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VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:EESS talk on "Arsenic and fluoride prediction modelling for risk-b
 ased decision-making"
DTSTART:20201110T121500
DTEND:20201110T130000
DTSTAMP:20261002T033454Z
UID:0c2b710254fe037f975d6efd221acd0931dfff9e45c24e12ae82a33a
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Michael Berg\, Professor\, Contaminant Hydrology\, Departm
 ent of Water Resources & Drinking Water\, EAWAG\nAbstract:\nOne-third of t
 he world’s population uses groundwater for drinking and cooking. Since i
 t is less susceptible to microbial contamination\, groundwater is consider
 ed to be a safe alternative to untreated surface water. However\, groundwa
 ter is contaminated with naturally occurring (geogenic) arsenic or fluorid
 e in many regions around the globe. An estimated 300–400 million people 
 or almost 5% of the global population are exposed. Symptoms of poisoning b
 ecome apparent only after long-term exposure or can initially be hard to d
 istinguish from other causes. It is therefore important to localize safe a
 nd unsafe aquifers as early as possible. Although known for two decades\, 
 the investigation of geogenic groundwater contaminants has been piecemeal 
 and is mainly based on individual scientific research initiatives spread a
 round the world.\nSignificant progress has been made in recent years in pr
 edicting the probability of groundwater contamination by drawing relations
 hips with a variety of climatic\, geological\, soil and other physical par
 ameters. These can function as effective spatial proxies for hydrogeochemi
 cal processes related to geogenic contamination and were applied in differ
 ent combinations with statistical modeling (e.g. logistic regression or ra
 ndom forest) to predict the distribution of high and low arsenic or fluori
 de concentrations across entire regions\, even for areas without hydrochem
 ical data.\nOur studies include predictions of arsenic in groundwater for 
 South-East Asia\, China\, Pakistan and Burkina Faso\, or fluoride in India
 . Lately we developed an arsenic hazard map for the entire globe\, and we 
 started to apply the methodologies to further parameters and other environ
 mental compartments. To assist water authorities and decision-makers\, our
  risk maps and modeling tools are being made available free of charge on t
 he interactive on-line WebGIS tool\, the Groundwater Assessment Platform (
 GAP\, www.gapmaps.org).\n\nShort biography:\nDr Michael Berg is head of th
 e department water resources and drinking water at the Swiss Federal Insti
 tute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag). He earned a PhD in environ
 mental geochemistry at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology\, Germany. Hi
 s research focuses on the occurrence\, fate and behavior of organic and in
 organic contaminants in groundwater and surface water environments\, with 
 a specific interest in biogeochemical processes at local to regional scale
 s. In the last two decades he was engaged in various studies on water qual
 ity and mitigation in Asia where geogenic groundwater contamination is of 
 major concern.\n 
LOCATION:ZOOM
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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