Groundwater is an invisible but critical component of the hydrologic cycle. It represents the largest source of readily available drinking water on the planet and is therefore an essential resource for humans. Groundwater also provides baseflow to streams and plays a critical role in maintaining the health of freshwater ecosystems. Pressure on groundwater resources is increasing and there is growing evidence that extraction from major aquifers are gradually depleting groundwater reserves worldwide. Predicted climate variability, such as reduced precipitations or increased temperatures, may further exacerbate pressures on groundwater reserves.

After a 20-year hiatus, we are pleased to bring you the 2nd Edition of Fundamentals of Groundwater. Like its predecessor, the book is written at an introductory level to facilitate learning and teaching, while maintaining appropriate rigor. Not surprisingly, much has changed with this edition in terms of its look and feel and importantly the content. Most obvious is the use of color in many figures throughout the book. As the book progressed, the dearth in high-quality colored figures and photographs in traditional journal articles became obvious. Fortunately, here in the United States, groundwater-related documents and reports of the U.S. Geological Survey represent a valuable treasure of high-quality graphical material.

This book has grown from my lecture notes for a ten-week graduate class. It is intended for students and professionals who want to know how to derive some of those familiar equations and formulas in hydrogeology. Demonstrated with numerous examples, the book compiles various means for solving differential equations. All problems in this book have been re-solved, and in many cases new solutions are provided. Step-by-step procedures are given when a method is introduced. Readers of other disciplines may find that the methods presented here are also applicable to their fields of interest. 

This work is based on a series of lectures given to graduate students both at the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle in the United States, and at Oxford University in England. It is intended to provide a framework for such a course given primarily to graduate students in applied mathematics, as well as to be a useful supplementary text for students of oceanography, meteorology and engineering.

Preferring to leave history to the historians of science, we will not present here a historical survey, but rather will only cite some examples of priorities during the course of the book. We will just note that separating geophysical fluid dynamics from general fluid dynamics was a risky step to take, since it could well have cut the field off from general science by creating a specialized jargon that was incomprehensible to the uninitiated. Pseudosciences can thrive and flourish on such soil over an area which is vast but which fails to reach any heights. This has occurred, for instance, in meteorology (here we do not include atmospheric physics), in which interest in astrological techniques for weather forecasting periodically rears its head (even now unverifiable forecasting methods 'for the season' are still used), in the agricultural sciences, in pedagogy, etc. However, things are quite different if, in an important sphere of knowledge, there is a solid nugget of seriousness, requiring a special study of the material and the creation of new concepts (the creation of new concepts goes deeper than just the recognition of patterns; it is the very basis of scientific creativity, distinguishing the investigator from the computers of the foreseeable future), and if, basing itself on these concepts, the new science contacts and interacts with other branches of knowledge and becomes generally used. <...>

Unsaturated-saturated zone processes

Vertical heterogeneity in soil properties and contaminant transport through soil profiles 

Kookana, R.S. & Naidu, R.

Solute transport in the surface soil

Snow, V.O., Clothier, B.E. & Tillman, R. W.

Laboratory and field application of a twin disk infiltrometer for measurement of soil hydraulic properties

Smettem, K.R.J., Ross, P.J., Haverkamp, R., Parlange, J.Y., & Gregory, P.J.

Seasonal dynamics of stream networks in shallow groundwater systems: A simple analytical approach 

De Vries, J.J.

Water is essential for life. It is required for other uses also such as irrigation, industry, and power development. Its demand is increasing with the increase in population and changes in life style, whereas the availability is practically constant. In India, water is available as precipitation which is concentrated largely in a few months of monsoon season and snowfall in the higher mountains for an equally short time window. Rainfall in monsoon months is also temporally and spatially random.

In the preface to the first edition of Construction Dewatering—New Methods and Applications, the stated intent of the book was to be a source of practical information for engineers and contractors who must contend with groundwater on construction projects. However, current ractice includes many methods besides straightforward dewatering. The content and new title, Construction Dewatering and Groundwater Control, of this third edition reflect this.