"The NSW Government and the community recognise the need for a coordinated approach to the improved management of groundwater. This can be achieved through implementation of the State Groundwater Policy Framework Document and its component policies, which include this Groundwater Quality Protection Policy. These policies are consistent with NSW Government directions for natural resource management"--P. 5.

Groundwater resources are facing increasing pressure from consuming and contaminating activities. There is a growing awareness that the quantitative and qualitative preservation of groundwater resources is a global need, not only to safeguard their future use for public supply and irrigation, but also to protect those ecosystems that depend partially or entirely on groundwater to maintain their species composition and natural ecological processes. Known as groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs), they have been a fast-growing field of research during the last two decades. This book is intended to provide a diverse overview of important studies on groundwater and ecosystems, including a toolbox for assessing the ecological water requirements for GDEs, and relevant case studies on groundwater/surface-water interactions, as well as the role of nutrients in groundwater for GDEs and ecosystem dependence (vegetation and cave fauna) on groundwater. Case studies are from Australia (nine studies) and Europe (12 studies from nine countries) as well as Argentina, Canada and South Africa. This book is of interest to everybody dealing with groundwater and its relationship with ecosystems. It is highly relevant for researchers, managers and decision-makers in the field of water and environment. It provides up-to-date information on crucial factors and parameters that need to be considered when studying groundwater-ecosystem relationships in different environments worldwide.

The aim of this book is to document for the first time the dimensions and requirements of effective integrated groundwater management (IGM). Groundwater management is a formidable challenge, one that remains one of humanity’s foremost priorities. It has become a largely non-renewable resource that is overexploited in many parts of the world. In the 21st century, the issue moves from how to simply obtain the water we need to how we manage it sustainably for future generations, future economies, and future ecosystems. The focus then becomes one of understanding the drivers and current state of the groundwater resource, and restoring equilibrium to at-risk aquifers. Many interrelated dimensions, however, come to bear when trying to manage groundwater effectively. An integrated approach to groundwater necessarily involves many factors beyond the aquifer itself, such as surface water, water use, water quality, and ecohydrology. Moreover, the science by itself can only define the fundamental bounds of what is possible; effective IGM must also engage the wider community of stakeholders to develop and support policy and other socioeconomic tools needed to realize effective IGM. In order to demonstrate IGM, this book covers theory and principles, embracing: 1) an overview of the dimensions and requirements of groundwater management from an international perspective; 2) the scale of groundwater issues internationally and its links with other sectors, principally energy and climate change; 3) groundwater governance with regard to principles, instruments and institutions available for IGM; 4) biophysical constraints and the capacity and role of hydroecological and hydrogeological science including water quality concerns; and 5) necessary tools including models, data infrastructures, decision support systems and the management of uncertainty. Examples of effective, and failed, IGM are given. Throughout, the importance of the socioeconomic context that connects all effective IGM is emphasized. Taken as a whole, this work relates the many facets of effective IGM, from the catchment to global perspective.

This book describes and analyses the diversity of possible approaches and policy pathways to implement sustainable groundwater development, based on a comparative analysis of numerous quantitative management case studies from France and Australia. This unique book brings together water professionals and academics involved for several decades in groundwater policy making, planning or operational management to reflect on their experience with developing and implementing groundwater management policy. The data and analysis presented accordingly makes a significant contribution to the empirical water management literature by providing novel, real world insights unpublished elsewhere. The originality of the contributions also lies in the different disciplinary perspectives (hydrogeology, economics, planning and social sciences in particular) adopted in many chapters. The book offers a unique comparative analysis of France, Australia and experiences in countries such as Chile and the US to identify similarities, but also fundamental differences, which are analysed and presented as alternative policy options – these differences being mainly related to the role of the state, the community and market mechanisms in groundwater management.

While addressing the issues of using groundwater in agriculture for irrigation in the developing world, this book discusses the problems associated with the degradation and overexploitation of using it. It explores the practiced and potential methods for its management in the context of agricultural development.