日本語！日本語！Japanese! Japanese! Dannnnnnnggggggg!

初めまして、私の名前は ナラーです。カンボジア人です。プノンペンに住んでいます。家族と住んでいます。家族は５人です。父と　母と　弟二人と　私です。。。。。。。。。。。。。。

Learning a new language is a fascinating experience. It's more than just about the language you are learning, but you will get to know the culture, tradition, custom and the like of that particular country. As for me, Japanese is the third language I am studying, excluding my mother tongue. (*Khmer is my native language, English my second, French my third, Japanese my fourth.) 

People, especially my acquaintances, may ask why I study so many languages as I have done and am doing. Well! Frankly, the very first and only foreign language I aspired to know was English; that's why I studied English since I was a small kid. However, when I graduated from high school, I had to enter the Institute of Technology of Cambodia as an engineering student. For engineering program, French is a must, so without a doubt, I had to convince myself to accept this ugly truth. I had to study French out of rages. YET as I said, learning a new language is interesting as I came to realize that I had gained a lot of general knowledge through learning this language. I had spent 5 years learning French until I received my Engineer's degree in August 2014. Dannnnnnnngggg! I did it. French was added to my language list. 

It did not end here. Two years after enrolling as an engineering students, I was invited to participate in the World Youth Meeting held in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. (*You may know it better if I say Nagoya.) I had heard that most people in Japan did not speak English, so I decided to learn basic Japanese expressions though Youtube. Holy Cow! I like speaking Japanese. The language is so so so absorbing. 

When in Japan, however, I used mostly English owing to the fact that my Japanese was still basic. Actually, you don't need to worry if you don't know any Japanese provided that you are always on school campus because you can use English to communicate. BUT if you go out, you do need Japanese. Otherwise, you will have to use gestures. I experienced this while traveling in Japan for a second time in winter 2012, just a week before Xmas. I went to a supermarket at the center of Tokyo to buy some food to eat. ”いらっしゃいませ”, said a shopkeeper before bowing before me. (”いらっしゃいませ” literally means "How can I help you?") I was puzzled since I did not understand what she was trying to say. I just smiled and bowed back. And then I told her I wanted to buy some canned food. "SOME CANNED FOOD", yeah I needed some canned food, but she was like "This guy is an alien. He speaks an outside-world language". (*As her facial expressions seem so). "Never mind," I said. Thereafter, I did not speak but gesticulated. (*Funny)

I knew it clearly that I would face this great challenge again when living in Japan for a long time. Therefore, I decided to enroll in a formal, 6-month intensive Japanese class at Cambodia Japan Cooperation Center (CJCC) prior to my departure to Japan. It has been approximately 3 moths now, and I still feel I'm not ready to use Japanese yet. Hence, starting from today onward, I have to accelerate my Japanese learning. (*Maybe I can be called one of the New Year Resolution) 

Tour

2014 treated me so well. The video below tells it all.

MEXT Scholarship (MONBUKAGAKUSHU-Japanese Government Scholarship) Selection Process for Research Students

I have received several dozen messages asking me about a Government-of-Japan Scholarship called "MONBUKAGAKUSHU or MEXT Scholarship". 

Scholarship flyer taken from "Embassy of Japan in Cambodia's Facebook Page" 

A lot of people, if not all, think that MEXT Scholarship selection process is complicated. However, it is not that complicated. You just need some hints to unlock its mysteries. Therefore, in this short article, I would like to briefly illustrate the selection process of this scholarship and some tips to win this one of the most prestigious scholarships offered in Cambodia by integrating information and recommendation given by the Embassy of Japan in Phnom Penh during the orientation session with my personal experience in winning this scholarship. I hope this will help. 

A Brief Overview of MEXT Scholarship

Every year the government of Japan offers 4 different levels of MEXT scholarship namely Research (Post-graduate), Undergraduate, Specialized Training College, and College of Technology. However, I will put an emphasis on only MEXT Scholarship for Post-Graduate Level. 

