This three-day international conference will bring together leading scientists, policy analysts, policy and decision makers, and agricultural and environmental stakeholder groups to define and highlight the science, challenges, and potential policy solutions in agricultural groundwater resources management and groundwater quality protection that will provide a sustainable future at regional, national, and global scales.

Groundwater is the lifeline for many rural and agricultural regions and their associated cultures and populations around the globe and a cornerstone of global food production. Groundwater constitutes nearly half the world's drinking water and much of the world's irrigation water supply. Population growth, overexploitation, salinization, nonpoint source pollution from agricultural activities (including animal farming, ranching, and forestry activities), impacts to surface water, and groundwater quality and quantity conflicts at the urban-rural interface have reached global dimensions and threaten the health and livelihood of this planet.