By 2050, the demand for water to sustain world agriculture will increase by seventy-five per cent in order to feed an estimated nine billion inhabitants. Increased amounts of water will be required for irrigation and for industrial and domestic use. Natural ecosystems will be threatened by the expansion of agricultural land and by a reduction in water availability, while climate change will exacerbate the situation. Management of available resources, particularly groundwater, will become more critical and aquifers will need to be managed for the benefit of all.

These selected papers were first presented at the International Association of Hydrogeologists, Dijon 2006, and are divided into six themes: large aquifers, resource assessment; large aquifers, water salinity and evolution; karstic and carbonate aquifer systems; geothermal aquifer systems; aquifer contamination studies and aquifer monitoring systems and management. The volume also includes a short biography of Henry Darcy and illustrates his contribution to science. Five invited contributions describe modern methods for estimating the hydraulic conductivity of aquifers.

Laurence CHERY was awarded a Ph.D. Thesis in hydrogeology at the Paris XI University (Laboratory of Hydrology and Isotope Geochemistry). She started her professional career in 1988 as hydrogeologist in private consulting firm in France. In 1990, she joined the Water division at BRGM (the French Geological Survey) as a research engineer, in charge of methodological studies as part of Public Service activities in the field of Water Quality. She is presently in charge of a national groundwater database project, ADES, the quality and quantity national database for groundwater. Her work includes the design of new projects for solving specific problems in water quality, database, monitoring networks, and fieldwork. The main subjects include hydrogeochemistry, water circulation, natural groundwater geochemical background, water origin and transfer time, using isotopic techniques. She published several public reports, 30 articles and a book on "Groundwater natural background in France". She has been the secretary of the French Chapter of IAH since 2001.

Ghislain de MARSILY is Emeritus Professor at the University Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris VI. He was trained as a mining engineer, and initially worked in oil well drilling and dam construction, before going to teaching and research at the Paris School of Mines in Fontainebleau (1967-1987) and later at the University Paris VI, on quantitative hydrogeology, geostatistics, aquifer modelling, waste disposal and water management at the large catchment scale. He published several books, including the text book "Quantitative Hydrogeology" at Academic Press, NY, and about 150 articles. He is a member of the French Academy of Sciences and Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Engineering.