Join the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences for our annual Farvolden Day lecture, in honour of Dr. Robert N. Farvolden. This year, we welcome Science alum Paul Bauman (MSc '90), Geophysicist at BGC Engineering Inc., to deliver his lecture "Water in a World Without: A Geophysical Search through Drought, Famine and War."
Abstract
Though 98% of available freshwater is groundwater, these resources are not easily accessed in much of the world, even where subsurface water is the only option. In sub-Saharan Africa, conditions are particularly dire as 58% of the population is rural, and 90% of that rural population is dependent on agriculture. The increasing frequency and severity of droughts and civil wars in East Africa and Southern Africa have further exacerbated the reliance of rural populations on groundwater. Today, more than 400 million people in sub-Saharan Africa live in water insecurity, meaning that they lack reasonable access to either sufficient quantities of water or to water of acceptable quality. In this talk, Paul Bauman will lead you on the geophysical search and discovery of water in post-war Northern Uganda, famine-stricken northwestern Kenya, drought plagued southern Zambia, and Sudanese refugee camps in Eastern Chad. In each of these settings, the cause of human suffering and displacement is distinct, the geology and hydrogeology vary, the landscapes are strikingly different, but the need for water is equally desperate.
Schedule of the afternoon:
1:30 - 2:00 p.m. Student poster session
2:00 - 2:45 p.m. Welcome, Farvolden Scholarship recipients
2:45 - 3:00 p.m. Break
3:00 - 4:00 p.m. Farvolden Lecture, followed by an in-person Q&A with Paul Bauman
4:15 - 6:00 p.m. Reception and student poster viewing