English: Aquifer (vectorized) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I just wrote a review on Amazon and you can read it here. I was perhaps too critics and indeed te book is not bad at all. Especially the graphics and layout are excellent but I hope there will be a new edition wich will correct some mistakes and improve other parts.

The book is a good attempt to give an overview of the know-how of an hydrogeologist, be it a geologist or engineering point of view. Perhaps the former is more appropraite since the author is not a geologist but a civil engineer.

I was a bit disappointed in the end because I hoped much more for the price and previous reviews. I am still looking for a general hydrogeology book which can satisfy both the beginner and the the expert in need for a quick refreshment. MAybe I found what I am looking for in the German literature and I hope I will be able to write about it in a new post.

Groundwater Science, Second Edition

Related articles

• Drought’s toll on groundwater is steepest on record
• Drilling groundwater-monitering well near Rynerson Park
• USGS hydrologic researchers have found that the movement of nitrate through groundwater to streams can take decades to occur.

Recommended Reading

• hydrogeology
• Groundwater Science
• The End of Abundance

Here is the Wolfram Alpha gadget that shows the Darcy LAw:

It is quite interesting to know how the actual experiment was carried out: with a sand container of 2.5 meters (in the picture is written 3.5 but it was probably a mistake, reportedly)  filled with sand once the water was already in (so no natural compaction but this is in the end negligeable. The idea was to have a completely saturated aquifer model – that is water was filling all empty spaces).

Why sand? Well, sand was used in Dijon to filter the water. The town had reportedly one of the worst water in term of quality and so they decided to do something about it…

The now famous empirical experiment was carried out in Dijon, France near a hospital but nobody know the exact place, today.

Henri Darcy, an engineer, Dr Baumgartner, chief engineer and unknown helpers carried out the experiment in the winter months of 1855-56 (November and February)

By the way, you know the equation, right?

Q = KAi…

Use the gadget and links to find out what it means

Recommended Reading

• hydrogeology
• The Darcy Law

The following video show everything about making and running a water well for a ..single home use. I don’t know how many people have their own water well in the USA, perhaps quite a few. In Switzerland, Italy and generally speaking in Europe I don’t know of anybody having a private water well for drinking purposes. Instead, quite many people do have a private water well for geothermical use with a heat-pump. Potable water is a mix between local municipalities and private sectors.

Water well are regulated and cannot be done without proper permission and hydrogeological feassibility study here in Switzerland. Not so in India, for instance where anybody can drill anywhere…perhaps overlooking proper regulations and laws in place.

In any case, I found this video quite good to give a general idea of how to make a water well and maintain it. I am only thinking of the hand-dug water well in Africa and notice how unfair is to be born in a poor condition…

Related articles

• Infographic: The Water Rich vs. The Water Poor
• Water Deficit May Cause New War In Asia
• An investment that’s right as rain

Recommended Reading

• hydrogeology
• Water well from A to Z

In connection with my previous post on a new movie called “bottle life” (the documentary talks about the dilemma wheater or not to charge for water and how, or is water a commodity or a resource?) here is a book to expand the discussion on the water market.

Do you know that the sport of golf generates much more money in the USA by using a fraction of water used by farmers! The ratio is 1 to 16 for each liter of water used!

So, the book is a good way to look at the problem with new or different eyes:

The End of Abundance: Economic Solutions to Water Scarcity

Here is what the book is all about:

In this book, David Zetland describes the impact of scarcity on our many water uses, how the institutions of abundance fail in scarcity, and how economic ideas and tools can help us direct water to its highest and best use. Written for non-academic readers, The End of Abundance provides examples, insights and ideas to anyone interested in the management of our most precious resource.

You can also go directly to the authors site : http://endofabundance.com/

Recommended Reading

• hydrogeology
• Groundwater Science
• The End of Abundance

A pum test of a water well can assess both the aquifer caracheristic (drawdown test) or the carachteristics of the water well itself (step test).

In Pune, India, a simple drawdown water test is explained

and in Sebeta, Ethiopia

Related articles

• India: Dengue, malaria cases on the rise in Pune
• Our Oversized Groundwater Footprint

Recommended Reading

• hydrogeology
• Pump Test

And another interview with an hydrogeologist, also in the USA.

