Environmental implications of intensive groundwater use with special regard to streams and wetlands

Groundwater is a highly vulnerable and important resource to both humans and the environment. Therefore it is essential to understand the environmental implications of groundwater intensive use. This chapter emphasizes the hydrologic fundamentals for such understanding, which involve groundwater flow system concepts, the factors controlling aquifer responses to development, and surface water-groundwater interactions, and highlights the environmental consequences of groundwater intensive use throughout the world. Groundwater intensive use can result not only in aquifer depletion and water quality degradation, but also can impact the ecological integrity of streams and wetlands, and can result in significant losses of habitat and biodiversity. It is clear that intensive use and pollution in many regions of the world are threatening groundwater resources with serious consequences for human welfare and environmental degradation. Thus it is necessary for societies to recognize the finite limits of water availability and its vulnerability, and find ways to reconcile the demands of human development with the tolerance of nature.