It has long been recognized that groundwater plays a central role in the development of human societies. Groundwater resources are readily and reliably available compared with surface water resources. In many contexts, the presence of groundwater ensures the presence of life itself. The XXXII IAH (International Association of Hydrogeologists) and VI ALHSUD (Latin-American Association of Groundwater Hydrology for Development) Congress on Groundwater and Human Development, held in 2002, in Mar del Plata (Argentina), brought together over 400 participants from more than 40 countries. This lively gathering of water enthusiasts exchanged experiences of both fieldwork and research. Topics under discussion and scrutiny included: Groundwater and Quality of Life; Groundwater in Urban, Suburban and Rural Systems; Transboundary Aquifers; Hydrogeology of Large Plains; Coastal Aquifers; Methods for Groundwater Studies; and Education about Groundwater and Groundwater Management. This book contains selected papers, plenary lectures and material from workshops, illustrating the contribution of modern hydrogeology to sustaining humanity's thirst for fresh and safe water.

Ground water resources are receiving global attention, as human population growth and development cause significant changes to the earth system. It plays a major role in ensuring livelihood security in many parts of South Asia and its contribution to poverty alleviation is substantial. The complex nature of ground water problems in the Indian Sub-continent requires a precise delineation of the ground water regimes in different hydro geological settings and socio-economic conditions and is a primary necessity for sustainable and equitable management. Strategies to respond to ground water over-exploitation and deteriorating water quality must be based on a new approach. Practical policies and various solution options urgently need to be formulated and implemented to prevent the development problems. There is pressing need to evolve workable methods and approaches based on modern scientific researches on ground water resources, as well as to build a social framework including community participation at all levels for a ground water development system. The community participation in water pumping policies, incentives of efficient use, affordability of low income users and other vulnerable groups, water awareness are prime factors for success of any ground water based water supply project.

Few people actively engaged in India's water sector would deny that the Indian subcontinent faces serious problems in the sustainable use and management of water resources. Water resources in India have been subjected to tremendous pressures from increasing population, urbanization, industrialization, and modern agricultural methods. The inadequate access to clean drinking water, increase in water related disasters such as floods and droughts, vulnerability to climate change and competition for the resource amongst different sectors and the region poses immense pressures for sustainability of water systems and humanity. Water Security in India addresses these issues head on, analyzing the challenges that contemporary India faces if it is to create a water-secure world, and providing a hopeful, though guarded, road-map to a future in which India's life-giving and life-sustaining fresh water resources are safe, clean, plentiful, and available to all, secured for the people in a peaceful and ecologically sustainable manner.

This book deals with the challenges for efficient groundwater management, with a focus on South Asia and India, providing a balanced presentation of theory and field practice using a multidisciplinary approach. Groundwater of South Asia is increasingly confronted with overuse and deteriorating quality and therefore requires urgent attention. Management of the stressed groundwater systems is an extremely complex proposition because of the intricate hydrogeological set-up of the region. Strategies for sustainable management must involve a combination of supply-side and demand-side measures depending on the regional setting and socio-economic situations. As a consequence, the challenges of efficient groundwater management require not only a clear understanding of the aquifer configuration, but also demand for the development of a comprehensive database of the groundwater occurrences and flow systems in each hydrogeological setting. In addition, drilling and well construction methods that are appropriate to different hydrogeological formations need to be implemented as well as real-time monitoring of the status of the groundwater use. Also corrective measures for groundwater that is threatened with depletion and quality deterioration need to be installed. Finally, the legal framework of groundwater needs to be rearticulated according to the common property aspect of groundwater. These challenges should revolve around effective groundwater governance by creating an atmosphere to support and empower community-based systems of decision-making and revisit the existing legal framework and groundwater management institutions by fostering community initiatives. This book is relevant for academics, professionals, administrators, policy makers, and economists concerned with various aspects of groundwater science and management.

This paper explains basic groundwater and well-drilling concepts and shows how they can be employed to strengthen and expand water development programs.

What are the regional differences in stormwater and wastewater management technology approaches to urbanization? How can wetland'extent and function be incorporated as an integral part of urban infrastructure systems, including effects on groundwater level? The Effects of Urbanization on Groundwater: An Engineering Case-Based Approach to Sustainable Development addresses these and a number of other key questions involving all phases of impact from the interactions among energy, environment, ecology, and socioeconomic paradigms in human society. To promote the concept of sustainable management, this unique book presents and applies sustainable systems engineering technologies and states the challenges of and opportunities for science, technology, and policy related to sustainable management of water. This book is organized into four parts: water supply and pollution prevention; storm water management with regional infiltration technologies; wastewater treatment and disposal with nutrient removal; and low impact development with landscape architecture technologies. These thematic areas cover the aspects from the fundamental theory to physical, chemical, and biological processes to the coupled human and natural environment, and to the representation of simulated evolutionary pathways. The Effects of Urbanization on Groundwater: An Engineering Case-Based Approach to Sustainable Development is timely and makes a strong case for sustainable development and management. It will help expose just how sensitive key water quantity and quality management targets are to urban development.

Groundwater allocation determines who is able to use groundwater resources, how, when and where. It directly affects the value (economic, ecological, socio-cultural) that individuals and society obtain from groundwater, today and in the future. Building on the 2015 OECD publication Water Resources Allocation: Sharing Risks and Opportunities, this report focuses on groundwater and how its allocation can be improved in terms of economic efficiency, environmental effectiveness and social equity. Drawing on an analysis of groundwater's distinctive features and nine case studies of groundwater allocation in a range of countries, the report provides practical policy guidance for groundwater allocation in the form of a "health check". This health check can be used to assess the performance of current arrangements and manage the transition towards improved allocation.