Groundwater—a global focus on the ‘local resource’

Groundwater is a key natural resource supporting socioeconomic development, but still quite widely misunderstood, undervalued, poorly managed and inadequately protected. Anthropogenic perturbation of groundwater systems accelerated markedly during the 20th century, as a result of massive exploitation for urban water-supply and irrigated agriculture, and radical land-use changes in many aquifer recharge zones. Increasing concerns about resource sustainability, quality degradation and dependent-ecosystem impacts have arisen, but despite notable technological advances it is not straightforward to provide a quantitative global assessment of groundwater status, given its widespread distribution, difficulty of aggregation and inadequate investment in monitoring. The challenge of identifying appropriate governance provisions and of translating these into effective institutional arrangements for local resource administration and quality protection is also considerable, but some successes have been recently achieved. An overview of resource assessment and management trends is presented in a form accessible to the broader environmental sector.