Regular Training Course on Groundwater and Environmental Geochemistry, 2016

Within a series of regular training courses provided by KIGAM/ISGeo in collaboration with CCOP for member countries, the KIGAM/ISGeo training course on Groundwater and Environmental Geochemistry was conducted from June 20 to July 8, 2016 in the International School for Geoscience Resources of KIGAM, Daejeon, Korea, with total 25 participants including 14 participants from CCOP Member Countries.  Aiming to foster professionals from all over the world in the fields of groundwater and geochemistry related research as well as to enhance the capabilities of the cooperating countries/organizations with Korea/KIGAM, this 3-weeks training course was planned to provide participants with an introduction to key aspects of groundwater resources and environmental geochemistry. The contents of this course comprise a general overview on evaluation and exploitation of groundwater resources that covered introduction to groundwater resources and practical geochemistry and groundwater contamination and remediation. Also there was a course about numerical groundwater modeling/calibration/uncertainty analysis including case studies and from this year, environmental geochemistry course was inserted as module 3. Total 16 instructors were involved in the course.

Various activities were done during 3 weeks of the training course to make this course much informative and fruitful, including briefing with country report session by trainees at the last day of first week on June 24th. Participants gave presentation of their own countries’ reports about overview of groundwater resources and environmental related geochemistry, related organization and project field practice. On July 1st, lab tour was arranged by Dr. Yongcheol Kim from Groundwater department. Hydrogeologic field investigation activities were carried out at KIGAM Basketball court and all participants could have chance to experience both practical and theoretical area such as head measurement, borehole camera, hydraulic test, groundwater sample collection(non-pumping well), filtering, water chemistry measurements(bypass from pumping well) and software usage(AQTESOLV) as well. During the Module 3 period, there was special activity, visiting AMD treatment facilities in Mungyeong city where participant had chance to look around Korean Gapjeong Abandoned Coal Mine and learned passive treatment system consisting of oxidation pond, SAPS, aerobic wetland. After the field practice, a half-day tour in Mungyeong city was arranged to visit Mungyeong-saejae open set studio and Mungyeong Coal Museum as a part of culture trip.

Farewell dinner and was held on July 7th, Dr. Kyu Han KIM (President of KIGAM) delivered the farewell address and Dr. Kyoochul Ha (Director of Groundwater Department), Dr. Joo Sung Ahn (Director of Environmental Geology Department) raised a toast. One representative participant from each country gave introduction of him/herself and shared opinion about the course. As a wrap up, closing address was given by Dr. Choon Sunwoo (Executive Director of IS-Geo).

During the entire course schedule, Korean Language & cultural class was held in every morning for an hour in which all the trainees attended and learned how to read and write Korean Language, how to play Korean traditional game and how to sing a traditional Korean song.

In overall evaluation, the training course has been successfully organized and reached the targets and benefited all the attended participants. It would be a good base for future cooperation possibilities among CCOP member countries and KIGAM/IS-Geo. The network of groundwater and environmental geochemistry should be maintained and developed for further collaborative activities within the region. Advanced courses for the network are recommended for consideration of future plans.