The Groundwater Project Foreword
The United Nations theme for World Water Day on March 22, 2022, is “Groundwater: making the invisible visible.” This aligns with the essence of the Groundwater Project (GW-Project), which is aimed at raising groundwater consciousness and strengthening groundwater expertise worldwide, and is being accomplished by publishing books and supporting materials about “all-things-groundwater”.
The GW-Project, a non-profit organization registered in Canada in 2019, is committed to contribute to advancement in education and brings a new approach to the creation and dissemination of knowledge for understanding and problem solving. The GW-Project operates the website https://gw–project.org as a global platform for the democratization of groundwater knowledge and is founded on the principle that:
“Knowledge should be free and the best knowledge should be free knowledge.” Anonymous
The mission of the GW-Project is to provide accessible, engaging, high-quality, educational materials, free-of-charge online in many languages, to all who want to learn about groundwater and understand how groundwater relates to and sustains ecological systems and humanity. This is a new type of global educational endeavor in that it is based on volunteerism of professionals from different disciplines and includes academics, consultants and retirees. The GW-Project involves many hundreds of volunteers associated with more than 200 organizations from over 14 countries and six continents, with growing participation.
The GW-Project, which began publishing books in August 2020, is an ongoing endeavor and will continue with hundreds of books being published online over the coming years, first in English and then in other languages, for downloading wherever the Internet is available. The GW-Project publications also include supporting materials such as videos, lectures, laboratory demonstrations, and learning tools in addition to providing, or linking to, public domain software for various groundwater applications supporting the educational process.
The GW-Project is a living entity, so subsequent editions of the books will be published from time to time. Users are invited to propose revisions.
We thank you for being part of the GW-Project community. We hope to hear from you about your experience with using the books and related materials. We welcome ideas and volunteers!
The GW-Project Steering Committee
November 2021