For Post-graduate level, there are several steps to be successful candidates of MEXT Scholarship, 5 steps to be precise, all of which are as follows. 

1. Shortlist

The very first step of this scholarship is to get shortlisted among hundreds of applicants. After enlisting your name in the applicant list, you are invited to take a written test designed by the scholarship provider. All applicants are required to take English and Japanese written test; however, you don't need to worry if you don't know any Japanese due to the fact that you can choose either English or Japanese as the main score, meaning that if your English score is higher, it will be considered as your main score, and vice versa.  

During my generation, there were well over 500 applicants from various fields of study and/or institutions/organizations. After the first selection process, 50 students were selected and were invited to submit their application form and necessary documents for screening, which is the second process of the scholarship.

2. First Screening

What you need to do after being shortlisted  is to submit your research proposal, application form together with recommendation letters from your previous lecturers and/or work place, and other necessary documents. 

The most important component of this step is "Research Proposal". Research Proposal is your research plan stating what you are going to do as a research student at a Japanese university. Your research proposal, or research plan, should tell the selection committee "What you are going to do, Whether you have academic skills, Why your research is important, useful or unique, Why it needs to be conducted in Japan, How you are going to do it, Your Research Time Frame, and last but not least What your expected results are." 

"Research proposal is one of the most important criteria to evaluate candidates' expertise. Many students do not have sufficient knowledge on research proposal. Basic knowledge should be acquired in their former education or in their career." (Embassy of Japan's Handout)

Hence, it is of most importance to consider it wisely once you plan to apply for this scholarship. During my generation only 22 candidates could go through this process and move on to the next.

3. Interview

After your application form, research proposal, and other attached documents have been reviewed, if deemed qualified, you will be invited to enter the interview room in which 5 interviewers are waiting to grill you. 

The intent of the interview, I think, is to test the applicants in person to know whether they are expertise in their research plan or qualified as potential candidates or not. This step is a bit tougher since the selection committee will look closely how well/knowledgeable you are in the subject by comparing you with other candidates who are qualified enough to get at this stage. Thus, it is important to note that you should be well prepared and ready to overcome challenges during the interview.

I remember seeing my fellow candidates anxious just before their turn to be interviewed, some of whom were too nervous to show their potentials. Indeed, being nervous is natural, but unable to control your nervousness is dreadful, resulting in a total failure; ergo, looking natural is great to show your confidence to the interviewers.

Personally, I have developed a Four Win Principles for Interview. If you think it works as it does to me, apply it for your sake, or forget it if it doesn't. Here they are:

[I won't explain it in detail. I just want you to analyze it by your self]

1. Humble, Polite, and Convincing
2. Forceful and Influencing
3. Diplomatic and Professional
4. Short and Precise, avoiding Verbose  

In this step, several more candidates will be disallowed to further another step on the selection process. As far as I am concern, 12 amongst the 22 (during my generation) were announced as successful candidates of interview, and the fourth step followed. 

4. Asking for Acceptance Letter from Japanese Universities

The next thing to do after earning recognition as successful candidates of the interview is to contact Japanese universities directly to seek for admission/acceptance letters. This step is the easiest, yet somehow time consuming. You will be given a period of time to contact your advisers at Japanese universities and ask them to grant you admission letters so that you can submit to the local Embassy of Japan. 

You are allowed to fill in three universities options in your university placement form, placing the most wanted on the top of the list to the least at the bottom. You are allowed to contact as many universities as you want, but make sure that once you submit them to the embassy, submit those [Letters of Acceptance] want to be your choices, or else you may be given the university you less prefer. [I think 3 most wanted universities are enough]

Although, you get admission letters from Japanese universities of your choice, the journey hasn't ended yet. The embassy needs to submit your application form and admission letters to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan for second screening.

5. Second Screening and Final Result Announcement

Every year, the final result announcement of MEXT Scholarship is announced at the conclusion of December of the year, or early January of  the following year. 

I hope to see you in Japan. Leave me a message if you get it. Good LUCK!

