Groundwater for Sustainable Livelihoods and Equitable Growth explores how groundwater, often invisibly, improves peoples' lives and livelihoods. This unique collection of 19 studies captures experiences of groundwater making a difference in 16 countries in Africa, South America and Asia. Such studies are rarely documented and this book provides a rich new collection of interdisciplinary analysis. The book is published in colour and includes many original diagrams and photographs.
Spring water, wells or boreholes have provided safe drinking water and reliable water for irrigation or industry for millennia. However, the hidden nature of groundwater often means that it's important role both historically and in the present is overlooked. This collection helps fill this knowledge gap, providing a diverse set of new studies encompassing different perspectives and geographies. Different interdisciplinary methodologies are described that can help understand linkages between groundwater, livelihoods and growth, and how these links can be threatened by over-use, contamination, and ignorance.
Written for a worldwide audience of practitioners, academics and students with backgrounds in geology, engineering or environmental sciences; Groundwater for Sustainable Livelihoods and Equitable Growth is essential reading for those involved in groundwater and international development.
About the Author: Viviana Re is an interdisciplinary water scientist specializing in socio-hydrogeology and hydrogeochemistry of groundwater contamination in rural and coastal areas. She holds a PhD in Analysis and Governance of Sustainable Development (2011), and since 2019 she is working as assistant professor at the Earth Science department of Pisa University (Italy). Her areas of expertise include: hydrogeochemistry, isotope geochemistry, interactions between humans and the water cycle, with a special focus on the incorporation the social dimension into hydrogeological investigations. She has been involved in several training, consultancy and technical cooperation activities for UN agencies (IAEA, UNESCO-IHP, UNESCO-WWAP), focusing on development of quality monitoring programmes, support to groundwater resource planning, management and protection. She is member of the board of the Italian Chapter of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) and co-chair of the IAH Burdon Groundwater Network for International Development (IAH-BGID). She is author of the Bir al-Nas blog and co-founder of Responsible Water Scientists.
Rodrigo Lilla Manzione is a former agronomic engineer (1999), holding a master degree (2002) in Agronomy (Energy and Agriculture) and PhD (2007) in Remote Sensing, all in Brazilian institutions. He was guest researcher at ALTERRA Institute, Wageningen University, The Netherlands (2005-2006), during a doctoral internship. From 2008 to 2016 he was assistant professor at São Paulo State University (UNESP), Campus of Ourinhos - Brazil, teaching and researching in the fields of (ground)water management and geoinformation. After his habilitation in 2016, became associate professor at Biosystems Engineering Department of School of Sciences and Engineering (DEB/FCE) at UNESP, Campus of Tupã. Prof Manzione is also a faculty member of School of Natural Resources of University of Nebraska at Lincoln (UNL) - USA since 2020.
Tamiru A. Abiye has more than 30 years of experience in the field of Hydrogeology (since 1989) with expertise in Geology, Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry and Environmental Isotopes in the geologically complex East African highlands and Rift valley (dominated by volcanic rocks), and the southern African Region (crystalline basement rocks). He taught hydrogeology courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia for 18 years and at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg from 2007. He has published over 138 papers in peer reviewed journals and is a prominent hydrogeologist in South Africa, coordinating the Hydrogeology MSc programme at the School of Geosciences, Wits University since 2015 and supervised over 145 MSc and PhD students. He has participated in several high profile groundwater research projects in Africa and is a rated researcher by the National Research Foundation of South Africa. He is an advocate for groundwater utilization to eradicate poverty in rural Africa and achieve sustainable development of the region and has actively participated in national and transboundary groundwater management issues for many decades.
Aditi Mukherji is a Principal Researcher at the International Water Management Institute. Earlier, she led the Water and Air Theme at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Nepal. Aditi is a Coordinating Lead Author (CLA) of the Water Chapter in the Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and a member of the Core Writing Team of the IPCC's AR6 Synthesis Report. Her areas of specialization are groundwater governance, energy-irrigation nexus, climate change adaptation and community management of water resources. She has worked in South Asia including the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, Nile basin and in Central Asia. She has published over 60 peer reviewed research papers and three edited books. In 2012, she was awarded the Inaugural Norman Borlaug Field Award, endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation and given by the World Food Prize Foundation, USA. Aditi is a human geographer by training and has a PhD from Cambridge University, United Kingdom, where she was a Gates Cambridge Scholar.
Alan MacDonald is a Senior Scientist at the British Geological Survey and an Honorary Professor at the University of Dundee. He has held various positions during his 30-year career at BGS and currently leads the Groundwater Resilience team with projects across 20 countries. His main areas of research are: water security, particularly in sub Saharan Africa and South Asia with a focus on poverty reduction; and the resilience of groundwater to climate change. He has published several books on groundwater, 110 papers and recently led two influential studies for FCDO on groundwater and climate change in Africa and South Asia. Much of his research has an applied focus, working directly with NGOs, government departments and regulators to support policy and improve practice. Alan is the current chair of the IAH Burdon Groundwater Network for International Development (IAH-BGID). In the UK, Alan is the chief BGS hydrogeologist for Scotland providing advice to the Scottish Government and providing tools and datasets to manage groundwater.
