Description
New exploration tools and techniques for a breakthrough paradigm of regional groundwater occurrence
Fresh water is undoubtedly our most precious resource aside from the air we breathe, and the only commodity whose cost has steadily risen over time. At the same time, our understanding of the origins, pathways, and recharge mechanisms of the earth's most valuable "economic" mineral-groundwater-remains in the nineteenth century. It is ironic that this scientific anachronism is contributing to a global shortage of available fresh water supplies while oil, gas, and mineral discoveries have proliferated, vastly increasing the world's energy, precious metals, and industrial mineral reserves.
Modern Groundwater Exploration details applications and results of proven twenty-first- century technologies and geological concepts adapted from the oil, gas, and mineral exploration industries for evaluating, developing, and managing previously undiscovered, massive, sustainable groundwater resources. Unprecedented in both its scope and authority, this timely book presents:
* A new groundwater paradigm, coined Megawatershed, which accurately and comprehensively describes the earth's natural complex groundwater systems
* Innovative exploration, drilling, and testing technologies that make major new ground-water sources more locatable and cost-effective to produce than ever before
* Actual case studies in which megawatershed methods have identified vast quantities of new water and brought new hope to previously arid and desperately water-short locales
* Chapters by former OECD DAC chairman Alexander R. Love, geopolitical analyst Dr. Ewan Anderson, and former director of the Trinidad and Tobago Water Resources Agency Dr. Utam Maharaj on the tremendous global implications of the megawater-shed paradigm. These experts explore the many beneficial applications of megawater-shed development, from macroeconomics to development of small island developing state (SIDS), and from critical environmental issues to water conflict resolution and the potential for a second "green revolution"
The world's need for clean, dependable water is more urgent-and addressable-than ever before. Let Modern Groundwater Exploration introduce you to the authors' revolutionary megawatershed paradigm, along with the latest concepts and technologies for accessing vast reservoirs of groundwater-still today's safest, cleanest, and most plentiful water resource.
Table of Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii
1 A Historical Perspective 1
2 Megawatersheds—A New Paradigm 9
Alexander Raymond Love
3 Case Study—Northwest Somalia 1984–1986 33
4 Sudan Case Studies and Model 117
5 Case Study—Tobago, West Indies 1999–2000 153
Utam Maharaj
6 Case Study—Trinidad, West Indies 2000–2002 191
7 Global Implications of a Hydrogeological Paradigm Shift 277
Ewan W. Anderson
Index 301
