Alluvial Aquifer Processes

The global population is expected to grow from more than seven billion at present to nine billion by the year 2050. As a result, resource issues are becoming increasingly severe. The questions raised in connection with natural resources are practical, but also philosophical and political. Alluvial groundwater is becoming increasingly important for the drinking water supply, but also for agriculture and other human needs. Human civilisations developed in alluviums during the Holocene. Armies, roads, trade and agglomerations largely concentrated in river valleys. Alluviums are resource treasuries (water, forests, farmland, etc.), but at the same time, they are exposed to pressures from the population and economy. These threats to alluvial plains and alluvial aquifers require very careful planning and persistent implementation of protection measures. Sudden social and natural changes increasingly lead the world into a tangle of global events and problems whose outcomes are not easy to perceive, let alone influence. One of the factors that can help is knowledge or, in other words, expertise focusing on a single problem or area. The ability to synthesise information and master comprehensive models is also extremely important. This book, a monograph, is a modest attempt to contribute to the understanding of planetary water management, groundwater and certain natural processes in alluviums. It comprehensively encompasses current topics associated with the state, processes and problems of alluvial aquifers and is devoted to professionals, experts, professors and students in advanced stages of learning. The book is a continuation of sorts of another book released in 2008 by IWA Publishing, Groundwater Management in Large River Basins, edited by Milan A. Dimki, Heinz-Jrgen Brauch and Michael Kavanaugh.