Sustainability of groundwater resources and its indicators

This book includes the set of full papers submitted to the Symposium on Groundwater Resources Sustainability Indicators, held at Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil in April 2005. Groundwater indicators are based on monitoring and assessments programmes and are helpful for several reasons. They may be used to identify the state of the groundwater system, both in terms of its quantity and quality, and its evaluation over time and space; they also facilitate communication between policy makers and the general public. Indicators should be selected and developed which provide information on the threat to groundwater systems from the point of view of societal and ecological needs. The contributions in this volume summarize much of the state of the art in the field of groundwater sustainability and its indicators. The papers have been grouped into five main topics: 1 Indicators, Indices and Classification of Sustainability; 2 Modeling to Understand Sustainability; 3 Sustainability and Hydrological Conditions; 4 Sustainability and Agriculture; and 5 The Influence of Water Quality and Contamination on Sustainability.