SDG6
18th Groundwater Resources and Water Quality Protection Seminar Opens at NCKU to Map Out New Water Governance Blueprint
The 18th Seminar on Groundwater Resources and Water Quality Protection and Taiwan Association of Groundwater Resources and Hydrogeology Annual Meeting grandly opened at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) on August 14, 2026. Centered on the theme "Groundwater 2.0: AI × Resilience × Sustainability," the event gathered domestic and international experts, scholars, and industry leaders across academia, government, research, and industry to explore key issues including sustainable groundwater utilization, hydrogeological investigation, and groundwater environmental protection.
Guests including Prof. Chien-Deng Tsan, Dean of the College of Engineering at NCKU; Yuan-Peng Lin, Director-General of the Water Resources Agency, Ministry of Economic Affairs; and Prof. Hwa-Lung Yu, Chairman of the Taiwan Association of Groundwater Resources and Hydrogeology, attended the opening ceremony and delivered opening remarks. The annual "Groundwater Contribution Award" was presented at the event to Prof. Wen-Fu Chen of Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science in recognition of his long-standing outstanding contributions to the fields of groundwater and water resources.
Prof. Shin-Fu Yeh of the Department of Resources Engineering, the convener of this year's conference, stated that groundwater serves as a vital strategic water resource for the country, playing a critical role as a stabilizing buffer and backup source during extreme weather and drought events. With the cross-disciplinary integration of big data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence technologies, groundwater science is steadily entering a brand-new phase of "Groundwater 2.0." Combining physical mechanism models with AI deep learning technology not only improves the precision of real-time groundwater level predictions, land subsidence prevention, and water quality monitoring, but also provides objective, quantitative smart decision support, comprehensively enhancing the climate resilience and sustainability of Taiwan's water resource systems.
Internationally renowned hydrology authority Prof. Thomas Harter, Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), served as the Keynote Speaker. Delivering a keynote presentation titled "Legal Control of Groundwater Pumping That Impacts Stream Ecosystems: A Transdisciplinary Hydrologic Science Approach," Prof. Harter shared California's valuable practical experience in groundwater regulatory controls, the ecohydrological connectivity between aquifers and stream ecosystems, and the consensus-building process combining numerical modeling with multi-community communication. This offered forward-looking international perspectives for Taiwan's joint management of surface water and groundwater, ecological conservation, and regulatory governance.
The conference yielded rich academic exchanges, featuring nearly 80 accepted papers. Topics encompassed diverse special sessions including "Groundwater and Hydrogeological Characteristics," "Groundwater Resources Planning and Management," "Groundwater Pollution and Risk Assessment," "Emerging Technologies and Hydrogeological Investigation," and "Groundwater Drought Resistance and Adaptation," alongside dedicated sessions on "Modeling, Inference, and Decision-Making in Groundwater Systems Using Big Data and AI" and "Groundwater Recharge and Development." Discussions focused on cutting-edge technologies such as Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINN), Large Language Model (LLM) hydrological assistant systems, artificial groundwater recharge, and shallow geothermal energy applications, demonstrating Taiwan's robust research momentum in smart groundwater science.
Escalating global climate change, frequent extreme droughts, and sustainable water allocation represent major contemporary challenges. The 18th Seminar on Groundwater Resources and Water Quality Protection and Taiwan Association of Groundwater Resources and Hydrogeology Annual Meeting was co-hosted by the NCKU College of Engineering and the Taiwan Association of Groundwater Resources and Hydrogeology, and organized by units including the NCKU Department of Resources Engineering. The conference was co-organized by the Water Resources Agency of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Geological Survey and Mining Management Center of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Taiwan Power Company, with enthusiastic sponsorship from numerous engineering consulting and environmental technology enterprises.
Through the interdisciplinary platform established by this seminar across academia, government, research, and industry, NCKU aims to continuously deepen hydrogeological technology innovation and talent cultivation, working hand in hand to advance smart groundwater management and water quality protection toward a new milestone of safe, resilient, and sustainable water resources.
Guests including Prof. Chien-Deng Tsan, Dean of the College of Engineering at NCKU; Yuan-Peng Lin, Director-General of the Water Resources Agency, Ministry of Economic Affairs; and Prof. Hwa-Lung Yu, Chairman of the Taiwan Association of Groundwater Resources and Hydrogeology, attended the opening ceremony and delivered opening remarks. The annual "Groundwater Contribution Award" was presented at the event to Prof. Wen-Fu Chen of Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science in recognition of his long-standing outstanding contributions to the fields of groundwater and water resources.
Prof. Shin-Fu Yeh of the Department of Resources Engineering, the convener of this year's conference, stated that groundwater serves as a vital strategic water resource for the country, playing a critical role as a stabilizing buffer and backup source during extreme weather and drought events. With the cross-disciplinary integration of big data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence technologies, groundwater science is steadily entering a brand-new phase of "Groundwater 2.0." Combining physical mechanism models with AI deep learning technology not only improves the precision of real-time groundwater level predictions, land subsidence prevention, and water quality monitoring, but also provides objective, quantitative smart decision support, comprehensively enhancing the climate resilience and sustainability of Taiwan's water resource systems.
Internationally renowned hydrology authority Prof. Thomas Harter, Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), served as the Keynote Speaker. Delivering a keynote presentation titled "Legal Control of Groundwater Pumping That Impacts Stream Ecosystems: A Transdisciplinary Hydrologic Science Approach," Prof. Harter shared California's valuable practical experience in groundwater regulatory controls, the ecohydrological connectivity between aquifers and stream ecosystems, and the consensus-building process combining numerical modeling with multi-community communication. This offered forward-looking international perspectives for Taiwan's joint management of surface water and groundwater, ecological conservation, and regulatory governance.
The conference yielded rich academic exchanges, featuring nearly 80 accepted papers. Topics encompassed diverse special sessions including "Groundwater and Hydrogeological Characteristics," "Groundwater Resources Planning and Management," "Groundwater Pollution and Risk Assessment," "Emerging Technologies and Hydrogeological Investigation," and "Groundwater Drought Resistance and Adaptation," alongside dedicated sessions on "Modeling, Inference, and Decision-Making in Groundwater Systems Using Big Data and AI" and "Groundwater Recharge and Development." Discussions focused on cutting-edge technologies such as Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINN), Large Language Model (LLM) hydrological assistant systems, artificial groundwater recharge, and shallow geothermal energy applications, demonstrating Taiwan's robust research momentum in smart groundwater science.
Escalating global climate change, frequent extreme droughts, and sustainable water allocation represent major contemporary challenges. The 18th Seminar on Groundwater Resources and Water Quality Protection and Taiwan Association of Groundwater Resources and Hydrogeology Annual Meeting was co-hosted by the NCKU College of Engineering and the Taiwan Association of Groundwater Resources and Hydrogeology, and organized by units including the NCKU Department of Resources Engineering. The conference was co-organized by the Water Resources Agency of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Geological Survey and Mining Management Center of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Taiwan Power Company, with enthusiastic sponsorship from numerous engineering consulting and environmental technology enterprises.
Through the interdisciplinary platform established by this seminar across academia, government, research, and industry, NCKU aims to continuously deepen hydrogeological technology innovation and talent cultivation, working hand in hand to advance smart groundwater management and water quality protection toward a new milestone of safe, resilient, and sustainable water resources.
Group photo of all participants at the "Groundwater 2.0: AI × Resilience × Sustainability" Seminar, bringing together experts from academia, government, industry, and research at NCKU
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