The UK is a country with over 150 years of widespread exploitation of its principal aquifers for public water supply. Increasing demands, greater awareness of environmental pressures and more exacting legislation has heightened the need for quantitative models to predict the impacts of groundwater use. In the UK this has culminated in a unique national, regulator-led programme for England and Wales to develop conceptual and numerical models of the principal bedrock aquifers. The outcomes of this programme will be of interest to the international hydrogeological community, particularly as international legislation such as the European Water Framework Directive requires management of water issues across administrative boundaries with a varied cast of stakeholders. The collection of papers provides a contrast between practitioner- and research-based approaches to assess and predict the anthropogenic impacts and environmental pressures.

The Cretaceous Chalk aquifers of Northern Europe underlie and support many sensitive ecosystems whilst at the same time being an important source of drinking water. Understanding, managing and protecting this valuable asset has always been a challenge and this volume brings together 25 papers representing current knowledge of the Chalk across a variety of thematic sections. The contributions look at aquifer properties, geology and karst; groundwater monitoring in the Chalk; groundwater management; groundwater-fed wetlands; engineering in the Chalk; heat and solute transport; diffuse pollution; and point source pollution. Geographically, the book includes studies undertaken in England, France, Belgium and Denmark. As well as academic papers, many of the chapters are practitioner focused and the editors hope that anyone working in Chalk groundwaters in Northern Europe, whether in academic, consultancy, water company or regulatory roles, will find this book an invaluable resource.

Groundwater issues have generated worldwide concern in recent decades. The problems are numerous: too little groundwater, too much groundwater, groundwater contaminated by either saline water or a broad spectrum of industrial and domestic pollutants. Many urban groundwater problems are not unique to any one region, which is the thinking behind this book. Many of the case studies presented here have never before been described in English. Overall, the papers represent the work and experience of researchers and groundwater professionals who have worked on urban groundwater issues in developed and less-developed nations around the world. They reveal the magnitude and scope of the problem as well as identify future challenges, potential courses of action, and emerging technologies that offer hope for the future.