Groundwater Engineering for Water Supplies - Groundwater Availability in the United States

Groundwater Engineering for Water Supplies - Groundwater Availability in the United States

Course Outline

The dominant application of groundwater engineering is the provision of water supplies for municipalities, agriculture, and industries. Sufficient groundwater supplies are essential for the health and economic well-being of the United States. With increasing demands for water from growing world populations, agriculture, and industry, as well as growing intermittent, if not long-term, shortages of surface water due to droughts, groundwater is becoming an even more important source of fresh water for society.

This 4-hour course will provide an overview of the availability of groundwater in the United States that is used in municipal, agricultural, and industrial applications. It will provide essential knowledge of aquifers, groundwater storage, and associated terminology in order to understand this most important natural resource. It will also highlight the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) effort to evaluate and assess the availability of those groundwater resources, including impacts and concerns for the future availability.

This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course, the student would have achieved an understanding of the following:

Challenges in assessing the availability of groundwater in the United States;
What is currently know about groundwater availability;
Essential terminology for understanding aquifers and groundwater and availability;
The concepts of water balance as they relate to groundwater availability;
Knowledge of aquifers and uses for withdrawals of groundwater;
Regional groundwater budgets and water level changes; and
The USGS Regional Aquifer-System Analysis (RASA) program.

Intended Audience

This course is intended for civil-environmental engineers, geohydrologists, municipal planners, manufacturers and other professionals concerned with groundwater resources.

Benefit to Attendees

The subject matter of this course will be of benefit to professionals involved in water resource development and management including civil-environmental engineers, geohydrologists, municipal planners, manufacturers and others concerned with groundwater resources. It will also be of benefit to others concerned with understanding and protecting this valuable water resource.

Course Introduction

In this course you will learn about the increasing importance of groundwater and the present, as well as potential, future limitations on the availability of groundwater for use in the United States. You will also learn about the ongoing efforts by the United States Geological Society (USGS) to investigate, evaluate, and quantify the availability of groundwater in various water resource regions in the United States.

Course Content

In this lesson, you are required to download and study the following documents: USGS Circular 1323, 2008: Ground-Water Availability in the United States, T.E. Reilley, K.F. Dennehy, W.A. Alley, and W.L. Cunningham.

Ground-Water Availability in the United States

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Course Summary

The information contained in this course provides knowledge of the availability of ground water for water supplies from aquifers in the United States. It also provides basic information about groundwater and ongoing USGS studies to further define and refine groundwater resources in order to better determine availability of that resource.

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.