Foreword: Integrated Groundwater Management

Consider some of the issues covered in the book: groundwater dependent ecosystems, managed aquifer recharge, the impacts of climate change on ground-water availability, water supply and security, conjunctive use of surface and groundwater, safeguarding environmental and cultural flows, and other cross-sectoral issues particularly with respect to energy. These are just a few of the pressing,contemporary, international issues that will demand not only rigorous inter-disciplinary groundwater science but must be managed in ways that appreciate and consider the variety of contexts in which the problem exists. The book argues how we can progress and solve such scientific, management and policy problems using a thoughtful and thorough process that involves: problem framing and ensuing conceptual modelling with interest groups; understanding the social, policy and institutional settings, constraints and opportunities; and focusing the science components on the identified questions, attributes and scales of interest. Often the components are best integrated into more computational models so that the effects of policy drivers can be gauged along with non-controllable forces like climate and trade conditions on outcomes. Outcomes of a triple bottom line nature will also need to be identified as trade-offs and their uncertainty managed so that one can more confidently decide among alternative courses of action. An overriding theme should always be appropriate engagement in all stages of the process so that knowledge is shared, trust is engendered and adoption of good outcomes is more likely