The Marias River canyon in north-central Montana, incised into Upper Cretaceous strata of the Great Plains during latest Pleistocene to Holocene time, served as a locus of human activity tied to the unique floral and faunal resources it provided ancient peoples. Erosion of the main canyon walls resulted in deposition of tributary junction alluvial fans characterized by debris-flow and hyperconcentrated flow sediment transport processes where side canyons emerged onto the alluvial valley floor. These alluvial-fan deposits preserve Late Precontact archaeological remains accessible due to their postburial exposure where partially eroded by the meandering channel of the Marias River (Goose Bill site complex). Archaeological materials are also preserved high on the dissected canyon walls where movement of hillslope sediment and colluvium by sheetwash led to their burial (Sparrowhawk site). Deposition of sediment of contrasting physical attributes (grain size, sorting, clay mineral content) within the canyon influences soil substrate properties, favoring growth of specialized plant communities in both alluvial-fan and fluvial environments. These relations exemplify the strong geoecological connections among depositional environment and sediment characteristics, substrate properties, and vegetation community development. The plant communities, interacting in conjunction with the physical landscape, provided a range of habitats utilized by such large mammals as plains bison, Rocky Mountain elk, Audubon sheep, pronghorn, Rocky Mountain mule deer, and white-tailed deer. Four major bison bone layers, some including bison hair and other soft tissues, with associated stone arrow points and stone flakes (artifacts) and evidence of bone processing are preserved in alluvial-fan deposits exposed along the bank of the Marias River at the Goose Bill site complex. These relations illustrate: (1) human activities dating to ~100-595 yr B.P. (falling within the Late Precontact Period of regional archaeological prehistory) that reflect subsistence reliance on bison as a food source, (2) the importance of tributary alluvial fans proximal to canyon walls in preserving archaeological remains, and (3) the role of the meandering Marias River channel in destroying these deposits over a time period of <100 yr. Sediment deposition by overland flow higher up the canyon walls at the Sparrowhawk site preserves a somewhat older (710-830 yr B.P.) archaeological record suggestive of a broader spectrum of resource (food) processing spatially decoupled from an area of bison kill/death.

Water access, sanitation, and security remain key foci of international aid and development. However, the increasing interconnectedness of hydrologic and social systems can cause water initiatives to have unexpected and cascading effects across geographic scales. This presents new challenges for geoscientists working in water development, as distant and complex socioeconomic and environmental relationships, or “telecouplings,” may significantly influence the outcomes and sustainability of development projects. We explore these emerging concepts through a case study in Ethiopia, which receives over half of its annual budget from foreign development assistance and is currently experiencing rapid population growth and environmental change. Using examples from the literature, we identify water development aid initiatives in rural and urban settings and at local and national scales. We then situate these within the telecoupling framework to reveal underlying social-hydrological relationships. Our results indicate that water development is linking Ethiopia’s hydrology with geographically distant communities and markets and creating new and often unexpected flows of people, material, and capital. These are resulting in cascading impacts and cross-scale feedbacks among urbanization, geopolitics, and the water-food-energy nexus in East Africa. We conclude with a discussion of the strengths, limitations, and potential of the telecoupling framework for geoscientists and development practitioners.

Groundwater is the source of drinking water for ~1.4 million people in the Coastal Plain Province of Maryland (USA). In addition, groundwater is essential for commercial, industrial, and agricultural uses. Approximately 0.757 × 109 L d‒1 (200 million gallons/d) were withdrawn in 2010. As a result of decades of withdrawals from the coastal plain confined aquifers, groundwater levels have declined by as much as 70 m (230 ft) from estimated prepumping levels. Other issues posing challenges to long-term groundwater sustainability include degraded water quality from both man-made and natural sources, reduced stream base flow, land subsidence, and changing recharge patterns (drought) caused by climate change. In Maryland, groundwater supply is managed primarily by the Maryland Department of the Environment, which seeks to balance reasonable use of the resource with long-term sustainability. The chief goal of groundwater management in Maryland is to ensure safe and adequate supplies for all current and future users through the implementation of appropriate usage, planning, and conservation policies. To assist in that effort, the geographic information system (GIS)–based Maryland Coastal Plain Aquifer Information System was developed as a tool to help water managers access and visualize groundwater data for use in the evaluation of groundwater allocation and use permits. The system, contained within an ESRI ArcMap desktop environment, includes both interpreted and basic data for 16 aquifers and 14 confining units. Data map layers include aquifer and confining unit layer surfaces, aquifer extents, borehole information, hydraulic properties, time-series groundwater-level data, well records, and geophysical and lithologic logs. The aquifer and confining unit layer surfaces were generated specifically for the GIS system. The system also contains select groundwater-quality data and map layers that quantify groundwater and surface-water withdrawals. The aquifer information system can serve as a pre- and postprocessing environment for groundwater-flow models for use in water-supply planning, development, and management. The system also can be expanded to include features that evaluate constraints to groundwater development, such as insufficient available drawdown, degraded groundwater quality, insufficient aquifer yields, and well-field interference. Ultimately, the aquifer information system is intended to function as an interactive Web-based utility that provides a broad array of information related to groundwater resources in Maryland’s coastal plain to a wide-ranging audience, including well drillers, consultants, academia, and the general public.