60 gallons of safe dye to find out where the water goes (USA). This is another task of a hydrogeologist

What is an aquifer? Example form Florida, USA where 90% of drinking water is pumped from the ground from a limestone….and over 24000 contaminated sites already recorded and waiting to be cleaned up.

…and jumping to Africa, here a picture of a water well and a symbol which explains the gap exisiting in poor countries:

English: Mwamanongu Village water source, Tanzania. “In Meatu district, Shinyanga region, Tanzania, water most often comes from open holes dug in the sand of dry riverbeds, and it is invariably contaminated.” . Français : Point d’eau du village de Mwamanongu, en Tanzanie. “Dans le district de Meatu (région de Shinyanga, Tanzanie), L’eau provient le plus souvent de trous creusés dans le sable de lits de rivières asséchées. Elle est systématiquement contaminée.” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Recommended Reading

• hydrogeology
• What does an hydrogeologist do?

It is edited by Prof. Lars Bengtsson – who teaches Water Resources Engineering at Lund University, Sweden – , the late  Dr Reginald Walter Herschy (1926-2012), an experienced, first generation hydrologist, and the Australian geologist Rhodes W. Fairbridge ( 1914-2006).

The authoritative reference includes about 200 entries written by over 165 scientistst from 30 different countries.

Lakes and reservoirs count for 90% of world surface fresh water. The book is a great reference for both the physical, chemical, ecological aspects and the environmental impact and use of it.

While the book is not focusing on hydrogeology only, I think it’s a phantastic resource to consult for the much wider horizon which one can get. For instance, in the table of content below, I highlighted the topics which would interest me most.

Moreover, I read with great interest and pleasure the health sections with the WHO directive for water quality.

(NOTE: the review is still going on, following is just a premiminary post..)

Table of Content

A

Acidification in Lakes.-

Africa, Lakes Review.-

Age Determination of Lake Deposits.-

Alpin Lakes.-

Alternative Stable States in Shallow Lakes.-

Amazon Lakes.- Antarctic Lakes.-

Antarctic Subglacial Lake Ellsworth.-

Antarctic Subglacial Lake Vostok.-

Antarctic Subglacial Lakes.-

Aquatic Plants.-

Arab Region, Lakes and Reservoirs.-

Aral Sea.-

Arch Dams, Development from Cut.-Stone Arches to Modern Design.-

Arctic Lakes.-

Artificial Wetlands.-

Asia, Lakes Review.-

Australia, Climate and Lakes.-

Australia, Coastal Paleolakes of “Swanland”.-

B

Baikal, Lake.-

Balaton Lake in Hungary.-

Baltic Sea Basin, History Since the Latest Deglaciation.-

Basin.-Scale Internal Waves.-

Bathymetrical Survey of the Scottish Freshwater Lochs, 1897–1909.-

Beaver Dams and Ponds.-

Bengal Basin, Sediment Sink.-

Brownification of Lakes.-

C

Carbon Cycle in Lakes.-

Caribbean.-Central America, Lakes Review.-

Carinthia Lakes and Reservoirs in Austria.-

Caspian Sea.-

Chad Lake.-

Chilika Lake.-

Chinese Lakes.-

Circulation Processes in Lakes.-

• Classification of Lakes from Hydrological Function.-

Classification of Lakes from Origin Processes.-

Climate Change Effects on Lakes.-

Climate Change: Factors Causing Variation or Change in the Climate.-

• Coastal Lagoons.-

Cyanobacteria (Blue.-Green Algae).-

D

Dam Failures: Impact on Reservoir Safety Legislation in Great Britain.-

Dams and Reservoirs in Macedonia.-

Dams and Reservoirs, Role.- Dams, Classification.-

Dams Flood Protection, and Risk.-

Dead Sea.- Deltaic Swamps.-

Dew Ponds.-

Dissolved Oxygen in Ice.-Covered Lakes.-

Double.-Diffusive Convection in Lakes.-

• Droughts and Water Management in England and Wales: With Particular Reference to Reservoirs and Lakes.-

