Special Issue "Sustainability of Groundwater"

Guest Editor
Dr. Peter Bayer
Institut für Umweltingenieurwissenschaften, HIF C 43, ETH-Zürich, Schafmattstr. 6, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
E-Mail:
Phone: +41 44 633 76 39
Interests: role of groundwater in life cycle assessment; virtual water concept; technico-economic-ecologic system analysis; stochastic optimization techniques & inverse modelling; hydrosystem modelling; geothermal energy use

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Johannes Barth
Applied Geology, GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Schlossgarten 5, D-91054 Erlangen, Germany
Website: http://www.gzn.uni-erlangen.de/angewandte-geowissenschaften/mitarbeiter/akademische-mitarbeiter/barth/?L=0/
E-Mail:
Interests: large-scale water balances; ground-surface water interaction; carbon cycle in water systems; stable isotope techniques; biogeochemistry of rivers

Guest Editor
Dr. Veith Becker
GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Schlossgarten 5, D-91054 Erlangen, Germany
Website: http://www.gzn.uni-erlangen.de/angewandte-geowissenschaften/mitarbeiter/wissenschaftliche-mitarbeiter/becker/
E-Mail:
Phone: +49 9131 8522 660
Fax: +49 9131 8529 294
Interests: stable isotopes in ground- and surfacewaters; transport modelling under saturated and unsaturated conditions; mobility of anorganic pollutants in soils; CO₂ and its behaviour in subsurface waters

Guest Editor
Mr. Anssi Myrttinen
Angewandte Geologie, GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Schlossgarten 5, D-91054 Erlangen, Germany
E-Mail:
Phone: +49 9131 8522 660
Fax: +49 9131 8529 294
Interests: stable isotope behaviour in groundwater; CO₂ and its behaviour in subsurface waters; contaminant transport processes in groundwater

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 500 CHF (Swiss Francs). English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.

Title: Subsurface Environment Change Due to Urbanization and Subjects for Sustainable Groundwater Development in Tokyo Metropolitan Area, Japan
Authors: Takeshi Hayashi, Akinobu Miyakoshi, Masaya Yasuhara and Tomochika Tokunaga
Affiliation: Faculty of Education and Human Studies, Akita University, Akita, 1-1 Gakuen-machi, Tegata Akita city, Akita 010-8502, Japan; E-Mail: thayashi@ed.akita-u.ac.jp (T.H.)
Abstract: Tokyo Metropolitan Area, that is situated in the largest sedimentary plain in Japan called Kanto plain, has about 40 million people and is one of the largest urban area in the world. In the center of this area, groundwater has been developed since the beginning of the 20th century, and the development has induced various subsurface environment changes such as decreasing of groundwater level, land subsidence and contamination. In this study, we focus on the present condition and the processes of change of subsurface environment and on the new method to evaluate future environment change for sustainable groundwater development. Groundwater development has changed distribution of hydraulic potentials in confined aquifers and has made a large depletion area of potentials in the central part of the plain. This area still exists after several regulations of groundwater exploitation (1960's to 1970's) and has induced groundwater flow changes in not only local scale but regional scale. Also, these groundwater flow changes have affected distribution of not only groundwater quality but subsurface temperature. Furthermore, in recent years, contamination of confined groundwater by several contaminants were found in some parts of the plain that are located in recharge area of groundwater flow system. Recently, demand for groundwater as private water resource increases again according with recovering of groundwater levels. However, hydraulic potentials still show negative values in the most of major aquifers. Thus, there is still a risk of land subsidence expansion of contaminants toward much wider and deeper part. We suggested the method by using numerical simulation and remote sensing to evaluate subsurface environment change. But, it is essential to continue to monitor not only groundwater levels but also groundwater quality as ever.

Title: Sustaining South Australia’s Water Supply
Author: Ian Clark
Affiliation: Centre for Water Management and Reuse, School of Natural and Built Environments, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, Adelaide, SA, 5095, Australia; E-Mail: ian.clark@unisa.edu.au
Abstract: South Australia is often described as the driest state on the driest continent. Until recently this description had very little effect on the population but a prolonged drought, the government’s aim to double the population and heightened awareness of the water needs of the natural environment have changed the perception. Domestic and industrial water for cities and major towns is supplied from captured rainwater run-off stored in dams and reservoirs supplemented by water from the River Murray a major river that drains south –eastern Australia. Water for horticulture and agriculture is supplemented by groundwater. Reduced run-off and recharge due to the prolonged drought and the needs of an increasing population has led to water restrictions and a rethinking of water policy at the local, State and National level. This paper will describe the evolution of this changed thinking, the development and implementation of the National Water Initiative and the various strategies such as ASR and desalination that have or will be implemented to secure water supplies.

