Groundwater is essential for human societal development, eco-environment protection and maintenance, surface and underground geological processes, and substance circulation among the earth’s geospheres (i.e. hydrosphere, lithosphere, biosphere). With the rapid increase of human demand and the enhancement of technical procedures, human activities that affect water have expanded from near the surface (along rivers and/or surrounding lakes) to much wider regions over the past thousands of years. This will inevitably intensify external disturbances on groundwater systems and their hydrogeochemical processes, which may destroy the functions and values of groundwater for nature and human communities and induce/aggravate water- related geological disasters. Deeply understanding interactions between groundwater systems and human societies is vital to achieve sustainable groundwater exploitation, protecting groundwater dependent eco-environmental systems, and controlling geohazard emergence.
Over recent decades, the diversity of interactions between human societies and groundwater systems have been unprecedented. Aquifers disturbed by intense human activities, such as the sedimentary aquifers in the North China Plain and arid north-western China, etc., have experienced severe groundwater supply crises (e.g., depletion and deterioration), which in turn affects human communities and ecological environments. Additionally, more and more groundwater related challenges are being encountered by human communities in representative engineering projects, such as the Sichuan-Tibet Railway, Three Gorges Reservoir and the South-to-North Water Diversion. Significant new knowledge and management experiences have been achieved in these projects and other contexts, and their disseminations can be expected to inform understanding of relationships between groundwater, eco-environmental systems and human societal development.
This Research Topic aims to gather original research and review articles to deepen understanding of groundwater system processes and the pathways of interactions with human communities, such as groundwater supply crises, effects on groundwater dependent eco-environmental systems, and the threat of geohazards. Submissions about sustainable groundwater development from the perspectives of water quantity, quality and eco-environmental aspects are highly welcome. This Research Topic is also interested in research that explores formation mechanisms of groundwater-related geological disasters, especially in representative engineering cases.
Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:
(1) Groundwater flow systems developed in various climates and topographies;
(2) Groundwater behaviors that have undergone anthropogenic disturbances;
(3) Formation mechanisms of poor-quality groundwater and threats to human communities;
(4) Geothermal and saline water genesis and utilization;
(5) Ecological and environment deterioration/recovery induced by groundwater variation, exploitation and management;
(6) Groundwater pollution control, prevention and remediation;
(7) Health risk assessment and evaluation of contaminated groundwater;
(8) Groundwater geohazard and related prevention measures;
(9) Groundwater resource management and policy for sustainable development.
Groundwater is essential for human societal development, eco-environment protection and maintenance, surface and underground geological processes, and substance circulation among the earth’s geospheres (i.e. hydrosphere, lithosphere, biosphere). With the rapid increase of human demand and the enhancement of technical procedures, human activities that affect water have expanded from near the surface (along rivers and/or surrounding lakes) to much wider regions over the past thousands of years. This will inevitably intensify external disturbances on groundwater systems and their hydrogeochemical processes, which may destroy the functions and values of groundwater for nature and human communities and induce/aggravate water- related geological disasters. Deeply understanding interactions between groundwater systems and human societies is vital to achieve sustainable groundwater exploitation, protecting groundwater dependent eco-environmental systems, and controlling geohazard emergence.
Over recent decades, the diversity of interactions between human societies and groundwater systems have been unprecedented. Aquifers disturbed by intense human activities, such as the sedimentary aquifers in the North China Plain and arid north-western China, etc., have experienced severe groundwater supply crises (e.g., depletion and deterioration), which in turn affects human communities and ecological environments. Additionally, more and more groundwater related challenges are being encountered by human communities in representative engineering projects, such as the Sichuan-Tibet Railway, Three Gorges Reservoir and the South-to-North Water Diversion. Significant new knowledge and management experiences have been achieved in these projects and other contexts, and their disseminations can be expected to inform understanding of relationships between groundwater, eco-environmental systems and human societal development.
This Research Topic aims to gather original research and review articles to deepen understanding of groundwater system processes and the pathways of interactions with human communities, such as groundwater supply crises, effects on groundwater dependent eco-environmental systems, and the threat of geohazards. Submissions about sustainable groundwater development from the perspectives of water quantity, quality and eco-environmental aspects are highly welcome. This Research Topic is also interested in research that explores formation mechanisms of groundwater-related geological disasters, especially in representative engineering cases.
Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:
(1) Groundwater flow systems developed in various climates and topographies;
(2) Groundwater behaviors that have undergone anthropogenic disturbances;
(3) Formation mechanisms of poor-quality groundwater and threats to human communities;
(4) Geothermal and saline water genesis and utilization;
(5) Ecological and environment deterioration/recovery induced by groundwater variation, exploitation and management;
(6) Groundwater pollution control, prevention and remediation;
(7) Health risk assessment and evaluation of contaminated groundwater;
(8) Groundwater geohazard and related prevention measures;
(9) Groundwater resource management and policy for sustainable development.