Groundwater Protection and Management

A special issue of Environments (ISSN 2076-3298).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 June 2023) | Viewed by 4559

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: geology; environmental engineering; petroleum engineering

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: drilling technology; well cementing; drilling and completion fluids; environmental protection in petroleum engineering; waste management; deep well waste injection
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: geology; environmental engineering; petroleum engineering

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Groundwater plays an irreplaceable role in the sustainable development of the world's population. The quality of groundwater resources is now threatened by urbanization, agricultural practices, industrial activities, and climate change. Groundwater pollution can result from poor wastewater systems, landfill leachate, wastewater treatment plant effluent, mining, upstream and downstream petroleum industry activities, or agricultural fertilizer use, which can accumulate and migrate into the water table.

The Special Issue discusses various aspects of groundwater contamination:

  • Groundwater contaminants: anthropogenic, geogenic, trace elements, REEs, stable and radioactive isotopes, and emerging contaminants.
  • Groundwater system and associated water quality index (WQI).
  • Interactions of contaminants with the environmental matrix, and the effects of physical, chemical, and biological processes in groundwater.
  • Groundwater protection in oil and gas production.
  • The monitoring of organic and inorganic contaminants in groundwater and the application of pollution assessment techniques (geochemical, geophysical, geostatistical, and spatial).
  • Wastewater treatment processes, recycling, and the reuse of wastewater.
  • The mapping of groundwater vulnerability and risk assessment.
  • Water scarcity issues and sensitive water reservoirs.
  • Concepts for the remediation of contaminated groundwater.
  • Bioremediation.
  • New materials in the context of sustainable remediation.
  • The management of groundwater resources; methods to prevent groundwater pollution.
  • Climate change and occupational health.
  • Regulatory measures and their implementation in the field of groundwater protection.

Dr. Lidia Hrnčević
Prof. Dr. Nediljka Gaurina-Međimurec
Dr. Karolina Novak-Mavar
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • freshwater aquifers
  • groundwater contaminants
  • groundwater protection
  • water quality index (WQI)
  • pollution assessment techniques
  • wastewater treatment processes
  • remediation
  • management of groundwater resources
  • climate change
  • regulatory measures

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 1369 KiB  
Article
Why Do Farmers Over-Extract Groundwater Resources? Assessing (Un)sustainable Behaviors Using an Integrated Agent-Centered Framework
by Omid M. Ghoochani, Hamed Eskandari Damaneh, Hadi Eskandari Damaneh, Mansour Ghanian and Matthew Cotton
Environments 2023, 10(12), 216; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments10120216 - 5 Dec 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2647
Abstract
This study uses an Integrated Agent-Centered (IAC) framework to investigate the socio-psychological drivers of Iranian farmers’ unsustainable groundwater management practices. Empirical land use change analysis of US Geological Survey Landsat satellite images of the Jaz-Murian wetland region for 1990, 2010, and 2022, is [...] Read more.
This study uses an Integrated Agent-Centered (IAC) framework to investigate the socio-psychological drivers of Iranian farmers’ unsustainable groundwater management practices. Empirical land use change analysis of US Geological Survey Landsat satellite images of the Jaz-Murian wetland region for 1990, 2010, and 2022, is combined with community surveys conducted with randomly selected farmers in five townships within the region (n = 356). Visual analysis reveals dramatic increases in agricultural land coverage, diminished water bodies, and increased salt lands over the 32-year sampled period. We use survey data to explain the socio-psychological drivers of unsustainable groundwater use that lead to these adverse environmental changes. In the IAC survey analysis, we find that variables for “expectation” and “subjective culture” have a negative influence on pro-environmental “intention”. “Intention” and “habit” have a positive influence and “contextual factors” have a negative influence on the drivers of “unsustainable water use behavior”. We conclude that situational influences, habitual process, intentional process, and normative processes must be considered together to alleviate pressure on wetland ecosystems. Policy makers must provide effective agricultural extension training, deliberative dialogue amongst farmer networks, well-governed local water markets and financial support to shift farmer short-termist economic gain-thinking towards socially-supported pro-environmental habits over the longer term. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Groundwater Protection and Management)
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21 pages, 14536 KiB  
Article
Groundwater Recharge Assessment for Small Karstic Catchment Basins with Different Extents of Anthropogenic Development
by Yaakov Anker, Alexander Gimburg, Michael Zilberbrand, Yakov Livshitz and Vladimir Mirlas
Environments 2023, 10(9), 158; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments10090158 - 12 Sep 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1424
Abstract
Climate change and anthropogenic development considerably influence groundwater resource distribution and conditions. Catchment basin groundwater recharge—discharge computation reliability is needed for effective groundwater management policy formulation and implementation and also for resolving environmental challenges in such a watershed. This paper compares groundwater recharge [...] Read more.
Climate change and anthropogenic development considerably influence groundwater resource distribution and conditions. Catchment basin groundwater recharge—discharge computation reliability is needed for effective groundwater management policy formulation and implementation and also for resolving environmental challenges in such a watershed. This paper compares groundwater recharge patterns between urbanized and nearly natural small catchment basins of Israel’s Western Mountain Aquifer (WMA). The correlation between precipitation volumes and surface runoff shows that surface runoff volume constitutes 3–4% of the precipitation volume in the Natuf catchment and 1–2% in the Te’enim catchment. These assessments reflect the differences in the land use, outcrop lithology, topography and hydrodynamic properties of the WMA within the model basins. A groundwater recharge assessment based on water balance and water table fluctuation methods was performed for the mountainous karstic Te’enim and Natuf catchment basins for all the available data from 2000 to 2020. The water balance method provided reliable estimates. The groundwater recharge assessment considered land use classification and climate changes during this period. The average multiannual groundwater recharge values for the 2000–2021 period varied from 17.6 × 106–24.8 × 106 m3 to 24.5–29.2 × 106 m3 for the Te’enim and Natuf catchment basins, respectively. For the relatively dry period of the 2013/2014–2017/2018 hydrological years when detailed measurements of the surface runoff were available, the corresponding groundwater recharge volumes were 17.6 × 106 m3 and 24.5 × 106 m3. The corresponding local groundwater recharge coefficients constitute 0.46–0.57 for the mostly agricultural Te’enim basin and 0.29–0.32 for the urbanized Natuf basin. A significant difference in the groundwater recharge coefficients between the studied catchments is caused mostly by the differences in land use. It is suggested that applying such a groundwater recharge estimation for small hydrological sub-basins can improve one’s understanding of the groundwater recharge distribution within a major basin, enabling the application of an accurate regional hydrogeological model that may be extrapolated to other similar regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Groundwater Protection and Management)
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