At the end of the 13 yr war in Afghanistan and over $100 billion in development efforts, Afghanistan is beginning anew with her first peaceful and democratic transfer of political power. This transition, unfortunately, is occurring in the most fragile state outside of sub-Saharan Africa and during diminishing stability and development gains due to Islamic jihadist rebel actions in Iraq. In order for Afghanistan’s transition to the world stage to maintain a positive trajectory and be lasting, aid needs to be reformed to better meet the long-term needs of the Afghan people. Keen planning by the U.S. Army provided such an outlet for military-development assistance, the Agriculture Development Teams (2008–2014). These special teams supported Afghanistan’s primary driver of survival, employment, and productivity: water/agriculture. Using only 0.04% of U.S. development funding, these teams provided an improved approach to development by using widespread, community-accepted, sustainable projects, which included educational and training components using an “Afghan first” focus on contracting, materials, and labor. Water projects developed and implemented with the Afghan people focused on infrastructure and educational needs, providing a step forward in the progression of Afghanistan from subsistence to economic agriculture. Although these professional, egalitarian military teams are now inoperative, their efforts are being analyzed and included into new warfare expectancies. U.S. military might has become holistic and is leveraging all expertise to make future endeavors successful for the affected state. Using this improved approach to military aid, future operations should provide better, more meaningful support, increasing the likelihood of development success.

The new high-speed, high-capacity Treviglio-Brescia railway line is an integral part of the Trans-European Transport Network, the “Mediterranean Corridor,” and constitutes a critical stage in the construction of the high-speed, high-capacity Milan-Verona railway line, which extends a total of 140 km, 27 km of which have been in operation between Milan and Treviglio since 2007. The activities currently under way include the construction of a railway line covering a distance of ~52 km between Treviglio and Brescia, and the completion of a series of complementary projects to mitigate the interference with other infrastructures (e.g., canals, underground utilities) and new road systems. Geological investigations have been necessary during the course of the work, to manage excavations and excavated materials, to manage abandoned waste encountered along the line, and for remediation of contaminated sites. In addition to the characterization of the project area, data collected have contributed to the Environmental Monitoring Plan issued by the Consorzio Eni per l’Alta Velocità (CEPAV Due), which will monitor for potential environmental impacts caused by the execution of the project, particularly related to the soil, surface water, and groundwater, and the project measures needed to reduce environmental impact. This paper provides an overview of the activities carried out so far, as illustrated with some case studies.

Although mineral hazards are generally not well established in the public consciousness compared to other natural hazards, they can adversely affect public health and safety and the environment. The term “mineral hazards,” as used here, includes certain naturally occurring earth materials and sites of man-made activities related to them, such as mining and oil drilling. Since the 1990s, the California Geological Survey has conducted many studies of mineral hazards in California in response to an increasing number of requests from government agencies, private industry, and the public. These studies have focused mostly on naturally occurring asbestos, radon, and various metals, such as mercury and cadmium. The mineral-hazard maps and companion reports produced from these studies are typically at statewide and regional scales. They are designed for use by nongeoscientists and geoscientists alike in an effort to educate these groups about mineral hazards and to help in mitigation of those hazards. These products indicate the likelihood of the occurrence of a mineral hazard at a given location, but not the associated health risk. Geographic information systems (GIS) are used to manage and analyze data, and to design the maps. The variety of products developed ranges from traditional paper maps to thematic digital layers for use in a GIS. This range of products increases the likelihood that a greater number of people will use the information. The maps and reports have been used in many applications, and additional applications await development as awareness of mineral hazards and the need for mitigation of them increase.

Tehran, the capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a case of unplanned urban development. About 12% of Iranians are Tehran dwellers, and geology plays a major role in their environment. The city is located in northern Iran in the foothills of the Alborz Mountains. Sediments underlying the city are composed of coarse (northern part of Tehran) to very fine (southern part of Tehran) sandstone, siltstone, and mudstone with interbeds of gravels and pebbles in various proportions up to a depth of 1600 m. The early settlers were attracted to the area because there were bountiful springs and kanats (or qanats, an underground channel with vertical access shafts used to transport water from an aquifer under a hill to the surface without the need for pumping). The inharmonious geomorphology has strongly influenced the local climate for Tehran, with northern portions of the city in the humid mountains and southern portions in the desert. As development and expansion of the urban area continue, there will be increasing demand for natural resources and services such as water supply and construction material, land-use changes, increasing pollution, and exposure to geological hazards. In this article, we use surface and subsurface geological data to highlight the geological constraints on sustainable urban growth and management.

