstract or the right to decline any abstract. You can submit your abstract by e-mail to Mary Megarry (mmegarry@nossaman.com; 916-446-3626) no later than June 1, 2008. A team of volunteers made up of GRA members will review abstracts and make the final selections.

Sponsors and Exhibitors: GRA is pleased to invite participants to sponsor Symposium functions or to exhibit at the Symposium. Please contact Mary Megarry at mmegarry@nossaman.com or 916-446-3626 for more information.

Sponsorship and Exhibitor Information Packet

Please reserve the Symposium dates and join us to hear the latest scientific, management, legal, and policy advances for sustaining our groundwater resources. For more information, contact Kathy Snelson at executive_director@grac.org or 916-446-3626.