Book Review: Groundwater Around the World: A Geographic Synopsis

Book Review:

Groundwater around the World:  A Geographic Synopsis

Overview

Hydrogeologists work in a field that is evolving at the speed of science.  That is to say that it comes in fits and starts as important questions are addressed.  The release of an important work can have a major impact in the field because as areas that are data poor are “filled in” the pace of additional research can be accelerated.  As questions are answered, the scientific method is allowed to ask more related questions, delving into additional realms of knowledge, and so it goes.  Margat and van der Gun’s work here strikes me as such a leap.  Through this text a great deal of education will take place, and because of the tone, pace, and presentation in the book it is accessible to a great many people that may never have been exposed to the material presented.  It is a rigorously scientific book, as evidenced by the references section at the end of each chapter that often goes longer than two pages (for the chapter!).  But the presentation is straightforward and made in a logical and psychologically appropriate way so as to prime the reader to be able to follow the points made later in the text.

Rather than presenting any significant piece of work itself (not to downplay the aggregation that this book represents) I see that Margat and van der Gun appear to have created an aggregation of the contemporary state of groundwater across the world (including some new ideas) – arguably the most important spatial extent for water resources.  This reviewer is not qualified to definitively say that there is no new material presented in the book, in fact given the esteem that the industry has for these two scientists, coupled with the amount of times that the authors appear in their own references section it would appear that the authors have been at the spear’s tip in the field, and have presented this book as a synthesis of material, almost a moment of reflection designed to give the authors time to “digest” the import of the material.

The Setup

The early chapters serve to remind those not engaged in the groundwater field the basics of the groundwater system.  All of the necessary primer material is included here, the Hydrologic Cycle, basic definitions of groundwater and how it impacts distribution of water across the planet.  Overall volumes of groundwater worldwide are addressed; table 2.2 has estimates of groundwater reserves for various counties across the world.  This may seem rote initially, but it speaks to an over-arching thesis that is not immediately apparent at the onset of the book.  The fact that groundwater is distributed according to geological and hydrological forces, and gives no credence to artificial borders, be they political, economic, or otherwise is a pervasive theme in the book, and one that is expertly presented such that the reader is allowed to synthesize it for themselves rather than having the text preach it to the reader.

Further, Margat & van der Gun don’t leave out the rigor that a student of the science learns to require in a source.  Specifics are explored for each country, and a global context is presented that takes a slightly familiar premise – that water resources are essentially being abused worldwide – particularly by developed nations – and adds to the aggravator of political and social contrivances that surround water because of its necessary nature.

Moving Deeper

As the book progresses into the middle chapters (starting with chapter 4);  the authors being to intensify the information toward the specifics of groundwater – more specifically why it is considered a resource and how we go about exploiting it.  Here they outline the “how” in their argument by illustrating the various ways that humans interact with groundwater.  The section on what they term “exploitation strategies” was illuminating and one of the most important pages in the book from this reviewer’s point of view.  Their sections on the various impairments seemed truncated, but this isn’t the focus of the book after all.  The nature of some of the resources (renewable resources vs. non-renewable, distribution, Access) by country is explored, but only in short as it prepares the reader for future sections on the topic.

Great care is taken at the end of chapter 4 to illustrate the geographically (and otherwise) diverse methods used for abstraction and this section is more dense than much of the text as we, I guess, hit near the area of expertise of the authors.

Here is a great time to mention the book’s use of full color photography.  A number of typical wellheads are illustrated in photographs and they are effective at illuminating the differences that, this reviewer assumes, are geographically driven.  This, combined with a series of wonderful GIS based maps serve the topic well even when the authors themselves talk about the pitfalls of maps early in the book.  Their comments about how maps illustrate only certain aspects of aquifers (or their topic in general) is certainly true, but because the authors make this point early in the text, the reader is inclined to trust the images that the author has chosen more readily.

The Message

Chapter 5 is where I consider the “message” of the book to begin in earnest.  Here the authors examine the issues surrounding the actual “use” of water in a geographic context.  How much water can, and is abstracted from various regions, the challenges each faces, and the purposes to which this water is delivered.  The authors cover an incredible diversity of topics from irrigation, to bottled water and geothermal uses.  The chapter finishes with a look at where the water is used by “sector” and the material presented supports much of the reading this reviewer has done on the topic, but affords a solid base of facts and figures to back it up.  This chapter unto itself is the most pertinent bit of reading that I did this term, and I consider it one of the most influential sections of reading in my education, not because it was the best written or most comprehensive (Thought it was well written and comprehensive), but because it did so much in a relatively small amount of pages.  The amount of topics covered well is astounding.  Also, the design and pace of the information as an aggregate makes it so very digestible.

Concurrently, chapter 5 begins to illustrate for the reader the pitfalls and dangers that groundwater faces.  Their vectors and how common and banal the sources can be.  The stress here isn’t on “finger pointing” but rather how easy it is for groundwater to be effected by human activity due, in part, to its nature as a buffered “common property resource” as the authors put it.  The authors give equal time to a number of potential sources of impairment, such as “surplus of manure” & tillage practices from agriculture and “exploiters of quarries…”.  But the largest single source of impairment discussed is the amounts of extraction that occur above the natural flux of aquifers.  This is discussed at length and with much comparison of geographic specifics, primarily at the country level.

The “Solutions”

The remainder of the book deals with the only tangible solutions to groundwater issues that cross the aforementioned borders, political solutions via management practices.  The authors go to lengths to set up a standard and objective, and then focus on the specifics of how management can effect change on a cross border scale.  This section is where the aggregation of previous works really shines.  The last chapter acts as an encyclopedia of methods used in the groundwater field; covering everything from political maneuvering to artificial recharge.

The Overall Conclusion

The water sciences to the uninitiated may seem like a small scientific niche, this term has proven that there is so much diversity in the field that the reading could go on indeterminately.  This book is a fitting capstone to the endeavor of learning about groundwater – and one of the better texts this reviewer has had the pleasure to read in more than six years of scientific education.  From the perspective of an undergraduate on the verge of finishing a degree this book allows the opportunity to “wrap up” the degree with a text that quite literally addressed every aspect of what I have spent years studying, and managed to add depth and breadth to my knowledge at the same time.

The geography of groundwater is indeed one of the great challenges of our time.  With conflict already common across many of the geographic areas where water scarcity is an issue, understanding and acting with purpose in relation to groundwater is a moral imperative that cannot be overlooked and as more is understood about each spatially discrete watershed and aquifer, we as water scientists have increased responsibility to work toward a sustainable solution to each separate water issue that arises.  Where there is use but no plan, a plan must be developed.  Where there is no source but a resource exists, we must develop a manageable source.  Where no resource exists, transfers and additional techniques must be considered.  But with all of these, we must act according to the health, not only of the stakeholders – but the health also of the watersheds and aquifers.