The Great Lakes Geologic Mapping Coalition (GLGMC), consisting of state geological surveys from all eight Great Lakes states, the Ontario Geological Survey, and the U.S. Geological Survey, was conceived out of a societal need for unbiased and scientifically defensible geologic information on the shallow subsurface, particularly the delineation, interpretation, and viability of groundwater resources. Only a small percentage (<10%) of the region had been mapped in the subsurface, and there was recognition that no single agency had the financial, intellectual, or physical resources to conduct such a massive geologic mapping effort at a detailed scale over a wide jurisdiction. The GLGMC provides a strategy for generating financial and stakeholder support for three-dimensional (3-D) geologic mapping, pooling of physical and personnel resources, and sharing of mapping and technological expertise to characterize the thick cover of glacial sediments. Since its inception in 1997, the GLGMC partners have conducted detailed surficial and 3-D geologic mapping within all jurisdictions, and concurrent significant scientific advancements have been made to increase understanding of the history and framework of geologic processes. More importantly, scientific information has been provided to public policymakers in understandable formats, emphasis has been placed on training early-career scientists in new mapping techniques and emerging technologies, and a successful model has been developed of state/provincial and federal collaboration focused on geologic mapping, as evidenced by this program’s unprecedented and long-term successful experiment of 10 geological surveys working together to address common issues.

African geological surveys are playing an important role in local and global development. Core functions are mapping, mineral exploration, geophysics, geochemistry, research, and geoengineering. Regulatory functions, geohazards, training, environment, water resources, and land-use planning are also addressed by some. Most African geological surveys were founded to assist in the search for mineral resources, but they have had to adapt to a much wider field of responsibilities in more recent times. Examples from the Geological Survey of Namibia are given. Faced with challenges of funding and skills shortage, African geological surveys have united under the auspices of the Organization of African Geological Surveys in order to jointly resolve the difficulties experienced.

The western Pacific region contains 22 independent island countries and territories spread over an area of 27.8 million km2. Pacific peoples have lived here for as long as 50,000 yr, developing isolated cultures with close relationships to the environment. Although food security is adequate, the region suffers from persistent poverty that places many in a precarious position. Beginning in the 1920s, geological surveys conducted pioneering studies geared toward development. Beginning in the mid-1990s, many aid donors shifted their focus away from science, leading to a depletion of geo-science capacity. Lately, regional organizations have made considerable headway in expanding scientific capacity. The Geoscience Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community plays a significant role in helping the region attract geoscience-related aid funding and stitching the dispersed geoscience communities together. Universities in the region, assisted by geoscientists abroad and private employers, are also playing a role. This paper describes three examples of how geoscience can contribute to inclusive sustainable development. One example explores deep-sea minerals as a new source of wealth generation and the challenges the region faces in developing capacity and addressing the environmental concerns of this new revenue stream. A second project in Kiribati has moved aggregate extraction from beaches only 3 m above sea level to sediment-rich lagoons, providing new options for the future. Lastly, the promises and benefits of sustainable geothermal and ocean thermal technology are described.

The use of thematic volcanic hazard maps is essential for policy managers and administrators in land use planning and to determine the best form of action during emergencies. In particular, hazard maps are a key tool in emergency management and are used to describe the threat expected at a certain location in the event of future eruptions. We applied the latest version of the SCIARA lava flow cellular automata model using parallel computing through general purpose graphics processing units technology to derive lava flow hazard maps for Mt Etna, Sicily. The methodology relies on an accurate analysis of the past behaviour of the volcano and is appropriate for land use planning and civil defence applications.

Using two hypothetical effusive events in the Chaîne des Puys (Auvergne, France), we tested two geographical information systems (GISs) set up to allow loss assessment during an effusive crisis. The first was a local system that drew on all immediately available data for population, land use, communications, utility and building type. The second was an experimental add-on to the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS) global warning system maintained by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) that draws information from open-access global data. After defining lava-flow model source terms (vent location, effusion rate, lava chemistry, temperature, crystallinity and vesicularity), we ran all available lava-flow emplacement models to produce a projection for the likelihood of impact for all pixels within the GIS. Next, inundation maps and damage reports for impacted zones were produced, with those produced by both the local system and by GDACS being in good agreement. The exercise identified several shortcomings of the systems, but also indicated that the generation of a GDACS-type global response system for effusive crises that uses rapid-response model projections for lava inundation driven by real-time satellite hotspot detection – and open-access datasets – is within the current capabilities of the community.