Title: The Ecological Change of Groundwater Resources in the Tuul River Valley Near Ulaanbaatar City
Authors: D. Unurjargal and B. Erdenechimeg
E-Mail: erdenechimegb@ymail.com (B.E.)
Abstract: This paper will present the result of case study on the water quality and ecological change of groundwater resources in Tuul river valley near Ulaanabaatar city. Mongolia is not considered clearly the ecological effect for usage of natural resources in last time. So, the Mongolian professional people concluded that once the time of recommend of interconnect green economical development policy with ecological issues are appearing recently. The capital city Ulaanbaatar is one of the main larger exploiters of groundwater resources of Tuul river basin and before 50 years started to exploit the groundwater resources from the sources of urban water supply. During those times the water consumption was increasing rapidly. Due to population of Ulaanbaatar city get one million two hundred and increased the industrial enterprises by thousands. Either since 2000, the groundwater table decreased around 2.7m in the Tuul river basin near Ulaanbaatar city. Due to natural weather warming appears in Mongolia. The increasing water demands and decreasing rainfall are making the water supply system extremely vulnerable, with a high risk of groundwater salinization and ecosystem degradation. It is allow the indication of the groundwater resources to get in influence of ecological changes by natural condition and the anthropogenic activities.

Title: Groundwater, Aquatic and Terrestrial Characteristics at the Ebro Source: Challenges for Spring Management, Conservation and Restoration
Authors: José Barquín, Mario Álvarez-Cabria, Francisco Peñas and Diego Fernández
Affiliation: Universidad de Cantabria, Dpto. CYTAMA, GESHA, Avda. Los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, Cantabria, Spain; E-Mail: jose.barquin@unican.es (J.B.)
Abstract: Fontibre spring is considered the source of one of the largest Spanish rivers: the Ebro river. This spring is nowadays located in parkland surrounded by a rural environment. A minor weir (about 2m) was constructed some hundreds of years ago at about 150m from the spring source for water mill operations. Nowadays, some water quality problems have been detected and the springbrook has been completely channelled below the weir for bank reinforcement and landslide control. The Regional Government is now putting emphasis in the restoration of the spring source and springbrook, although environmental or biological data are completely lacking what difficulties future management, conservation and restoration actions. In the present study we present the sampling strategy for characterising the spring source and springbrook habitats, their water physicochemical characteristics and the aquatic and terrestrial invertebrate biological communities putting emphasis on the links between groundwater, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. We then provide with a clear diagnosis and which management, conservation and restoration measures should be taken according to available funds.

Title: Adaptive Management to Achieve Sustainable Water Use in Namibia
Author: Piet Heyns
Affiliation: Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, Republic of Namibia, Private Bag 13193, Windhoek, Namibia; E-Mail: heynsp@mweb.com.na
Abstract: Due to the general scarcity of surface water resources in arid areas, there is a tendency to utilize groundwater sources on a large scale because the development of groundwater abstraction infrastructure is much less expensive than the construction of reservoirs to impound surface water. However the sustainability of groundwater sources is subject to the same constraints as surface water sources as far as the precipitation of rainfall, runoff and recharge events are concerned. When more groundwater is abstracted than replaced by recharge, the stored reserves in an aquifer is used and the sustainability of the yield from the aquifer is threatened. In view of the need to utilize groundwater that is not frequently and adequately recharged after rainfall events, other innovative methods have to be employed to utilize the available surface and underground water on a more sustainable basis. In Namibia a number of methods have been developed to reduce evaporation losses from open water reservoirs and to improve the recharge to groundwater resources, as well as to improve water use efficiency.

Title: Sustainable Groundwater Management in Alluvial Plains
Authors: Jordi Batlle-Aguilar and Alessandro Brovelli
Affiliation: Ecological Engineering Laboratory, Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland; E-Mail: jordi.batlle@epfl.ch (J.B.-A.)
Abstract: Aquifer preservation and protection is particularly critical in alluvial plains, where about 80% of total world population lives and most of the industrial and agricultural activities are located. In alluvial plains surface and subsurface water bodies are well connected and mutually dependent, resulting in complex systems difficult to understand. Among the most critical environmental issues is the over-exploitation of alluvial aquifers adjacent to rivers, which is might in turn induce land subsidence, ground-surface water resources depletion and decrease of groundwater quality due to infiltration of contaminated surface water. In this condition the aquifer-river dynamics and interactions responsible for the natural groundwater purification are altered and the modified geochemical composition of the groundwater may further decrease the water quality. The aim of this work is to show how numerical modelling can be used to study ground and surface water interactions in alluvial plains and to design optimal and sustainable utilization strategies of the groundwater resources. This includes avoiding that groundwater resources are depleted at a non sustainable rate and their quality decreased. To this end we proposed and implement a methodology to identify the optimal pumping scheme for freshwater supply in a hypothetical but realistic alluvial aquifer.

Title: Optimal or No Management? A Qualitative Assessment of Groundwater Management Options in Saudi Arabia
Authors: Edda Kalbus and Florian V. Eppink
Affiliation: Elmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Permoserstr. 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany; E-Mail: edda.kalbus@ufz.de
Abstract: In arid regions, the available water resources are largely restricted to groundwater. The recharge of groundwater from precipitation is very variable and the groundwater is often of fossil origin. Providing water for human consumption and agricultural food production puts increasing pressure on the groundwater resources, calling for sophisticated groundwater management strategies. However, from an economic point of view, no-management solutions of groundwater exploitation may have similar social benefits as efficient management solutions, as the Gisser-Sanchez’s effect claims (Gisser & Sanchez, 1980). In this paper, we will make a qualitative assessment of the extent to which the Gisser-Sanchez’s effect occurs in Saudi Arabia. We will review the latest findings from the literature as to the causes of this effect and compare them to actual or likely hydrological and socio-economic conditions in Saudi Arabia. We conclude that a policy of optimal management over time and space is an option, depending on the resolution of uncertainty about hydrological conditions.