Groundwater resources featured at SEG convention

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Five noted experts, representing government, academia, and private industry, will discuss the very timely topic “Managing Our Groundwater Resources for the Future” during the SEG Forum on 10 November 2008 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas (USA).

The forum will be the leadoff event of the four-day technical program, with nearly 800 oral and poster presentations that forms the centerpiece of the International Exposition and 78^th Annual Meeting of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists. The meeting officially opens with the Icebreaker Preview on 9 November and continues through 14 November.

The distinguished panel will include Ken Allbright, director, Groundwater Resources Department, Southern Nevada Water Authority; William Alley, chief, Office of Groundwater, U.S. Geological Survey; Rosemary Knight, professor of geophysics at Stanford University; Rodney Smith, president, Strategic Water Management; and David White, president, Schlumberger Water and Carbon Services. Sheldon Breiner, chairman and CEO of 3DGeo Development, will be the moderator.

Assuring that the world has adequate supplies of freshwater is expected to be a major challenge, at least equal to concerns about energy, in the near future. This panel will assess the role that applied geophysics can and should play in addressing the problem, and speculate on advances—near term and far term—that they expect to occur in this very fast-growing field.

The program, which is open to the public, will begin at 9 a.m. on 10 November. Admission for this program is covered in normal conference registration. Those only wishing to attend the Forum can purchase tickets for US$60, which includes admission to the Icebreaker on 9 November, at which time delegates and guests can preview the sold-out exposition floor. Approximately 300 companies will have booths this year in which they will be displaying state-of-the-art geophysical instrumentation and demonstrating the latest computer algorithms for processing geophysical data.

A SEG Special Session following the SEG Forum on Monday afternoon will feature case studies demonstrating the application of geophysics to groundwater resource evaluation, mine dewatering, and environmental characterization.

Plans for the SEG 2008 International Exposition include:

• six near-surface geophysics (NSG) technical sessions
• two NSG Special Sessions: (1) Hydrogeophysics in Practice, and (2) Near Real-Time UXO Discrimination
• joint EEGS-SEG Post-Convention Workshop: Induced Polarization for Near Surface Applications
• SEG Near Surface Geophysics Section (NSGS) 15-year anniversary luncheon

Ken Albright Director, Groundwater Resources Department Southern Nevada Water Authority	William M. Alley Chief, Office of Groundwater US Geological Survey (USGS)	Rodney Smith President Strategic Water Management LLC
Rosemary Knight Professor, Geophysics Department Stanford University	David White President Schlumberger Water and Carbon Services	Sheldon Breiner Chairman and CEO 3DGEO, Inc. (Moderator)