The mid-Atlantic region and Chesapeake Bay watershed have been influenced by fluctuations in climate and sea level since the Cretaceous, and human alteration of the landscape began ~12,000 years ago, with greatest impacts since colonial times. Efforts to devise sustainable management strategies that maximize ecosystem services are integrating data from a range of scientific disciplines to understand how ecosystems and habitats respond to different climatic and environmental stressors. Palynology has played an important role in improving understanding of the impact of changing climate, sea level, and land use on local and regional vegetation. Additionally, palynological analyses have provided biostratigraphic control for surficial mapping efforts and documented agricultural activities of both Native American populations and European colonists. This field trip focuses on sites where palynological analyses have supported efforts to understand the impacts of changing climate and land use on the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.

Urbanization is a major process now shaping the environment. This field trip looks at the hydrogeology of the general Washington, D.C., area and focuses on the city’s lost springs. Until 150 years ago, springs and shallow dug wells were the main source of drinking water for residents of Washington, D.C. Celebrating the nation’s bicentennial, Garnett P. Williams of the U.S. Geological Survey examined changes in water supply and water courses since 1776. He examined old newspaper files to determine the location of the city’s springs. This field trip visits sites of some of these springs (few of which are now flowing), discusses the hydrologic impacts of urbanization and the general geological setting, and finishes with the Baltimore Long Term Ecological Research site at Dead Run and its findings. The field trip visits some familiar locations in the Washington, D.C., area, and gives insights into their often hidden hydrologic past and present.

The natural landscape of the North Shore of Vancouver is a mountainous one extending from sea level to ~1400 m. Land below ~400 m has been undergoing increasing urbanization since the 1950s. Development has encroached on areas subject to natural hazards such as floods, debris flows, slope failures, and coastal inundation. We will visit examples of these urban hazards, discuss problems of hazard identification in a forested landscape, and review urban planning and engineering responses to hazard management.

U.S. military installations increasingly have become de facto bioreserves as the result of legacy and current land uses, urbanization, and historical siting of installations. The relative value of military lands as bioreserves compared to land holdings of other federal agencies is not proportional to total land area. Ironically, a significant reason that U.S. military installations have become important bioreserves is that they were not established with the purpose of conserving or extracting natural resources.This historical factor has resulted in a broad representation of U.S. ecoregions on military lands and largely has shielded those lands from the habitat loss and degradation that has occurred in surrounding regions due to urbanization, agricultural development, and other non-military land uses. Fort Hood, Texas, is used as a case study to illustrate the characteristics of military installations that fit the model for bioreserves as areas for conservation of biological resources and processes in the context of human use of the environment. A major current challenge for management of natural resources on military lands is that the value of U.S. military lands as bioreserves is increasing as surrounding habitats and natural communities continue to be degraded.

Department of Defense military land use of the desert southwest includes a wide spectrum of military weapons testing, force-on-force training, and various types of flight training. The desert southwest provides a critical asset for the U.S. military— open space. Installations in the desert southwest tend to be much larger than installations in other regions of the nation, with several exceeding 400,000 ha. This open-space asset has allowed the military to historically establish large training areas and ranges on installations and to define expansive air maneuver regions above these ranges and above the vast public lands of other agencies. It also offers critical training and testing areas that are analogs to similar worldwide environments where the military operates. Training and testing activities are conducted in the three-dimensional land and air space that replicates the modern battle space. Land and air space use is highly variable among installations depending on mission requirements. Natural resource management challenges include the large spatial extent of lands and air space under Department of Defense management, highly variable military land-use requirements, significant endangered species regulatory and conservation requirements, encroachment and Base Realignment and Closure requirements, competition for water resources, and climate change. Department of Defense natural resource managers attempt to meet these challenges through interagency cooperative agreements, integrated natural resource management plans, and Department of Defense sustainable range programs.

Dryland channel networks share many similarities with channel networks in more humid regions, but they are also unique in having: extreme temporal and spatial variability in rainfall, runoff, and both hillslope and channel processes; poor integration between tributary and main channels; dominantly ephemeral or intermittent flow; and lack of equilibrium between process and form. Floods are likely to be particularly important in dryland channels, and riparian vegetation exerts a strong influence on channel processes and form. Land managers working in dryland channel networks particularly need to answer the following questions: What is stable? What is the role of disturbance? How do ecosystems depend on physical form and process?This paper explores methods for determining thresholds and resiliency within a channel network and suggests metrics that can be used to assess the condition of a channel segment or entire drainage network relative to management goals. The management metrics focus on flow regime, sediment supply, bed grain size, bedform configuration, width/depth ratio, bed gradient, channel planform, and extent and type of riparian vegetation. For each of these metrics, geological, historical, and systematic records can be used to define the natural range of variability for a particular channel form in the absence of direct land-use impacts. The range of variability present under land use such as military training activities can then be compared to the natural range to assess whether these activities are negatively affecting the dryland channel network. The Yuma Wash drainage in the Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, is used as a case study.