For further information, you can contact:

Embassy of Japan in Cambodia

Culture and Information Section

Scholarship Advisor

Tel: 023-210-331

Email: scholarship.jpn@pp.mofa.go.jp

Office Hour: 14:00-17:30

Breathtaking

                                                       "I love taking photos because it enables me to enjoy my life more."

There is an old saying and it goes "A picture tells a thousand words", and I would like to upgrade that once-old saying to "A picture takes you to a place where words cannot describe." And thus no matter how much you try to illustrate, a picture depicts much clearer image of how thing exactly is. 

These photos were taken while I was visiting one of the most picturesque seaside resorts in Florida, USA. The weather was perfectly perfect for sunbathing.

A Tale of Four Responses: Positivities

There is a moment in life when you have to face challenges and be flexible to overcome those challenges. Some challenges are life changing, life or death, but some are simple yet worth a try. Follows are the four challenging questions I received on different occasions.

A Tale of Four Response is now commencing!

1. Business is all about trust.
2. You should no depend only on one source of income.
3. The ultimate goal of life is happiness.
4. Engineer is not a robot or a senseless machine.

One:

People asked me why I decided to start up a new business only months before I go live abroad for quite a long time and if I wasn't afraid of being cheated by my shareholders. 

My response: "Business is all about trust. It's a principle. Without a trust within the organization, there won't be trust amongst the customers who use our service. I also entrust my three shareholders with managing the business when I'm away. It's only thousands dollars business, not a multimillion one. If they cheat me because of this, I don't have a say. BUT I don't believe that my friends will ever betray me."

Two:

People asked me why I had so many job. They said I was young, and hence I should enjoy my life to the max.

My response: "One of Warren Buffet's tips on earning is Do Not Depend On Single Income. Make Investment to Create a New Source. Therefore, there is not even a suspicion of reluctance to do as many jobs as I can to create multiple different sources of income. Regarding enjoying life, I think that I have had so much fun and I am still having and will be having plenty of it. I just spend a half portion of my time doing my jobs, leaving the rest for other important things in life."

Three:

People asked me why I decided to do so many unpaid jobs, and most of the time I had to travel across the country to the rural and remote rural areas to lecture those high school students. 

My response: "The ultimate goal of life is happiness. It is a healthy fact that happiness is cultivated from the inner self, rather than exterior influences. Thus, it is not usual of me to boost my happiness by doing socially good activities while create happiness for other less privileged people at the same time. In addition, it's human conscience to help one another when ones are in need. I'm grateful and exhilarated to  see those children hopeful and delightful facial expressions when giving lectures to them. We are not living alone, but i a crowd of our human race."

Four:

There was a person saying to me "You graduated with Engineer's degree. Why are you working as a radio presenter? Engineers are serious person."

My response: "An engineer is not a robot nor a senseless machine. An engineer can also talk."

These are what I responded to the questions asked. I hope that my speech doesn't violate any rules or offense anyone of you, readers. Take it if you think it is worthless or leave it if it is worthless. A good sharing should be shared, and a not so good sharing should not be taken either. Good luck!

Work of Art, "the Red Indian?"

I like traveling and seeing new things, and I think you do too.Basically, a quote which goes "Traveling helps you to have new eyes" does imply that you not only see things visually through your physical eyes but also ironically those images will infiltrate into your brain through what I call inner eyes and then are transformed into something intangible to store in your heart. 

In the several following photos taken when I attended an art exhibition organized by a group of art students at my university, Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU), in Florida, you will see the livelihood of ancient people (the red Indians?). The reason I put the question mark to follow the phrase "the red Indian" because I am not sure if these pictures are about the red Indian who are indigenous to the land (USA). However, I assume it portrays the livelihood of the red Indian people owing to the fact that the way they live in their community more or less resembles that of Indian people I have seen in movies.

 

 

These photos show us that those people living in the past led a harmonious life amongst people and between people and the nature. They lived as a tribe, and the hierarchical organization of their tribe was administered by a head of the tribe.

