Guidelines For Planning Ground Water Management

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.

"The Department of Water developed these monitoring guidelines for surface water and groundwater systems to help urban land developers determine pre- and post-development monitoring requirements to support district water management strategies, local water management strategies or urban water management plans. ... This document advises on setting monitoring objectives and developing a monitoring program. It also discusses data storage, data interpretation and reporting requirements."--Summary.

Increasing demand for water, higher standards of living, depletion of resources of acceptable quality, and excessive water pollution due to urban, agricultural, and industrial expansions have caused intense environmental, social, economic, and political predicaments. More frequent and severe floods and droughts have changed the ability and resiliency of water infrastructure systems to operate and provide services to the public. These concerns and issues have also changed the way we plan and manage our surface and groundwater resources. Groundwater Hydrology: Engineering, Planning, and Management presents a compilation of the state-of-the-art subjects and techniques in the education and practice of groundwater and describes them in a systematic and integrated fashion useful for undergraduate and graduate students and practitioners. The book develops a system view of groundwater fundamentals and model-making techniques through the application of science, engineering, planning, and management principles. It discusses the classical issues in groundwater hydrology and hydraulics followed by coverage of water quality issues. The authors delineate the process of analyzing data, identification, and parameter estimation; tools and model-building techniques and the conjunctive use of surface and groundwater techniques; aquifer restoration, remediation, and monitoring techniques; and analysis of risk. They touch on groundwater risk and disaster management and then explore the impact of climate change on groundwater and discuss the tools needed for analyzing future data realization and downscaling large-scale low-resolution data to local watershed and aquifer scales for impact studies. The combined coverage of engineering and planning tools and techniques as well as specific challenges for restoration and remediation of polluted aquifers sets this book apart. It also introduces basic tools and techniques for making decisions about and planning for future groundwater development activities, taking into account regional sustainability issues. An examination of the interface between groundwater challenges, the book demonstrates how to apply systems analysis techniques to groundwater engineering, planning, and management.