E

Ecological Threat to Lakes and Reservoirs.-

English Lakes.-

• Estuarine Hydrology.-

Europe, Lakes Review.-

Eutrophication in Fresh Waters: An International Review.-

Everglades, Florida, USA.-

F

Fens, England.- Finnish Lakes.-

Finnish Lakes, Trends and Regional Differences of Phytoplankton.-

• Floodplain Wetlands: Focusing on India.-

Forth and Clyde and Union Ship Canals, UK.-

G

• Geneva Lake.-

Gippsland Lakes.-

Glacier Jökulhlaup.-

Great Lake Processes: Thermal Structure, Circulation and Turbulent Diffusion Processes.-

Great Lakes, North America.-

Great Salt Lake.-

H

Hazards.-

• Health Aspects of Lakes and Reservoirs.-

Hydrodynamics and Circulation of Fjords.-

Hydrodynamics of Very Shallow Lakes.-

• Hydrological Sizing of Water Supply Reservoirs.-

Hydropower.- Ice Covered Lakes.-

I

Ice Formation on Lakes and Ice Growth.-

Icelandic Lakes, Physical Characteristics.-

Indian Lakes.-

Initial Mixing of Pollutants.-

Internal Seiches.- Japanese Lakes.-

K

Katse Dam: Lesotha Highlands Water Project.-

Kingairloch Hydroelectric Scheme.-

Kis.-Balaton and its Effect on Lake Balaton Water Quality.-

L

Ladoga Lake and Onego Lake (Lakes Ladozhskoye and Onezhskoye).-

Lake Ice.-

Lake Monster.- Lake Outbursts.-

Lake Restoration.-

• Lake Sediments.-

Lake Shore Nomenclature.-

Lake Surveying.-

Lakes as Archives of Earth History.-

Lakes on Earth, different types.-

Large Dams and Environment.-

Large Dams, Statistics and Critical Review.-

Laurentian Great Lakes, Interaction of Coastal and Offshore Waters.-

Light and Primary Production in Lakes.-

Limnological Studies in Lake Erken Sweden.-

Loch Katrine.-

Lough.-

Lough Neagh.-

M

Macedonian Lakes.-

Maracaibo Lake.-

Marib Dam and Irrigation Project.-

Mass Curve and Reservoir Design.-

Memphremagog, Lake.-

Meromictic Lakes.-

Microorganisms in Lakes and Reservoirs.-

Mixing in Lakes.-

Myponga Reservoir, South Australia: The Influence of Nutrients, Phytoplankton, Pathogens, and Organic Carbon on Water Quality.-

N

Nahuel Huapí, Lake.-

Nasser Lake.- Nile Basin, Lakes.-

North Delta Lakes, Egypt.-

Nutrient Balance, Light, and Primary Production.-

O

Okeechobee, Lake, Florida, USA.-

• Origin of Lakes and Their Physical Characteristics.-

P

Paleolakes.-

Paleolimnology.-

Peipsi Lake in Estonia/Russia.-

Phosphor Exchange Sediment.-Water.-

Playa Lake Chains: The Example of the Yenyening Lakes of the Upper Avon River Catchment of Western Australia.-

• Poopó Lake, Bolivia.-

R

Reservoir and Lake Trap Efficiency.-

Reservoir Capacity.-

Reservoir Sedimentation.-

Reservoir Sedimentation in Australia under Extreme Conditions.-

Reservoirs in Great Britain.-

Reservoirs, Early British History.-

Reservoirs, Multipurpose Use of Small Reservoirs.-

• Restoration of Urban Lakes in the NE Musi Basin, Hyderabad, India.-

Riverine Thermal Bar.-

Russian Lakes.-

Russian Lakes, Geographical Classification.-

Russian Water Reservoirs.-

S

Saki, Lake (Crimea, Ukraine).-

Satellite Data and Lakes.-

Sedimentation Processes in Lakes.-

Sediments, Flushing from Reservoirs.-

Slovenia, Lakes and Reservoirs.-

Source of Freshwater.-

South America, Holocene Coastal Lagoons.-

South America, Lakes Review.-

Stratification and Mixing in Tropical African Lakes.-

Stratification in Lakes.-

Submerged Vegetation in Shallow Lakes.-

Surface Seiches.-

Suspended Sediment Concentration in Stratified Lakes estimated by Accoustic Methods.-