   

 The learned to live with the nature. They domesticated wildlife and lived with them. (Look at the picture as an example) 

 

 

Special Cambodian Foods, Fried Spiders and Crickets

                                                        "Don't judge the food by its appearance, do through your tongue."

 

I have seen new reports about Asian exotic foods on one of American TV programs, and amongst them was a Cambodian food. Shocked and Excited, the reporter couldn't wait to taste the newly fried spider natively called "Ah Ping (written in native language as អាពីង)" representing big spiders living underground and eaten by people. In addition, there is another weird-to-foreigner food renowned for its absolutely pleasant aftertaste; it is fried cricket "​Chong Rith (written in native language as ចង្រិត)".

អាពីង "Ah Ping" taken on the way to Kampong Thom Province, Cambodia

ចង្រិត "Chong Rith = cricket)

The fried spiders and crickets are absolutely tasty, albeit their bizarre appearance. Personally, I like these two foods so much, and I think that foreigners do too owing to the fact that many of them always stop and buy these foods whenever they visit Cambodia. Moreover, when asked how it tastes, they spontaneously response "I like it. It's my first time to try such heavenly delicious foods. I think my friends ad family would love to try it too." Well, there is no doubt that they like it. 

Besides these two considered-as-weird-foods-by-foreigners foods, I found it outlandish to see people eat pupae. I don't know how it tastes because I haven't try it yet. I'm just petrified when seeing pupae were placed in the tray waiting for customers to buy. You can see in the following picture to know why I'm afraid to eat them.

Pupae

After reading about these foods, what do you think? Wanna try it? If so, come to Cambodia. Try Cambodian unique taste. Good Luck!

National Conventional 2014

Mr. Jonh Simon, Deputy Public Affair Officer of the U.S Embassy in PP

NATCON 2014, a shortcut of National Convention 2014, was held on October 26, 2014 at Cambodia-Korea Cooperation Center (CKCC) with approximately 700 participants, all of whom were high school and college students. The event was solely organized by the Fulbright and Undergraduate Alumni Association of Cambodia (FUSAAC) under a shared sponsorship of the U.S Embassy in Phnom Penh, Coca-Cola Company, and IDP Cambodia.

The main theme of NATCON 2014 was "Exchange Program Fair" aiming at revealing the secrets of scholarship application through experience sharing session by multiple different panelists who had been awarded scholarship to go on various exchange programs abroad (USA, EU, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, etc.) as well as the U.S Embassy Public Affair Officers who were in charge of selecting successful candidates for the scholarship to the U.S.

The formal event commenced with an opening speech by Mr. Sopha Ratana, president-elect of FUSAAC, followed by a keynote speech by Mr. John Simon, Deputy Public Affair Officer of the U.S Embassy in Phnom Penh. Mr. John encouraged the applicants to be critical and creative thinkers in order to be successful, either in scholarship selection process as well as in life. "When they faced the problems, they thought how they solved those problems; that's the idea," said Mr. John. "People ask solid questions, asking questions, and then testing, testing, and testing. It's really important."

Panelists Discussion for the Second Session

After the opening and keynote speeches, there were two Panel Discussion Sessions to share experiences on scholarship application and selection criteria for each scholarship. At the conclusion of each session, 15 minutes were given to the participants so that they could ask any relevant questions.

Q & A Session

In addition, a fun game was conducted in order to energize all participants after refreshment. Eight of the attendees were chosen and asked to go on stage, four of whom were female. Then they were required to pair up to compete with each other. The game was fun and at the end of the day, everyone got a prize from FUSAAC handed by the president-elect. 

Fun Game Session

The event came to an end at around 11:30 a.m. However, all the organizers still had tasks to do as Gala Dinner was to be held in the evening that day at Hotel Cambodiana. The purpose of that event was to gather all alumni and volunteers and to reward outstanding alumni and volunteers.

Volunteers of NATCON 2014

Singing Session

Dancing Session

15 Phrases You'll Never Hear Successful People Say

                                                        " Good pieces of advice are to be kept in your mind to further   
                                                                                                          develop  yourself to the best." 

