GMS in Beijing, China

Norm Jones and Todd Wood from Aquaveo recently traveled to Beijing, China to conduct a GMS training course on April 23-25 on the campus of Beijing University. The course was co-sponsored by Beijing Water International (BWI) and had 47 attendees from all over China, as well as at least one attendee from Taiwan. BWI translated the GMS tutorial and workshop documents into Chinese and provided translators for each of the lectures.

On the Monday (April 22) just prior to the course, Prof. Jones participated in a one-day workshop at Beijing University on the Arc Hydro Groundwater (AHGW) data model and tools. This workshop was hosted by Chunmiao Zheng who is now a faculty member at Beijing University. The workshop also featured a presentation by Yingying Yao who is one of Prof. Zheng's PhD students. Yingying presented the results of a major groundwater study involving the Heihe River Basin in North Central China. Yingying used AHGW to compile and manage the groundwater data, which she then used to construct a detailed 3D model of the site geology. She also built a 3D groundwater model using GMS. The workshop also included presentations by the Chinese Geologic Survey.

Groundwater is a focus of increasing attention in China recently, partly due to some high profile cases involving groundwater contamination being featured in the media. The Chinese government has recently indicated that maintaining groundwater quality and sustainability will be a strategic emphasis in the coming years. We hope that both GMS and AHGW can assist in that effort.