Sweden’s Great Lakes.-

Swedish Glacial Lakes: Estimation of the Number of Lakes of Different Sizes.-

T

Tanganyika Lake, Modeling the Eco.-hydrodynamics.-

Tanganyika Lake: Strong in Hydrodynamics, Diverse in Ecology.-

Thames Water: Development of London’s Potable Water Supply and the Role of Bankside Storage Reservoirs.-

Thermal Bar.-

Thermal Regime of Lakes.-

Thermobaric Stratification of Very Deep Lakes.-

Three Gorges Project on the Yangtze River in China.-

• Titicaca Lake.-

• Transboundary Waters: Rivers, Lakes, and Groundwaters.-

Trophic Lake Classification.-

Tsunami Effect on a Coastal Lake in India.-

• Turbidity Currents in Reservoirs.-

U

Udaipur, Lakes.-

United Kingdom, Largest Lakes.-

United States: Principal Freshwater Lakes.-

Urban Lakes and Ponds.-

V

Venting Turbidity Currents in Reservoirs.-

Victoria Lake.-

Volume of Water in Lakes and Reservoirs: Determination.-

Võrtsjärv Lake in Estonia.-

W

Water Balance of Lakes.-

Water Balance of the Laurentian Great Lakes.-

Water Exchange Between Littoral Zone and Open Lake Water.-

Water Framework Directive.-

• Water Quality for Drinking: WHO Guidelines.-

Many Watsan people know that a big problem  is the contamination of water with human and animal feces. And by reading the Encyclopedia of Lakes and Reservoir at this section one correctly find this point confirmed and even stressed ou to be the problem number one for water quality, children, sick and elderly people,  are the most affected (page 876):

• Water Quality in Lakes and Reservoirs.-

Wetland Areas and Lakes in Bulgaria.-

Wetlands.-

Wetlands of the Canadian Arctic.-

Wetlands: Classification, Distribution, Function.-

Wind Waves.-

World Lake Database: International Lake Environment Committee Foundation (ILEC).-

World Lake Vision.-

X

Xiaolangdi Reservoir’s Role in Water and Sediment Regulation.

Recommended Reading

• hydrogeology
• Groundwater Science
• The End of Abundance

A recent movie by Swiss journalist Res Gehringer and Director Urs Schnell (January 2012) raises what is an ethical dilemma concerning water: is water a commodity or a resource? For many people water is a resource because it is necessary to live (unlike beers or gasoline or petrol). For companies like Nestlé this is a commodity and a profit must be made in order for a company to strive and attract investors.

It’s not an easy problem. Water has a price, either in time or money. In rural Africa, for instance, digging and maintining a water well or a borehole costs money. If potable water is naturally available as a spring often the price is in time to fetch it. And if the water is not potable, money must be invested to purify, or to protect and mantain the spring.

On the other side, one cannot create a green island but making a desert around it. The documentary shows it well. Bottle water in Pakistan is to detriment of the local groundwater level which is allegedely lowered by they excessive pumping that Nestlé is doing. The result is less or no more water at the public wells in nearby poor areas.

Personally, I liked the documentary movie because it’s a rare opportunity to see the real situation of real people living in very different life conditions. All centred around water. Initially, I thought this report was only showing a local dispute about water resources in Main, USA, which would still be a good documentary. Instead, and while I was thinking of India, Africa on my own, the movie  jumped straight and “ful speed” into the situation of exactly those places! This makes the DVD exceptional, in my opinion. In the end, the movie is IMO  an outstanding contribution to raise awareness on the situation which is dramatically unfolding “under our eyes”. I wouldn’t necessary focus on Nestlé as such, because this is a general ethical, complexproblem and the solutions are not easy. In conclusion: a good documentary movie worth recommending and start making up one’s mind.

Related articles

• Cleanliness, potable water demanded
• Navy distributes potable water in Gwadar, Ormara
• Effects of various potable water
• Health agency examines potable water

Recommended Reading

• hydrogeology
• Must potable water have a price?