                      

            I normally don't post any articles from a website in my blog, but write my own ones. However, absorbing, thought-provoking and educating, an article titled "You'll Never Hear Successful People Say These 15 Phrases" published on October 27, 2014 at www.entrepreneur.com brings about my thought to do it once so that my fellow men can benefit from it. Hence, in the following article, you will read about the 15 phrases that successful people will never say. Enjoy!

1. "We can't do that."

One thing that makes people and companies successful is the ability to make solving their customers’ problems and demands their main priority. If a need arises repeatedly, the most successful people learn how to solve it as quickly as they can.

2. "I don't know how."

Instead of automatically shutting down solution-finding, successful people learn what they can in order to succeed in a project or in their career. For example, you would never see a truly successful international business consultant who travels to Italy multiple times per year refusing to learn Italian.

3. "I don’t know what that is."

Pleading ignorance doesn’t make the problem go away. It just makes the asker find someone who is able to work with them to solve the problem. While’s it’s always good to be honest with those you interact with, finishing this phrase with “but I’ll find out” is a surefire way to become more successful.

4. "I did everything on my own."

The best people know to surround themselves with others who are smart, savvy and as dedicated as they are. What makes this work is always giving credit where it’s due, as due credit to you will always come back in hand. Recognize those that have helped you or made an impact and you’ll continue to earn success and recognition yourself.

5. "That's too early."

You would never hear Benjamin Franklin or someone such as Steve Jobs say, “that is too early for me to be there.” If there is a networking meeting, project launch or interview opportunity at the very beginning of the day, the most successful people do what it takes to be there. Part of being successful is being at the right place at the right time, no matter if you’re a morning bird or night owl.

6. "That’s too late."

Along the same lines, if you’re asked to a 9 p.m. dinner by a potential business partner, and you can make it, definitely go. You may be tired the next day, but the connections you will make during a small dinner or after-hours meeting can make all the difference when it comes to your career or next project.

7. "It's too bad we couldn't work together."

Truly hitting it off with someone can be a rare occurrence, but if you truly connect with someone and want to work with them, find a way to make it work. Finding people that you really enjoy communicating with don’t come along too often, so whether it’s a case study or a new business, successful people know that working with those who truly align with your personality and interests are the path to true success.

8. "Let's catch up sometime."

Many times, this phrase is said as filler, without any true follow up. Successful people know that if they really want to catch up with someone, they follow up to make it happen. This also builds on the idea that the most successful people have worked hard to build genuine connections and relationships within their network, without any hidden agenda. Nurturing your network means being thoughtful of others, while keeping your relationships with them on top of your mind.

9. "I'm sorry, I'm too busy."

If an opportunity comes their way, successful people do what it takes to make it happen. Sure, this might mean longer hours occasionally, but if you want something to work, that is what it takes. After all, according to Lao-Tzu: "Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.’”

10. "That was all my idea."

Again, as mentioned in number four, the most successful people spread the wealth when it comes to doling out praise from a successful project. No idea is truly one’s own -- it’s a sum of their experiences from interacting and building off of collaborative ideas with a team. Doling out praise and encouragement is a crucial part of building a successful company and culture.

11. "I never read books."

Tom Corley of Rich Habits found that rich people read (and listen to) books at a much higher rate than poor people: “63 percent of wealthy parents make their children read two or more non-fiction books a month vs. 3 percent of poor.” Also, “63 percent of wealthy listen to audio books during commute to work vs. 5 percent of poor people.” Reading non-fiction (as well as fiction) can help reduce stress, enhance creativity and boost your memory.

12. "I'm not good enough."

Part of being successful is having a high sense of self-worth. Being yourself is one trait that promises success in business and your personal life. Follow your true interests. What you would do in your life if you didn’t need money?

13. "It's OK." (over and over)

Successful people know when to walk away and stop taking excuses from others. If there is a bottleneck and something (or someone) is preventing you from completing a project on time, build up your business, or move you forward in your goals, then it’s time to set boundaries and decide to limit your involvement.

