E-Book Overview
This accessible new textbook provides a thorough introduction to all aspects of groundwater systems and their management. Using straightforward language and analogies to everyday experiences, it explains the origins, nature, and behavior of subsurface water without resorting to complicated mathematics.
Groundwater in the Environment draws on case studies and cutting-edge research from around the world, giving a unique insight into groundwater occurring in a wide range of different climate zones and geological settings. This book:
- provides a robust, practical introduction to groundwater quality, and a succinct summary of modern remedial technologies for polluted groundwaters
- explores how groundwater fits into the wider natural environment, especially in relation to freshwater ecosystems
- considers the vulnerability of groundwater systems and the effects of pollution, climate change, land-use change, and overexploitation
- examines human dependence on water and the effect that this has on groundwater systems
- presents vivid examples of geohazards associated with ground waters
- explains the whys and wherefores of groundwater modeling
- examines competing philosophies of groundwater management, making the case for approaches which take social, economic and ecological issues into account.
Goundwater in the Environment provides an up-to-date, essential introduction for undergraduate students of environmental sciences, geography and geology. It will also be invaluable to professionals working in various fields of natural resource management who need accessible information on groundwater but who are reluctant to read conventional texts full of mathematical notation. For practicing hydrogeologists and engineers without formal training in freshwater ecology, this book provides a `crash course' in the new frontiers of groundwater management.
Artwork from the book is available to instructors online at www.blackwellpublishing.com/younger. An Instructor manual CD-ROM for this title is available. Please contact our Higher Education team at [email protected] for more information.
E-Book Content
GITA01 08/06/2006 12:40 Page i Groundwater in the Environment GITA01 08/06/2006 12:40 Page ii For Keith Anderson: Exegetically erudite Ebulliently enquiring Exhilaratingly eccentric Entertainingly extreme Cover photograph: This fountain of water is emerging of its own accord from a borehole penetrating the Chalk Aquifer in the UK (Tancred Pit Observation Borehole, Broachdale, near Kilham, East Yorkshire). Normally, the water level in this borehole lies 7–10 meters below ground level. At the time this photograph was taken (in the winter of 2000/01), rainfall in preceding months had exceeded all previous records in this region, and groundwater levels had risen to unprecedented heights. This borehole is located in what is normally a naturally dry valley. The standing water visible in the background of the photograph is due to natural emergence of the water table above ground level: this is an example of a groundwater flood (as discussed in Section 8.2.4). The interaction between groundwater levels, topography, and surface water flows illustrated by this case underlines many of the principles discussed in Chapters 1 and 5 of this book. Photo and background information courtesy of the Environment Agency © Environment Agency, 2006 GITA01 08/06/2006 12:40 Page iii Groundwater in the Environment: an introduction Paul L. Younger HSBC Chair in Environmental Technologies Institute for Research on Environment and Sustainability University of Newcastle Newcastle Upon Tyne United Kingdom GITA01 08/06