National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training researcher Derek Eamus is a finalist in the Google Impact Challenge and is looking for your help in securing a grant for his project.

A leading plant physiologist and ecophysiologist, Professor Derek has led the development of a simple and scalable technology that uses trees to detect the amount of groundwater remaining.

The Google Impact Challenge offers $500,000 in grant funding and technical assistance to each of four non-profit projects “using technology to change the world”. The top 10 will pitch their project to a panel of judges and the four winners will be chosen: three by the judging panel and one selected by popular vote.

Professor Eamus said the increasing use of groundwater is a major global concern, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions that account for 50 percent of the world’s land area and support the same percentage of its population – Australia among them.

“By investing in these early warning systems and protecting these ecosystems, we can conservatively estimate a contribution to the Australian economy alone of $90 million through better management of groundwater usage and soil stability,” Professor Eamus said.

“We hope to use our demonstrator sites in Australia to roll this out to other arid and semi-arid regions of the world such as India, China and the Middle East.”

You  can assist this vital research – vote for the project in the Google Impact Challenge today.