Water is an essential natural resource for all life on earth. Co-existence and integrity of nature and human requires sufficient water of high quality.  Socio-cultural and economic development is directly dependent on water and water-dependent ecosystems. Existence or scarcity of water has been the key factor which determined the rise and fall of civilizations. The 21st century, an era of rapid changes, will most probably experience severe problems in supplying sufficient water of good quality where it is needed due to increase and mobility of the population as well as the natural and human-caused alteration of the hydrological cycle in addition to climate change.
Rapid increase of population, urbanization, intensified industrial activities and climate change have not only increased the demand for water but also caused degradation of quality of water resources, which resulted in problems of shortage of water to meet the demand. Water has a key role in sustainable development for prosperous and healthy life. Today, about 800 million people on the planet do not have access to clean and safe drinking water, while more than 2.5 billion people suffer from the lack of basic sanitation. Lack of proper sanitation and hygiene kills about 1.6 million people every year. The projections for the future suggest that the human population on earth will increase to 9.6 billion by the year 2050, which means even greater stress on water resources and more severe problems related to water supply and sanitation.
Presently, energy and agriculture are the two main sectors that consume water. It is most likely that this will also be the case in the future. The pressure on water resources due to the extensive consumption by these sectors resulted in depletion of the resources and degradation of water quality. In areas where access to clean and adequate water is lacking, it is not surprising to witness fatal health problems, drought, degradation of ecosystems, loss of habitats and biodiversity and as a consequence of all, socioeconomic consequences may lead to a catastrophe.
A special attention should be given to "drought" as another ever-growing pressure on the hydrological and hydrogeological systems. Drought severity and duration is different in different regions. However, recently  interbasin transfer of water is being regarded as a favorable application to mitigate the adverse impacts of drought problems. On the other hand, the lack of impact assessment of this today`s solution may cause more serious problems in the long run.
Turkey frequently suffers from natural disasters including floods and droughts and in spite of significant steps in water management towards tackling with these problems have been taken for the last ten years, serious concerns are still on the agenda whether the practice in water management considers the integrity of "nature and society" appropriately. Above all, a "water law" which requests and requires an integrated water resources management is still missing in Turkey. Therefore, the current utilization of surface waters and groundwater resources is far from an integrated approach which considers these two interacting systems as a single resource. Groundwater resources are exploited without this consideration whenever a shortage of water is faced. The problem is that the information on quantity and quality of groundwater resources in Turkey is still not adequate for a proper and effective management, nor studies on responses of these systems to climate change are available at the required level.
The utilization of water resources that are vital for society and nature, without removing the right of the future generations to have safe access to it, is only possible by understanding the complex interactions among the hydrologic-hydrogeological systems. These systems are connected to the structure and dynamics of the earth and therefore are controlled by the geological and hydrogeological settings at the hydrological basins at different scales, ranging from local to continental. In addition to the essentiality of public participation, experiences gained so far, suggest that generation of practical and successful solutions to the ever-increasing water-related problems can be developed only if the geology in general and hydrogeology in particular are considered as the focal of an interdisciplinary approach.
Based on the facts briefed above, the Chamber of Geological Engineers of Turkey has specified the main theme of the 68th Geological Congress of Turkey which will be held in 2015 as "Water for Nature and Society", apparently, an issue that will be discussed also in the future. The main objective of the congress is to provide a platform for discussions on significance of water for nature and the society within the framework of exploration, development, protection and integrated management of the water resources as interacting systems.
In addition to papers discussing different aspects of the main-theme of the congress, presentations of papers on the wide spectrum of both theoretical and practical aspects of the geological engineering discipline, are welcomed to provide a fruitful platform of sharing ideas, knowledge and experiences through productive discussions.
Minimizing the pressures on water resources and making a better world to leave for our future generations is all our first objective and immediate responsibility. In all efforts that we will put to achieve this objective, it is most likely that we will have to deal with scientific, technical, institutional, political and financial aspects of the problem. Plenary that will be held during the congress are constructed to give an opportunity to invited speakers to present their ideas and discuss these problems to suggest practical and sound solutions. However, the last but not the least essential requirement for a successful congress on "Water for Nature and Society"  that aimed at achieving the objectives stated above is the active participation of you, eminent colleagues presenting your papers in oral and/or poster sessions that will take place during the 68th Geological Congress of Turkey. It gives us great pleasure to sincerely invite you to participate in the 68th Congress which will be held on April 06-10, 2015 at the Congress Center of the General Directorate of MTA in Ankara.

Organizing Committee