April 24, 2009
Bowling
Green, Ky. - This week a Western Kentucky University team of six faculty and students from the Department of Geography and Geology and the School of Journalism and Broadcasting traveled to the Caribbean island of Jamaica to assist that country’s Water Resources Authority (WRA) with planning for studies to protect vulnerable water resources.
The purpose of the trip, funded by a partnership between the Jamaican WRA and WKU’s Hoffman Environmental Research Institute, is to familiarize the WKU team with the hydrologic environment in north-central Jamaica’s Dry Harbor Mountains and, in turn, to develop a strategy for future hydrologic study by the WRA.
The WRA contacted WKU’s Crawford Hydrology Laboratory (CHL) about the project in November. The CHL, now part of the Hoffman Environmental Research Institute within WKU’s Applied Research and Technology Program (ARTP), has an international reputation for this kind of highly specialized groundwater tracing work, following more than 25 years under the direction of WKU Emeritus Professor Nick Crawford.
The group is led by the Hoffman Institute’s Pat Kambesis and Chris Groves, with CHL’s Priscilla Baker and Dalene Smith, a geology major from Louisville, participating. They are joined by James Kenney, coordinator of WKU’s photojournalism program, along with photojournalism major Daniel Houghton of Fayetteville, Ga., who will document the fieldwork.
A cooperative relationship is developing between the two departments, and this first joint effort should provide a template for future student-based opportunities.
“This project not only is advancing the university’s international reach, but represents the first real collaboration between WKU’s two Programs of Distinction,” Kenney said. Those programs are the Center for 21st Century Media within the School of Journalism and Broadcasting and the Applied Research and Technology Program within Ogden College of Science and Engineering, within which the Hoffman Institute operates.
“Such innovative cooperation across departments, and even colleges in this case, provides real synergy with sharing of resources and expertise,” Groves said.
Some 65 percent of Jamaica has karst landscapes similar to those of southcentral Kentucky, where caves, sinkholes and underground rivers are common, and where groundwater resources are very easily contaminated. Environmental threats in Jamaica that the team will study include bauxite mining and rum manufacture.
David Keeling, Geography and Geology Department Head, added that “this collaboration between the two departments is a wonderful example of the spirit and practice of preparing WKU students for success in a global society. It is not only important to understand from a scientific perspective the threats facing Jamaica’s water resources, but also to educate and inform the wider public through journalistic endeavors.”
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu and at http://wkunews.wordpress.com/. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact Chris Groves at (270) 745-5974.
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