14. "If our competitors don't have it, then we don't need it."

Copying competitors is one of the many possible deaths for most companies. True innovation comes from the flip side: figuring out what competitors aren’t doing and fill that niche to answer a need in the industry.

15. "Time off is for suckers."

True success should be seen as a well-rounded approach, one with vacations, weekends with friends and family and hours of downtime on the weekdays. While workload varies for everyone at times, take vacation can make you better at your job.

Sometimes to get to where you want to be, the best and easiest thing to do is to simply follow the examples that others set for you.

What phrases are you going to eliminate from your day-to-day conversations and thinking?

The Pearl in the Sky at Sunset

Holding a Canon Power Shot SX510 HS Wi-fi, with a Zoom Lens 30*IS (4.3-129.0mm 1:3.4-5.8) and containing FCC ID: AZD219 and IC: 498J-219, ready in my hand, I could successfully capture the greatest view of all while taking a road trip to the suburb of Phnom Penh. If not fast enough, I would not have been able to take shots of these arresting photos owing to the sad fact that the sun was sinking so fast to lurk behind the horizon, as if it hurried to meet his long-lost mom. The brightly clear, blue sky turned golden tinged with grey, before letting the stygian darkness take over the place. The view at sunset, albeit only in the blink of an eye, was spectacularly breathtaking, electrifying us, my friends and me, with its glory. 

However I describe its heavenly, totally unbelievable beauty, I still could not help you figure the images in your brain as vividly as when you see them through your own eyes, and hence allow me to take this opportunity to post a few photos below for you to see. I hope these images will sit in your eyeballs as they did to mine. HERE YOU GO!!!

I'd like to name this photo "The Glory of Cambodian Sunset".

I name it "The Reflection"

"Roadmap to University Success", the Life-changing Conference

Guest Speakers and Panelists (Front row)

Spellbinding, praiseworthy,  inspiring, and educational conference, Roadmap to University Success, is a howling success.

"Discovering Your Own Passion and Experience Sharing (by awe-inspiring guest-speakers and panelists)" are the main themes of the whole conference, accompanied by barnstorming performances ( A song performance, beat-boxing, and mini-debate) by a group of volunteers of the event planners, Our Own Project (OOP) and Soiree Entertainment.

It is impossible to imagine how   meritorious the conference was by just listening to the description of it from mouths of other people who have attended the event. Indeed, the event was intangible, enriched by exhilaration, great spirit, and inspiration.

Mr. Choup Mithona, the project leader, was doing a presentation about Discovering Passion

The conference was held for the whole afternoon of July 3, 2014 at Cambodia-Korea Cooperation Center (CKCC). The estimated number of people was well over 600, about two-thirds of which were high school students. The intent of this event was to help clear the road for students to walk on to reach their destination rather than to take risk walking on a path without knowing where it would lead them to. It helped prepare students for their upcoming university life and challenges they would face.

As had been anticipated, the conference produced the most fruitful result, on all participants' faces and in their eyes saw a strong determination and a zeal to achieve success. A dozen of questions were asked to the panelists hoping to get them answered.

 Mr. Casey Barnett, President of CamEd Business School, talking about Discover Your Own Passion

 One of the participants were asking questions to the panelists

A Song Performance

Controls of Groundwater Floodwave Propagation in Gravelly Floodplain

Journal Article Summary 

 

In their journal article titled “Controls of Groundwater Floodwave Propagation in Gravelly Floodplain, Cloutier et al. (2014) are interested in the relationship between the surface water and groundwater in the floodplain of the Matane River, which is located in eastern Canada and which drains a 1678 square kilometer basin. As described in the article, the mean annual discharge of the stream, collected from the Matane gauging station, is 39 m³ per second, with the highest discharge in May. In the research study, the author proposed two feasible scenarios of driving mechanisms of the rise of groundwater which ultimately causes flood to occur, and these two scenarios are: (1) complete saturation of subsurface strata due to precipitation over a long period of time and (2) river stage fluctuation. Each scenario was analyzed, and the result showed that river stage fluctuation had stronger effect on the rising of groundwater level. 

