Shallow Groundwater Systems

Shallow groundwater systems are important as a source of water, for sustenance of stream baseflow, and for wetland and riparian ecosystems. They are also central to waterlogging, and dryland and irrigation salinity problems. Response time to hydrologic change and pollutant loadings is fast among shallow aquifiers, and it is important that hydrogeologists and natural resource managers understand the unsaturated zone processes which links human activity at the soil surface and the underlying groundwater, and vice versa. This volume of papers explores practical aspects of soil and surface water interactions with groundwater, including modelling of flow and contaminant transport in the unsaturated and saturated zones.

Peter Dillon leads the Water Use and Reuse research group at CSIRO Land and Water in Adelaide, Southern Australia. He is an international authority on  the management of aquifer recharge and has advised UNESCO and other international agencies.  He is Chairman of the IAH Commission on Aquifer Recharge Management.

Dr Ian Simmers is Emeritus Professor of Geography at the Free University of Amsterdam.  His research interests were in recharge and flow in porous media as applied to the management and protection of wetlands, on which he has published extensively.  He is Editor in Chief of the publication series of IAH.