Groundwater Management Practices

Groundwater is an indispensable resource in many parts of the world, where it supports domestic water supply, irrigated agriculture and industry. Its increased, and often intensive, use during the last half century has created problems and raised concerns regarding the potential depletion of local aquifers, water quality degradation and various geologic hazards such as land subsidence and sinkholes. This volume includes contributions by experts from several countries who describe different groundwater management practices in their part of the world and discuss measures and actions in response to the challenges associated with the sustainability of groundwater use and the protection of the groundwater environment, as well as the evolution of legal and institutional framework needed for their implementation. It discusses past and present practices and various aspects of the regulatory and legal framework of groundwater management in Japan, China, India, Iran, Australia, the United States, Spain, Denmark, Switzerlandand the European Union, and reviews recent efforts to improve the management of transboundary aquifer resources.

Highlights and common themesof groundwater management practices around the worldAngelos N. Findikakis Groundwater resources management in JapanKenji Jinno and Kuniaki Sato Groundwater management for sustainable water resources utilization in ChinaBingchen Wang, Xilai Zheng, and Guoqing Lin Groundwater issues and management in the North China PlainYangwen Jia Groundwater management practices and emerging challenges: lessons from a case study in the Karnataka State of South IndiaSekhar Mudda, Yusuf Javeed, Soumaya Bandyopadhyay, Sylvian Mangiarotti, and Pierre Mazzega Groundwater management in Kandi region of Jammu Province, Jammu and Kashmir, IndiaVikas Sharma and Uttam C. Sharma Sustainable water resource management in the foothills of the Siwaliks, Northwest IndiaSanjay Arora Role of groundwater in the Tehran water supplyHamid R. Jahani Groundwater in Spain: legal framework and management issuesJorge Molinero, Emilio Custodio, Andrés Sahuquillo, and Manuel R. Llamas Groundwater management in Denmark – protection of natural resourcesAnders Refsgaard and Susanne Vangsgaard Management issues for the Edwards Aquifer, Texas, USARandy J. Charbeneau and Charles W. Kreitler Economic benefits of expanded groundwater storage in the Central and West Coast basins of Southern Los Angeles CountyDavid L. Sunding, Stephen F. Hamilton, Newsha K. Ajami Sustainable management of groundwater resources in parts of arid South AustraliaIan F. Clark and Lynn A. Brake Groundwater quality management practicesEduard Hoehn Protection of groundwater environmentsFritz Stauffer Impacts of below-ground structures on the groundwater environment and their managementKuniaki Sato and Takayuki Ueno Geological hazards due to groundwater pumping and/or artificial recharge Jiang Li and Zuping Sheng Groundwater-related laws in Japan Kuniaki Sato, Katsuhiko Shichinohe, and Takayuki Ueno Groundwater-related laws, regulations and standards in ChinaBingchen Wang, Xilai Zheng,andGuoqing Lin The EU groundwater regulatory framework Philippe Quevauviller, Johannes Grath, Andreas Scheidleder, and Balazs Horvath Groundwater legal framework and management practices in the High Plains aquifer, USAMarios Sophocleous UNESCO inventory of transboundary aquifers: managing shared groundwater resources wiselyAlice Aureli

Kuniaki Sato, Angelos N. Findikakis