For data collection, eleven piezometers were installed at the study site for 173 days in the summer and fall of 2011 (from 21 June to 12 December 2011) in order to examine the hydraulic heads of the floodplain, the ground water flows, and stream outflows where there is an occurrence of groundwater exfiltration. The authors also mention that there are evidences of the success of using the arrays of piezometers for documenting the interactions between surface water and groundwater.  For the first 79 days, from 21 June to 7 September, eight of the eleven piezometers were used accompanied by transducers (Hobo U20-001) to automatically record the water level at every 15 minutes. Then, starting from September 7 onwards, three more pressure transducers were added to the rest of piezometers, D139, D21, and D 196 (Cloutier et al., 2014). At upstream and downstream of the experimental site, two river stage gauges were installed on the river bed with an intent to monitor water levels in the river at every 15 minutes for the whole of the study period.  Magellan ProMak III differential GPS was used to measure the locations of piezometers, a LIDAR survey to obtain a topographic map, and a tipping bucket pluviometer to measure the rainfall data (Cloutier et al., 2014).

At the piezometer stations and river station gauge upstream (RSGup), the water levels and river stages were higher than those of stations, and hence there is no problem with time series dat. However, at the river station gauge downstream (RCGdn), the rivers stages occasionally dropped below the data logger, resulting in discontinuous time series. To deal with this, the authors decided to use the RSGdn time series only from 5 to 12 September. Alternatively, cross-correlation analyses, performed with the PAST software, were adopted to determine the time lags between time series of the river stages and the water level at the piezometers (Cloutier et al., 2014). In addition, this method was also used to obtain the information concerning the strength of the input-output relationships as well as the time lags between the processes. Owing to the small distance between the two river gauges, no significant lag between RSGup and RSGdn was account for.

The results from the study show that the relationships between the water level in the river and ground water is much stronger than that between precipitation and groundwater due to the fact that the input from precipitation has been hugely reduced by the unsaturated zone which are able to store a large amount of water. It is also interpreted that the amplitude of groundwater fluctuation is disproportional to the distance from the river (Cloutier et al. 2014), meaning that the further the distance from the river, the lower the amplitude of the groundwater fluctuations. In addition, the result also suggests that “fluctuations of hydraulic head correspond to the propagation of groundwater floodwave throughout the floodplain” (Cloutier et al., 2014).

The aforementioned research study, I believe, is essential for later study about surface water-groundwater interaction, especially in the state of Florida where ground water is known to be the indispensable source of drinking water and other usage, and in which there is a strong connection between surface water and groundwater. According to Florida Department of Environmental Protection (2013), in the state of Florida, 90 percent of its population depends on groundwater for drinking water. In their article, Winter et al. (1998) wrote that almost all, if not all, of surface-water features such as streams, lakes, reservoirs, wetlands, estuaries, and the like has interactions with underground water, and often times surface-water bodies gain water from the groundwater and vice versa, which implies that they are closely related to each other and if one is polluted or affected, the other will also be affected. Therefore, I think that the study by Clotier et al. (2014) is useful and can be used as a case study in Florida where a strong connection between surface and groundwater is present. More importantly, understanding the surface water-groundwater interaction helps water engineers, hydraulic engineers, water resource managers, as well as other stakeholders in water-related policy forming effectively manage the local water resource and protect the water resource. 

References

Cloutier, A. C., Bélanger, B. T, and Larocque, M. (2014). “Controls of groundwater floodwave propagation in a gravelly floodplain.” Journal of hydrology. 511(2014) 423-431. Retrieved on 03/16/2014 from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022169414001115

Florida Department of Environmental Protection (2014). Retrieved on 03/16/2014 from http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/groundwater/whatis.htm

Winter, C. T., Harvey. W. J., Franke, L. O., and Alley, William, M. W. (1998). Groundwater and surface Water A Single Resource. U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1139. Denver, Colorado. Retrieved on 03/16/2014 from http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1139/pdf/circ1139.pdf