ALBERT

Description: In hierdie diep persoonlike boek maak bekende Cilliers temas — insluitend die skep van sin, prediking, moderne kuns, kleur, Stellenbosse wyne, en die Karoo — op ’n verrassend nuwe wyse hulle verskyning. Hulle word verbind met intens gelukkige en uiters hartseer outobiografiese momente, en word as niks meer as fragmente aangebied nie. Terwyl mens egter die boek lees, begin die fragmente as ’n geheel met mekaar kommunikeer, en skep só al spelende ’n verrassende, eksistensiële teologie. ’n Teologie wat aanhaak by jou eie eksistensie as leser. Neem, lees, en geniet hierdie smaakvolle boek. Marcel Barnard: Professor in Praktiese Teologie aan die Protestantse Teologiese Universiteit, Amsterdam, en Buitengewone Professor aan die Universiteit Stellenbosch.

Description: Aquest llibre vol ser una eina al servei de la ciència i la universitat catalanes, que obri espais de debat i reflexió i contribueixi a generar opinió dins la societat. A més d’exposar quin és l’estat actual de la universitat i la recerca a Catalunya en una exhaustiva introducció de Claudi Mans, l’obra, editada per David Bueno, recull l’opinió de tretze prestigiosos científics -Albert Arbós i Bertran, Pere Arús, Eudald Carbonell, David de Lorenzo, Roderic Guigó, David Jou, Ramon Pascual, Josep A. Planell, Pere Puigdomènech, Jesús Purroy, Diego Redolar, Sergi Sabater i Eduard Vieta- que analitzen de manera crítica algunes qüestions clau relatives tant al sistema universitari, la investigació i la transferència de tecnologia i coneixement, com als reptes de futur a què s’enfronta el nostre país.

Description: For millennia, humans have gravitated towards coastlines for their resource potential and as geopolitical centres for global trade. A basic requirement ensuring water security for coastal communities relies on a delicate balance between the supply and demand of potable water. The interaction between freshwater and saltwater in coastal settings is, therefore, complicated by both natural and human-driven environmental changes at the land-sea interface. In particular, ongoing sea level rise, warming and deoxygenation might exacerbate such perturbations. In this context, an improved understanding of the nature and variability of groundwater fluxes across the land-sea continuum is timely, yet remains out of reach. The flow of terrestrial groundwater across the coastal transition zone as well as the extent of freshened groundwater below the present-day seafloor are receiving increased attention in marine and coastal sciences because they likely represent a significant, yet highly uncertain component of (bio)geochemical budgets, and because of the emerging interest in the potential use of offshore freshened groundwater as a resource. At the same time, “reverse” groundwater flux from offshore to onshore is of prevalent socio-economic interest as terrestrial groundwater resources are continuously pressured by overpumping and seawater intrusion in many coastal regions worldwide. An accurate assessment of the land-ocean connectivity through groundwater and its potential responses to future anthropogenic activities and climate change will require a multidisciplinary approach combining the expertise of geophysicists, hydrogeologists, (bio)geochemists and modellers. Such joint activities will lay the scientific basis for better understanding the role of groundwater in societal-relevant issues such as climate change, pollution and the environmental status of the coastal oceans within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Here, we present our perspectives on future research directions to better understand land-ocean connectivity through groundwater, including the spatial distributions of the essential hydrogeological parameters, highlighting technical and scientific developments, and briefly discussing its societal relevance in rapidly changing coastal oceans.