Professor Chunmiao Zheng, Vice President and Chair Professor at the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT), Ningbo, delivered an invited keynote at the 53rd World Groundwater Congress of the International Association of Hydrogeologists in Budapest on 16 September. The congress runs from 14 to 18 September 2026 under the theme "Groundwater — A Key Multi-Resource."
Zheng delivering his keynote talk at IAH 2026
In his address, "The Future of Groundwater Modeling: Large-Scale, Integrated, and AI-Enabled," Zheng discussed how models are expanding from individual sites to continental and global scales and representing groundwater's connections with climate, ecosystems and human activities in greater detail. He drew on research in the North China Plain, the Tibetan Plateau, the Heihe River Basin and the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area to show how modeling can help address groundwater depletion, support ecosystem recovery and tackle water-quality problems.
Zheng emphasized that AI must work within a sound physical framework. It can help researchers estimate aquifer properties, use observations more effectively and speed up simulations, but predictions still need to be tested against evidence and physical laws. He argued for models that can update their predictions and uncertainty estimates as new observations become available.
In an interview for the congress, Zheng identified a challenge shared by China, the United States and Hungary: a shortage of well-trained hydrogeologists with a solid grounding in geology and strong quantitative skills, including competence in AI. He described practical uses for AI in groundwater protection, from monitoring and data collection to making information more accessible and improving simulations and predictions. Looking ten years ahead, he expects hydrogeology to be shaped profoundly by both global change and AI.
Zheng is also co-chairing the session "Advances in modeling groundwater dynamics from regional to global scales with Laura Condon and Stefan Kollet on 16 and 17 September. He serves on the congress's Extended Scientific Committee.
On 15 September, Zheng spoke at the memorial session for József Tóth. His presentation recalled how Tóth's theory of regional groundwater flow systems influenced his doctoral research with Professor Mary Anderson at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and his subsequent work on particle tracking and contaminant transport modeling.
Zheng shared photographs of his meetings with Tóth and a map showing the international reach of Tóth's landmark 1962 and 1963 papers. He also recalled a distinctionhe shared with Tóth and Anderson: Tóth received the inaugural O. E. Meinzer Award from the Geological Society of America in 1965; Anderson and Zheng received the same award in 1998 and 2013, respectively.
