Thank you for your continued interest and support for the Air and Waste Management Association (A&WMA) - Alamo Chapter! We would like to extend a friendly reminder for our Virtual Meeting held this Thursday, February 17th, 2022.
Presentation Topic Why an International Year of Caves and Karst?
Examples from Central Texas
The International Union of Speleology organized the International Year of Caves and Karst for 2021 (and extended through 2022 due to the COVID pandemic). Why? Karst and other cavernous terrain cover about 20% of the world’s land surface and 25% of the United States, yet few people have heard of karst and fewer still know that it means. Even worse, caves are frequent subjects of superstition, misunderstanding, and misinformation. The purpose of the International Year is to educate the world about these amazing resources and landscapes. This presentation will focus on examples from central Texas, home to one of the country’s largest karst areas and most important karst aquifers, on how karst is vital to our water and ecological resources, and scientific understanding of our world.
Speaker Bio
Dr. George Veni is the Executive Director of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI) and an internationally recognized hydrogeologist specializing in caves and karst terrains. Prior to NCKRI, he owned and served as principal investigator of George Veni and Associates, conducting multidisciplinary environmental karst management studies for more than 20 years. He has conducted karst research throughout the United States and in several other countries. He has chaired 18 international and multidisciplinary karst conferences, been a member of the governing board of the International Union of Speleology since 2002, serving as its President since 2017 and organizing the International Year of Caves and Karst in 2021-2022. He has served as a doctoral committee advisor for geological, geographical, and biological theses and dissertations at multiple universities in the US and Greece, and taught karst geoscience courses as an adjunct professor for Western Kentucky University for 12 years, and karst science and management workshops internationally for NCKRI since 2011. He has published and presented over 280 papers, including six books, on hydrogeology, biology, and environmental management in karst terrains.
International Year of Caves and Karst 2021 and 2022!
