Hydrological Synergy: Exploring the Interaction Between Surface Water and Groundwater for Advancing Sustainable Water Resources Management

As water demand is continuously increasing due to the combined effect of population growth, economic development and change of consumption patterns, the optimal management of the available water resources is essential for water and food security. Thus, understanding the complex interactions among surface water and groundwater in the water cycle is necessary to quantify and control their flux exchange, to cope with their scarcity and to ultimately ensure their sustainability. Traditional water resources management strategies often neglect the importance to adequately characterize surface water-groundwater interactions, being unable to guarantee the sustainability of these resources. Consequently, alternative approaches that taking into consideration the underlined synergies between both surface water and groundwater resources is needed: the conjunctive or joint management. This management approach enables the improvement of productivity, equity and environmental sustainability by simultaneously managing surface and groundwater resources.

This Research Topic invites research articles that aim to enhance our knowledge and understanding regarding the dynamics of surface water-groundwater interactions in the hydrological cycle to improve water resources management. Applications where the interaction between surface water and groundwater serves as the fundamental processes encompass scenarios of hydrological systems, anthropization, enhancement of aquifer replenishment, variation in streams base flow, role of the hyporheic zone in unsaturated water epuration among others.

Submissions to this Research Topic may cover a range of topics related to interaction between surface water and groundwater. Typically, such topics are approached via a multidisciplinary approach based on the use of the following techniques:

• Field observations
• Hydrochemistry
• Tracer hydrology
• Hydrogeophysics
• Spatio-temporal analysis including GIS and RS
• Numerical modelling
• Machine learning

Potential applications of these techniques include, but are not limited to:

• Anthropogenic Aquifer Recharge (AAR)
• Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR)
• Impact of aquifer overexploitation on stream base flow
• Stream-aquifer interaction and hyporheic zone processes
• Ocean-aquifer interaction and seawater intrusion
• Wetland-aquifer interaction and impacts on ecosystem equilibrium
• Conjunctive management of surface and groundwater

Keywords: Surface water, groundwater, interaction, conjunctive management

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.